Easter eggs

Easter.
Traditional way of dyeing eggs on Easter.
 Chocolate on Christmas, chocolate on Valentines day, and what a surprise chocolate on Easter....
Starting to get a bit boring!!
Where is the excitement and surprise???
Well this is the way we dyed eggs on Easter in Latvia every year...I am only gonna show one way of doing it on this blog, very simple, but beautiful.
Oh, I did add some chocolate, well everyone loves chocolate, especially kids :)

Materials:
Scissors
Thread
Fabric squares
Lacy fabric,
 nion peelings from red or normal onions or both
little plants ,leaves, flowers and other bits from nature,whatever you can find outside
grains, like rice wheat, grey peas, pearl barley etc

1st step:
 is to put all the onion skins in the pan with about 3l of water and let it simmer, while you getting all the eggs ready.

 

2nd step:

Get the little squares of your fabric ready fill them with grains, but not too much, just a pinch, spread about, get your egg, put a flower or leave on the side or where ever you wish, press it down, wrap around with the cloth and tie it at the end with your thread.

Use your imagination, don't worry if something falls out, or doesn't stay straight etc.

 Every egg will still develop nice pattern and every each and one of the will be different a nice surprise.

rice,wheat grain, grey peas,and some leaves

just lace and an egg

lacy fabric,will maybe leave nice lacy pattern

some rice, some yellow flower, and green leaf

Used some thread to just tie it around the egg on its own

simple grass , peas and wheat grains

a fragment of lace fabric, gray peas and some green leaves again

here is the first batch of the designed eggs, ready to cook

 I left the onion skins to cook for about an hr, then added some vinegar, approx 3 table spoons.

Vinegar helps keeping that colour bright and strong.

You may need to add some more water, because quite a bit might evaporate.

3rd step:

put your eggs in the boiling water  slowly with a spoon.

Make sure you don't drop, other wise they will brake.

You need to boil the eggs hard, for about 10-15 min

While your first batch cooking, you can make the other batch ready,if you still want more :)

I dyed 15 eggs.

Once they have cooked, take them out and leave to cool down for a while.

Once they cooled down, you can start unwrapping them.

 Use scissors to cut your little pouches.
 Wash off any excess leaves, flowers and grains.
Rub a bit of oil on them to make them shiny.

Look at all of those patterns,organic and natural

can you see the delicate in print of  grains and dills  on the egg/

Well that's it...
Kids love this fun, but time consuming process of dyeing eggs.

So much fun with natural and organic materials, mixing them and not knowing,what the result going to be :)
Beautiful and lovely Easter surprise every time you unwrap that little pouch.
Magic...

I used a basket and big fruit platter to display my Easter eggs, added some chocolate and obviously some of my crochet too :)

Please share the ways you celebrate Easter, what are your family traditions
And have a Happy Easter  everyone:)