Saturday, February 27, 2010

The Offering Bowl

Here are some pictures of the bowl I just made for my husband. I had fun with the top. I'm trying to be creative with ending the top, because otherwise there is an ugly bump that just sits there.




I pinned this one all the way around before I sewed it. On the previous bowls I just moved the line around and sewed it "on the fly". I like the little embellishment on the front...the little flower.

Here are some more pictures. I also like the way the colors moved in it. Fun!


I'm using this for my design wall post. If  you'd like to see what others are doing, check out Judy's blog. If you want to see the whole process of dyeing and making these bowls, check out the linked posts.


The results

Here are the results of all the dyeing I did yesterday. I started out on the clothesline, and with the dye left, I dyed the fabric. The purple and fuchsia were pretty successful in the light/medium/dark dyeing. The others, not so much. I'll have to redye the darkest orange, and the darkest yellow. The turquoise has almost no difference at all in all three fabrics. I don't know if I can make it any darker, but it's worth a shot. I may have to add just a pinch of fuchsia to the yellow to make the darkest hue have any discernible difference.

I like the clotheslines. I'm surprised at how washed out the orange was on it. It has even less color than the yellow, which really surprised me.

My husband asked for a bowl, so the blue/purple/green will will become one for him.

All in all, a fun experience.


Mary

Friday, February 26, 2010

A Little Dyeing

I now feel better about having all of these.

They are being used for this.

I used a bunch of them. Five different colors, and I hope, light medium and dark of each color. I don't know if the yellow will look light medium and dark, but I used lemon yellow, fuchsia and turquoise as the primary colors and mixed orange (well really yellow orange), purple and green.

I didn't do a light medium and dark of the green, because I did that last week, but now I'm thinking I should. It's not too late!

Here are the 15 buckets. I think I am going to let them batch till tomorrow afternoon (unless I get too antsy and do them before I go to dinner tonight).


I've had these containers in the drawer since we moved back in the house and haven't used them till today. It has been about 3 years. Yay that I had them, though.

I also did two more 100 foot clotheslines. One is a rainbow (see above) and the other I used just the turquoise, green and purple. When I bought the clothesline this time I saw that there is some polyester in it, so that may be why it didn't dye very dark. I'll wait a bit longer today and see if it dyes more than a pastel this time.

Quilt Inspiration


Bowls, bowls bowls...

I have about 4 inches of the 100 feet of the clothesline left after I made these three.

I bought some more clothesline yesterday, so I'm going to dye some more. I'm thinking some yellows and oranges, and then maybe some purples. Since I have three 100 foot lengths I may also dye a rainbow.

I took some pictures while I was sewing. Enjoy!

I started all of them with a coil. This is for the oblong bowl. When I made the plain one I started with a small oval, but it soon became pretty circular. When I did the next one, I wanted to make it much more oval, so just made the first line of the clothesline much longer. Keeping the clothesline feeding to the needle from the right makes it much easier to keep from making a huge knot. You can see that the line is laying on the left, but it comes off the table between me and the sewing machine then back up on the right side of the needle.
The sides will be straight up from the base if you hold the base almost parallel to the needle. If you want a shallow wide bowl, hold the base much more away from the needle. The pictures below explain a bit more. You can click on them to enlarge them.
 


To make the lace edge I used a pair of tweezers and held the line with a bit of a space between it and the vessel. I kept sewing across the bowl, leaving a bit of a gap, then sewed the line down again. I did this every once in a while, then had enough line to make another round. I think this could look very fun in the side, instead of at the top!

These are fun!


Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Another Tote Finished


Here is the simple bag I just finished. I has no separate lining, just fuse two pieces of fabric together to make a heavier fabric. There are pockets on the outside, and the inside. I finished the edges with a wavy stitch so there would be little raveling.

The way the zipper is put in makes it open well.

Here you can see the inside pocets. No zippers, no velcro, just simple pockets to put stuff in. I think I'll make some for gifts!



Monday, February 22, 2010

One Done!

 
This picture is has pretty true color, but because I took it with the flash, you really can't see the texture of the bowl. 
Here is a better picture that shows the texture. I don't know what I am going to do with the end there. I'll think of something though. 
I really like the way the texture shows here. How fun this was. I liked the whole process.

The bowl is about 5 inches in diameter, and 3 inches tall. It is a very round oval, just slightly longer than wide. I still have about 20 yards left, so can make another bigger bowl. I like how the thread matches the cord pretty well. I went out today and bought some variegated that would match.
Here is one more I just made. I thought of the loops at the top while I was falling asleep last night. I don't know what I think of it...maybe I like it. Yay for successful experiments!

Tumbling Blocks



At some time in the future I plan to make a tumbling blocks quilt. I'm going to use my hand-dyed fabric if I ever get enough of it. I had a bit of leftover dye from the cord experiment, so threw it all together and got this great green. Dyed a light, medium and dark...one set of blocks ready to go.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

An Experiment

I decided to look online to see if the local Hancock Fabrics carried cotton cord that is slightly larger in diameter than what I bought. As I was looking through, I came across some DMC Color Infused cotton cord. I thought it would be fun to use, but realized it was way too small in diameter to actually make anything of size, but...I have cotton cord...I have dye...why not try it.

It is not really white, so using a light color probably wouldn't look great, but I have some variegated thread that I could use to zig-zag the bowl together, and can be used for color inspiration,  so let's see.


First, take the "skein" of cord apart and make it into a large loop, as if it was yarn that was going to be dyed.

Then, soak it in soda ash to make sure it is totally saturated. Mix the dye (I used Dharma Cerulean and Clear Yellow) and lay the cord out on a bit of plastic

Use a veterinary syringe to put the color on the cord.

Roll the cord up in the plastic.

Microwave on 40% for 4 minutes, checking every 30 seconds to see if it's warm yet.

Let it batch for an hour, and then see what we see.

I'm at the "Let it batch..." point, so I'll post pictures when it comes out and I rinse it.

I think this might be fun. If it works, I'll have to try a rainbow like Melody Johnson (Fibermania) did for sock yarn on 9 November, 2009. Take a look, it's gorgeous!

OK, how fun is this. No patience today, I had to see what it would look like so didn't wait the full hour (probably should have waited at least 3-4 hours, but couldn't today). I know it will be lighter when it is dry, so will be a pastel bowl. I might have to get some different thread to sew it together. If the bowl works, I'm definitely going to try dyeing cord again!

Here is the cotton cord, dry. I will definitely try this again. I have some thread for sewing that I think will work better, but I don't have much of it. I think I'm going to find another spool and use it for this bowl.

Fun times!


I almost forgot, if you want to get inspired by what other people are doing, check out Judy's Patchwork times.

Saturday, February 20, 2010

And now for something completely different....

Though I have many quilt tops waiting to be sandwiched and quilted, I'm am veering off in another direction. I'm going to make a Bali bowl. You can see that this fabric has stick figures drawn on it. I'm not very enamored of them, so cutting into strips and wrapping around a cord will go a long way to disguising them. I love the colors of the fabric (minus the drawings) and I think this will be a lovely bowl.

Has anyone out there made one of these before? I just cut all the fabric, sewed it into strips and pressed it. When I wrapped it around the cord I bought (7/32" cotton cord) it was way too wide. I did a test of another fabric and cut it to 2" instead of 2 1/2" and that seems more like the picture on the pattern. If you've made one, did the same thing happen to you or do I just have extra skinny cord?  You can see in the picture below (if you click to enlarge it) that the fabric wrapped way around and had lots left over.


I'm thinking of going out and finding fatter cord to try, because I sure don't want to go back, iron all that fabric flat, trim it and then fold and iron it again.

Watching them grow

These have been growing outside my sewing room window all day long. The window looks north, so no sun reaches here. It was sunny for a short time today, but now it's cloudy again. I have to say, I'm a bit tired of the cold.

 Pretty though.


The snow came just at dusk, nice big fluffy flakes.


Monday, February 15, 2010

Professional Tote Done-Design Wall



I'm done with the tote. Like the colors, but I used a fusible batting and I'm not too thrilled with that. I'll get used to it though, I'm sure. I have to decide if I'm going to use this for my purse, at least to work and back. I really only need license, key and wallet, and all that will certainly fit. I even made credit card slots in the middle zipper section. I guess I'll use it a while and see what I think.

This is my Design Wall post, if you want to see what others are doing, check out Judy's blog.







Friday, February 12, 2010

Professional Tote, second side

 
Here is the second side. It has a pocket all the way across the bag. There is also a magnetic closure on this pocket. I could have used velcro, but thought I'd try the magnet this time. 
Next  I make the side pockets that have a cord on the top you can pull taut. Wish me luck!

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