Some Dyeing

Here are the fabrics I dyed on Sunday. The rainbow piece is about 2 1/2 yards long. The others are half yard pieces and were just afterthoughts...I had extra dye so decided to throw some more fabric in. I don't know that I love them, but it was fun. I have no plans for any of them at the moment, but I'll think of something. The colors aren't quite right. It's still dark outside this morning. I'll try to see if I can get some outdoor pictures later today. They colors of the T-shirt are pretty close to accurate, but the fabrics above are actually brighter.

The t-shirt is for my husband. He is a bright color kind of a guy. He usually prefers blues and purples, but I spilled the dye and this is what was left. I actually had a bit of the fuchsia and all of the fire red. I mixed up more of the deep yellow to finish it up. I had fun doing this (even with the mess I made) and am happy with the depth of color. I've had the dye powder for at least 7 years and I guess I had it in optimum storage conditions because I think the colors are plenty bright. The rainbow fabric was a pdf cotton I bought from Dharma at about the same time I got the dye powders. The flowered piece was a pdf from Lunn studios when they were still selling pdf fabric. The other two were just 1/2 yards of quilting fabric I grabbed, threw in the soda ash solution and poured dye over.

Because the house is cool most of the time, I put all the fabrics (wrapped in plastic) in a food cooler, put a heating pad on low on top of them all and closed the lid. I left them for about 24 hours. I think that may have helped the dye bond with the fabrics.

All in all a fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Design Wall Monday 11-30-09

The top three rows are all sewn together. I decided to put cornerstones in the sashing, so I have small aqua fabric squares there. If you want to see what others are doing, check out Judy's blog.

Yesterday I did some dyeing. I haven't for a long time, but I had the need...a t-shirt for my husband, 3 yards of fabric (in a rainbow I hope) and 3- 1/2 yard pieces with the left over dye. I made a huge mess, and then put the fabrics in the cooler you see in the bottom left hand side of the picture. My house is quite cool, so I put it in with a heating pad on low. I remember reading that somewhere so I hope it stayed warm enough to batch properly.

I've had the dyes for a loooooong time, so I probably won't get deep or bright colors, but the dyes have been stored in a cool dry place, so maybe they have survived. I'll show the results after I wash the fabric later today.

Decorating (not quilting)

It just feels a lot like Christmas this year. I don't usually have the tree up this early, but somehow it just feels right. It's so much fun going through the ornaments and remembering where we got them or who gave them to us. We don't have a "themed" tree, but it is beautiful. We used to live in Pasadena, and there is a store there called Stats Floral. We bought the garland at the after Christmas sale before we moved to Colorado so before 1993, and it is real silver. It is amazingly reflective and gives the tree a beautiful shine. I love the lights and have wonderfully fond memories of lights shining through the pebbled glass in the bathroom window when I was little.

Disappearing 9-Patch layout

Here is the layout I'm going to use. I will use white sashing, but I don't know if I'm going to use cornerstones. I have red and aqua both. If I had a red-aqua print I would probably use it. I'll have to do some shopping!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Design Wall Monday 11-23-09

I've sewn together 4 of the blocks in the first row. I think I'm going to have a narrow sashing between blocks, maybe 1 inch. It's interesting to see the variety of quarter inch seams in the blocks. Some of them are as small as 1/8" in places, but almost none of them are more than 1/4". I'm not going to work at matching seams within the blocks, but I am going to try to match the edges, so some easing will have to take place. It's also interesting to see that some other quilters press their seams open, as I do.

If you want to see what others are doing, check out Judy's post, and you might think about joining in, it does provide a reason to get something done so you can post something new.

Snowman Angel

Here is my most recent project. I had some fun with it. We're having a "Bowling Ball" at work for our Christmas get together...at a bowling alley. So, inside this fluffy guy is a bowling pin. It's a contest so we'll see what the other folks have to offer. I had fun working on it.

Buddy's Gone

He had lung cancer--didn't know, so we said goodbye to him today. He was a great cat, and we'll miss him.