Tea Dyed Sampler

I finally finished my sampler that I have been working on forever!!! I just didn't like how the fabric looked. It was too blah, so I went on a search for a recipe to age the fabric. Here is the end result.I really like how it turned out. To "age" the aida cloth, I used 4 tablespoons of instant tea to 3 cups of water. I put it on the stove to boil, then I put the sampler in the pan. When I first took it out of the water the dye was too even. Then I remembered somewhere I saw to put it in the oven. So I set the oven on the lowest setting, about 200 degrees, put the stitchery in a glass baking dish and baked it! I looked at it in a frame, but I think I will look for a piece of coverlet to put it on and then frame it. I can't remember how much it cost me to buy a piece of aida cloth at the stitchery store that looked aged, but I think I will just do it myself next time!

This added April 23, 2009: I haven't had this problem before, but I was thinking you should probably make sure your threads are colorfast. I used DMC floss on this particular project. But some of the hand dyed threads might bleed.