Bye Bye February

This month I've been a guest blogger over on And Then We Set it on Fire a few times, and have been doing a lot of dyeing related to the Ann Johnston DVD.

Here are three fat quarter pieces that I dyed Turquoise (for a Fire blog post), then I batiked with an egg carton dipped in beeswax, and overdyed.

I like how they turned out, and I think they'll make some cute pillows.

And I also finished up a crib bumper set for my daughter who is having a baby in April, this time a boy.  Got this whole set in the mail to her today.

What a mess! I had to get these out of the way because I just don't have enough room...

 And for two Saturdays in a row, I went to a quilt-as-you-go class at my LQS, Quilting Quest in Lexington.  I had some blocks made already, so I used them to learn the technique of joining the already-quilted squares.  Very easy, and I'll definitely use this again, probably to make a baby blanket soon!

Real Snow for Snow Dyeing!

Last Wednesday & Thursday we had about 8" of snow (and some ice/sleet) where I live in North Carolina, which is extremely rare.  Ok, there aren't any snowplows to speak of, and the schools all close in anticipation of storms, and so I was lucky enough to have Wednesday through Friday off of work.

So, on Friday, after the snow stopped falling, I did some snow dyeing.  I used blue, turquoise, and some yellow orange.

 For these pieces, I poured liquid dye concentrates onto the snow.  Purple, orange, and yellow.

Then I tried a couple using the dye powders instead--I think this was Sapphire and Blue Violet.  

I used Avacado & chartreuse dye powders for this.  The yellows in this piece below didn't melt down very well, they turned a little "gooey" instead.  I didn't take a picture of the finished version, but I ended up overdyeing it on Sunday since I wasn't 100% happy with the results.

Here are some of my results from Friday.  (The piece on the right is from the bottom of the tray that soaked up the leftover drops).

 I think this is my favorite:

So, on Sunday morning I realized there was still some snow out there, so I took a few more pieces and put them in soda solution, then poured on the dye concentrates.  This time I went with summery pastels.

This piece below was the green/chartreuse one that I didn't take a previous picture of, but once I overdyed it, I love it.

What a nice way to spend an unexpected "mini-vacation"!

A Cold Morning in January

Frigid cold (for North Carolina, anyway), 8 degrees this morning.  Which is enough to cause 2-hour delays for schools all over the area--yeah, I know, you "Yankees" think this is funny.  The temperature today where I used to live in New York (Ellisburg) is -12 degrees F, with a wind chill temperature of -20 degrees, so I know it could be a lot worse.

Last Monday, MLK holiday, I finally had the opportunity to dye some fabric.  I usually get a lot of fabric dyed during January & February, but this year the temps have been too cold to dye in my garage.  I'm trying to work through a DVD set by Ann Johnston, Color by Accident, so here are the first results:

Flat dyed piece with Grape, Golden Yellow, and some Aquamarine dyes.

The finished piece

Two pieces soaking in dye, one with the Grape, Golden Yellow & Aquamarine, and the other with Chinese Red, Grape, and Golden Yellow.

 And the finished pieces

During February, techniques from the Color By Accident DVD set will be the focus of the And Then We Set It On Fire blog, and I'll be one of the guest participants.  Tune in there for more details on the processes if you're interested, and stay warm!

Linking up with Off The Wall Friday today!

Color Magnet

I tried a new product called Jacquard Color Magnet over the weekend, and I love it.  Here is a piece of fabric that I first stamped with a slice off of a pool noodle that I dipped into the Color Magnet.

You let the Color Magnet dry completely, and it becomes a resist that attracts color.  I used some thickened dyes over the resist, let it batch for a couple of hours, and washed it all in the washing machine.

Very easy!  It's interesting that all of the color magnet areas turned blue, even though I used a blue dye, a tangerine, and an orange.  I would have thought they were going to turn brown...

One more day of work before four blissful days off!  Happy Thanksgiving!

Why my house will never be clean...

The past two weekends (Columbus Day and October 19-20) were spent on the road--traveling to NY over Columbus Day, then to Pittsburgh for a wedding on October 19th.  So I had very little time to do anything fabric/fiber related lately, especially since I don't get home from work til 5:30 every night and have a hard time getting motivated in the evenings.

I tried to make up for it this past weekend, first getting up early Saturday (as always) and soaking some fabric in soda ash solution to get ready for ice dyeing.  I first saw this method on this blog  and thought I'd give it a try.  Instead of using the dye powder, she made a strong dye/water solution.  (I have lots of jars of dye solutions already made up, since I don't always use 100% of what I mix, so it was a good reason to use it up!)  Thanks, Dolly!

Here are some of my results--which I think turned out beautifully! Colors used were Fuschia, Straw, Tangerine, and Sky Blue.

The one surprise to me is that the blue pretty much disappeared, turning into lots of purple, but not much green.

It was so cold over the weekend (for here) that the ice didn't even melt all the way after 24 hours.

I liked these so much that I started another bunch of ice dyes on Sunday morning using mostly blues & purples (Blue violet, Sapphire blue and Grape)

And then I did some screen printing on some fabric that I had dyed and painted previously, using some thickened dye solution.  This hasn't been washed out yet, I think I have to let it set for about 24 hours before washing.

And I tried stamping with a hand carved stamp I had made a while ago -- but my Setacolor paint was more like a gel (think it's getting too old) so it didn't turn out exactly like I had planned...

No time for house cleaning!  Oh, and the wedding I attended in Pittsburgh last weekend was for my niece, Karin, who lives in Florida.  I gave them a quilt for a wedding picture, and she was nice enough to send me a picture of it in their house--but I can't get the picture to show up here correctly.

And here's my former wild cat, Ferrell.  He has been hanging around since last spring, and he even lets me pet him once in a while now.  He has a warm bed to sleep in, lots of food & water, and has pretty much made himself at home.

 This is one reason why a cat is a valuable thing to have around--a baby snake.

This is Ferrell taking care of that snake--he played with it for a while then killed it.  I've seen quite a few snakes around my yard that are 6' long or more, which is kind of creepy but they do have their place in the ecosystem, I guess.

And a picture of my beautiful lab, Leo, who has been with me for about 1.5 years now and is a wonderful dog.  Thanks again to Lab Rescue of NC.

A week off work

Last week I was off from work, and attended a "color theory" type workshop in Asheville, NC on Thursday & Friday.  It was presented by Wanda Kerr, a rug hooker from Ontario.  The workshop was wonderful, and even though it was presented primarily for rug hooking, the lessons can definitely be applied to quilting!

Now, if you are an Asheville lover, please don't be upset, but I don't really find too much that is charming or quaint in that city.  (It has almost a mythical reputation here in NC).  The traffic is horrendous, even mid-week, and the town seems full of people with way too much money and not enough to spend it on.  There is a "frantic-ness" about it that is hard to take, especially if you appreciate a quieter, slower, and definitely less materialistic lifestyle.  The one store I like there is called Earth Guild, and they carry all the supplies necessary for dyeing, batik, knitting, felting, etc.  I couldn't make it to the store during my visit--I tried one evening after class, but the traffic was just too much for me to try to navigate and get there before they closed at 6:00, and I gave up.  Glad to be back home Friday night!

So, I finished up this T-shirt quilt yesterday for a friend of my daughter.  The T-shirts were from baby clothes, so the pieces I ended up with were a little small, but I added borders around them to try and get a bigger finished quilt.

Some of the borders were from pieces that I shibori dyed a couple of weeks ago--I have a tutorial posted on my blog about it, if you'd like more information on how to do your own.

Here's the back, mostly with hand-dyes.

Have to throw this in the washer and dryer after work tonight, and it's done.

 And here are two wild looking pieces of wool that I dyed, for rug hooking.

 Classes start next Monday, August 19, at the university where I work....not sure if I'm ready for that.

Spring in the Air

On the And Then We Set It On Fire blog, an interesting technique was presented this month that I had to try. First step was to dye these four pieces--

Hopefully this weekend I'll have time to do the rest of the project.  The dye colors I used were fuchsia, chartreuse and blue violet.

Has anyone every tried to make a vessel using the wet-felt resist method?  I did, using some alpaca fibers.  (For some great instructions, you can check out this blog).   Wet felting is quite a tedious process, but I ended up with this little vessel--that looks pretty much like a coconut.  Not my favorite, but I used what I had on hand.  If I do this again, I'll use some better fibers, like merino, so it doesn't turn out so hairy!

You can see the fuzzy-ness of the alpaca fibers better here:

And work is still progressing on what is for me the world's slowest craft, rug hooking.  The background strips are some blue wool that I dyed myself.  Loving the colors, but will be glad when it's finally finished.

Last weekend was a beautiful one here in NC, so I batiked some fabrics to use in a project I'm working on.  If you want to read about the process, check this blog post.  I just love the whole process of making batiked fabrics.

Spring might finally be here!  We had a t-storm or two overnight, and things are finally starting to bloom.

Linking up to Nina Marie's blog today, check out all the great links there!

Also, linking up to Fiber Artist Journey today, too.

Finally--feeling creative again!

Been in a rotten mood lately--not sure if it was due to the weather, a boring job that drains the life out of me, or what...I have been sewing, making, dyeing and all that, just haven't bothered to post anything here.

Saturday and Sunday I spent batiking, these are some of the fabric pieces I ended up with:

I use beeswax and parafin, melted together in my electric frying pan, and the high-tech stretching method of push pins on a cardboard box.  Egg cartons are some of my favorites to use for patterns, I save them, and always look on the bottom of the carton to see if there is a different design that I haven't used yet.

This pattern is from the egg carton shown above.

I also used a pool noodle, which melted a bit by the time I was done.  Luckily I can get them at the Dollar Store and cut off a couple of inches as I need them.  Cookie cutters also work great--but the heat from the wax transfers quickly on the metal cutters, so pliers are definitely needed to hold them.

After waxing, I put the pieces on some plastic, and pour on some dyes mixed with soda ash.  Then they get covered and stay in the sun for about 2-3 hours.

 The pieces then have to be boiled to remove the wax, and sometimes I over-dye to get a secondary color.

The blue/green piece above was made with a pool noodle, the middle piece with the flowers was with a cookie cutter, and on the orange piece the polka dots were made with a carrot.

It was a great weekend!

Too many projects

This is Leo, a foster dog I got on Saturday--he's available through the Lab Rescue of NC

As far as quilty projects, it seems that lately I'm all over the map.  

Fusing: 

Sewing: 

More sewing:

Quilting: 

And more sewing--

The only thing I forgot to take pictures of is my dyeing efforts--.

I think I have so many things going on at once because I think about making things all day at work and try to get as many started as I can on weekends when I have lots of time.