And This Little Pig said Crazies Day 11 - And What a Day

It has been an absolutely awful day in Australia, I will do my Crazy Challenge posting first.

Well I did do a little bit of stitching tonight, but is was hard to concentrate. So tonight LHN Ornament I was going to do All is Calm, but I realised that I must have looked at the stitch count for the bonus chart Bless Our Home, and I had precut my fabric, and stitching the bigger pattern would have been pushing the boundary.

I can't believe that after tomorrow, I will have started 13 Little House Needlework Ornaments for 2010.

DJ Tickled Pink In Stitches commented last night or was that today :D that she wished she could have watched me hand dye my fabric. So DJ for you a dyed another piece of linen tonight. I don't think I have mentioned that I will be stitching all of my January Crazy Challenge on Zweigart Belfast 32 count linen, over two... that's over 2 DJ! Not one!

Well first I wash my linen. Usually in the kitchen sink. Give it a quick rinse.

Then I get out my favourite dye. Parisian Browning Essence, I have never tried tea or coffee, and the Beautiful Bev at my LNS told be you can't go past Parisian Essence for ease and steadfastness. The linen goes in wet, and the water is warm to hot.

It always looks dark, but you can make the result darker or lighter by adding either Essence or water.

Quick check, usually leave in for around 20 minutes. If it is too dark, just rinse with clean water. Also if you want a blotchy look scrunch up your fabric, while dying, then rinse just lightly. Well that worked for me by mistake :D

I hang on my clothes horse, and allow it to drip dry, remember to put either paper or a towel underneath for the drips.

All ironed (my linen is usually still quite damp when I do this) That is a piece of un-dyed linen along the bottom.

It's been awhile since piggy made and appearance, and he decided to have a look tonight.

Now for the awful day, we all have had natural disasters hit our countries, and it is awful when it does. I mean in two-three weeks in will have been two years since the bush fires in Victoria. Over 170 people lost their lives, and whole towns wiped out.

Tonight it is Queensland's turn, not fire, but water. Flooding after years of drought. Record flooding we have had so much rain that dams (water reservoir) have gone from 5-20% capacity to over full, some holding 160%. I don't know how they work that out.

The death toll, as it stands at the moment is 10 confirmed dead of which 5 are children. Nearly 80 missing of which there are real concerns for 15.
 
Evacuations going on all over the south-eastern corner of the state. Some people being force to leave their homes for a second time in a 10 day period. Whole towns being moved.

The news footage is horrific, people trapped in cars. Cars, trucks, shipping containers, houses being swept away. They are calling the flash flood that hit Toowoomba an inland Tsunami with a 2 metre (8 feet) wall of water. One small town the first they knew this was happening was when a house hit the local pub.

Now all this water is heading towards Brisbane the states capital. I have a brother, sister-in-law and two nephews that live on the outskirts of Brisbane. They are fine, up high, but the roads are now cut. All that matters is that they are safe.

I could go on all night but to give you some idea of how big and widespread this is Queensland is the second largest state in Australia, and 75% has been declared a Natural Disaster. Here is a map I 'borrowed' from the Queensland State Government website.

I would stay goodnight, but it's just not.
LiBBiE in Oz