Design Wall Monday-March 25, 2012

Here is a sketch of the quilting I'm using on this quilt. I got the idea from Suzanne Early's book and it is very loosely based on a pattern she drew.

I had to trim the borders a bit because I didn't buy quite enough fleece to back it, but otherwise it's the same. I tried to get some pictures of the quilting I've completed, but I never take pictures in the sunlight, so they stink. If you click on the picture below, you might be able to see something.

The colors in this picture are actually closer to reality than those above. I'm quilting in columns, and have finished four. I think I'll do the borders the same way and call it good. This is my April UFO for Judy's challenge and I almost didn't make it because I got stuck on the feathers I was quilting on the charity quilt and wasn't doing anything because I wasn't happy with the way it was looping. I finally decided I wanted to get something DONE, so pinned this one and now I'm quilting it.

While I was avoiding the feathers, I also made a cord bowl.











For this one I used un-dyed cord, and plan to dye it later. The bowl is an oval about 10 x 8 and about 5 inches tall.

 I plaited the cording on the top with 4 strands (I had to look up directions for that) then sewed it on by hand. I don't know what colors I'm going to use yet, or what it is going to be for, but I enjoyed making it.

To see what other folks have on their design walls, check out Judy's blog.

Rainbow Containers

 I had fun making these. I've had the dyed cord for about a year and decided today to do something with them. The taller one is about 5 inches tall and the wider one is 8 inches at the longest dimension.

I had a bit of an idea of what I wanted when I started. For this one I was thinking of pencils. I can't get it to have straight sides but this is pretty close.

I have a container similar to this near my sewing machine. In it I put all of my little notions that I need regularly...scissors, seam ripper, seam roller, magnifying glass, rotary cutter...well you get the idea, so I thought I'd make another one. Don't know who they're for yet, but I like them.

How to Dye Clothesline for Bowls or Baskets

Pam and Anonymous asked how I dyed the clothesline, so here you go.

You need to be sure you have cotton line before you begin. I used fiber reactive dye I got from Dharma Trading. I mix my own colors from blue, red and yellow primaries, but there are plenty of premixed colors you can get. You will also need soda ash to raise the pH of the fiber so the dyes will react with it.

If you want to get everything you need in one kit, you can buy a tye-dye kit that has dye, soda ash and some other stuff. At Dharma it called the Teeny Tiny Tie Dye Kit.

For my dyeing I added 2 Tbsp of soda ash to about 2 gallons of hot water. I stirred until it was completely dissolved. I took the clothesline and unwound it, then made skeins of it so it was more loosely wound, like this. This the way I put it in the soda ash solution. I let it soak about 30 minutes (with a plate on top of it so it stayed submerged), then removed it and wrung it out as much as I could.

Many people add salt and urea. Salt is supposed to make the colors brighter, and urea makes the colors more even. I've done some reading, and a woman who dyes fabric and sells it did experiments with salt, and found it made no significant difference in the depth of color she got. I didn't use urea, because I like color variations.

I then mixed about 1 1/2 tsp of dye powder with warm water, making a paste with a little water first and making sure all the dye was dissolved, then adding the rest of the water to make 8 ounces.

I also had veterinary syringes (no needles) that holds 35cc (2 1/3 Tbsp) that you can buy online or if you have a large animal supply nearby you can probably get them there. I think a turkey baster might work in a pinch, but be sure you don't use it to baste a turkey when your done.  I use them to draw-up the dye, then redistribute it on the cord. You could also just pour carefully, but be sure all of the cording has dye on it especially the fiber on the bottom and the part where you tied the skein. (If you don't want to dye your hands when you are doing this, be sure to have rubber gloves on.) I  used two colors here, but you can use as many as you want or as many as you have. Soak up the extra dye with paper towels then make a package of it.

I took the plastic the clothesline was resting on and folded the edges over, then I folded the sides in and rolled it up.  This package was put in the microwave to speed up the time it takes for the dye to react. I heated it a minute on level 5, waited a minute and repeated that until it had been heated a total of 3 minutes. Be sure to check the package to be sure it's not getting too hot. Because my house is relatively cool all the time (about 65 degrees) I put the package in an insulated cooler so it would stay warm and left it about an hour. 

The clothesline then needs to be rinsed (still tied in its skein) until the water runs clear. I  rinse it a bit, then let is soak in clear water a bit, then rinse again. Once you've rinsed it, wring it as dry as you can,  un-bundle it and lay it out to dry. I don't have a dryer, so I left mine overnight draped over the balcony railing (it's metal). If you have a dryer, you cold probably throw it in there (probably in something like a lingerie bag). When it wall all done I had 100 feet of dyed cotton clothesline to make into bowls...baskets....vessels!

Here is the cord after it was rinsed and dried. I think the colors aren't very intense because there is some polyester in the outside fibers added for strength. I found 100 feet of clothesline at my local grocery store for about $6, then I went to Walmart and found it there about about $3.

I hope this was helpful. If you need more information I'll try to provide it, just leave a comment and I'll try to answer any questions you have.

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

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!

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!