Banana Oil

Just got back from a wonderful, relaxing vacation. I was able to finish this adorable guy! It is “I am the night” by , on one of my fabrics. I’m just obsessed with my cute little emo bat! 🤗 It was my first time doing a turkey stitch and I finally forced myself to do a French knot—4 to be exact. Wasn’t as scary as I thought! Love it! ❤️

Has anyone ever heard of “fire rainbows” or “circumhorizontal arcs”? Am I the only one who JUST learned of this phenomenon? So beautiful! Here are some pics of a piece I recently dyed up and the inspiration photo (from kidsdiscover). ❤️🌈

Just restocked my little Etsy shop with some more hand dyed fabrics. Here are some pics of a select few. Hope you like them! And just for fun, the last picture in this stack is….me! Recently, a couple people asked me why I named my fabric dyeing business “Banana Oil.” I thought it was a great question! In order to explain, I should tell you a bit about myself. My name is Kristy and I am a wife and mother. I have a wonderful husband and an adorable 5-year-old son. I am originally from Iowa (Go Hawks!) but currently live in beautiful Northern California which I love. Cross stitching and my fabric dyeing business are two of my passions but like many others I also have a full-time job which I also love. During the day, I am a medical speech-language pathologist and I work with adults who have communication and swallowing problems. I help individuals who are recovering from strokes, traumatic brain injuries, certain types of surgery, etc. I also see a lot of people who have progressive conditions like Parkinson’s Disease. The term “Banana Oil” is slang from the 1920’s that basically means “nonsense.” In my case, “banana oil” is a reference to a classic speech therapy passage we often have people read when we are evaluating their talking and reading skills. A character in this passage exclaims “Banana Oil!” It’s so random and weird, it’s always made me smile! I wanted my fabrics to represent me and I thought a nod to my speech therapy side, which is a huge part of my life, would be appropriate. I love that this silly, old slang term makes me smile. And I sincerely hope my fabrics make you smile! Take care and thanks for reading this long novel of a post!! :)

Here’s a selection of a few new pieces recently added to my little etsy shop. Link in bio. They are a mix of aida, evenweave and linen. Thanks for looking! :)

Some new aida and evenweave additions to the shop. Some are fat quarters, some are fat halves. I also posted a couple of discounted “whoopsie” pieces. :) Link in bio.

Love these bold colors! Just added these beauties to the shop. Link in bio.

Slowly but surely adding some new fabrics to the shop. :) This batch included some 20 count Aida pieces. Link in bio. Thanks for looking! :)

Just added about a dozen new pieces to the shop. :) Link in bio. I had a few requests to offer larger pieces, so some of these are fat halves.

Just got back from a wonderful, relaxing, too-brief vacation. Meant to post these before I left, but they are up in my little Etsy shop now. :) Link in bio. Hope you all had a wonderful weekend as well!

Whew, I’ve been busy dyeing, washing and ironing fabrics! So fun! Just listed these ones which are a mix of Charles Craft DMC 16 count Aida, 28/40 count evenweave and 36 count linen. Lots more to come! :)

Yay for ice dyeing season! Just added a few more fat quarters to the shop. Link in bio. The first piece looks like lily pads, don’t you think? :)

Just restocked the shop! :) Link in bio. Here are a few of my favorites. Wishing everyone a wonderful, restful weekend!

Just added some more fun colorful pieces to the shop. Link in bio. These are a mix of 14 count Aida and 28/32/40 count evenweave.

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Blues and purples. 🩵💜🩵💜 28 and 32 count evenweave. Just added to my shop. Link in bio.

A few new additions to the shop. Link in bio. My favorite is probably the rainbow piece. It reminds me of marble or watercolors.

Another fun, colorful batch added to the shop (link in bio). These pieces are mostly 18 count and a couple 40 count evenweave.

All 40 count verdal evenweave. 🥰 One of my favorites to stitch on!

Yay! Just restocked my little Etsy fabric shop. :) Link in bio. Added mostly 36 count linen and 40 count verdal evenweave. Here are a select few. I’ll be working on some other counts soon.

I know I say this all the time, but I think this might be my favorite piece yet! It’s so colorful and happy. ❤️🌈 36 count linen, 26.5 inches by 34.5 inches.

🌈🌈🌈 This piece was an absolute joy to work on. ❤️❤️❤️ It’s huge! 36 count linen, 26.5 inches by 34 inches.

Highlights from my latest batch of hand-dyed fabrics. These are 14 and 16 count. (I’ve got some 36 count linen and 40 count evenweave pieces batching as we speak!)

A few of my favorites from my most recent batch. 🥰

My Etsy shop inventory got a little low. Just added a few new pieces. :) I’ve got another bunch batching. Excited to rinse them out and add them to the shop too!

Just sent these 28 and 32 count evenweave and 36 count linen fat quarters out to the UK for the Caterpillar Cross Stitch Retreat in June! I LOVE how these pieces turned out and really, really hope the retreat attendees do too!!

These babies are going on an ADVENTURE! They are flying out to the UK for the 2024 Caterpillar Cross Stitch Retreat! Wish I was going with them! These are the 14, 16 and 18 count Aida pieces. I’ll post pictures of the evenweave and linen pieces separately.

New to the shop (BananaOil.etsy.com). ❤️

A few new additions to the shop. (Link in bio). Slowly making my way through photographing and listing all the pieces I dyed up recently. There are a ton! :)

A couple more new additions to the shop. :) Both are sparkly 14 count Aida.