Monthly Archives: July 2014

Wrapping Up Summer Fabric Dyeing

It was steaming hot here this past week. It’s the kind of weather that the cotton fabrics and dyes love. I definitely have been in love with my newfound knowledge of fabric dyeing after my Carol Soderlund  class last May. 

 

Processing the fabric in the barn

Processing the fabric in the barn

Carol recommends processing in a plastic bag for low water immersion. But I am way too messy with that. I can’t get manage to get the fabric folded without having the dye all over my legs while I fold it up for the plastic bag. Or maybe I am just too stubborn to not waste all my plastic containers.

 

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Reds on the line

For the first time, I used full immersion for these two yard cuts of red. I ended up loving full water immersion for absolute solid coloring! It does take an hour of full tending to the pots though.

Lighter neutrals on the line

Lighter neutrals on the line

I need a few more neutrals but that will wait until a nice fall day.

Wacky over dyeing of the "ickies"

Wacky over dyeing of the “ickies”

And the dry results…

 

Neutrals ready for ironing

Neutrals ready for ironing

 

Brights ready for ironing

Brights ready for ironing

No ironing until after I enjoyed the weekend with friends.

Hazy VT summer days

Hazy VT summer days

It’s summer after all.

 

From my garden

From my garden

My husband has been with me in VT for longer than usual this summer. He said he’s amazed at how much time I spend working on my art. How did he not know this? 🙂

What are you working on? Can you settle into a summer time routine with your art or do you take break?

 

Sinking Into A Vermont Summer: #2

I have decided to embrace the chaos of summer.  I woke up on Wednesday and had no idea what the date was or the day of the week. Or what house I was waking up in until I opened my eyes- Vermont or Michigan?  It was Michigan but I needed to get ready to return to VT which takes me a day to organize and then a day to travel. So I thought I would l give you a re-cap of the past two weeks.

– A silly but cute parade that my kids still wanted to be a part of:

 

A reluctant parade participant :)

A reluctant parade participant 🙂

 

 

She still loves her cows

She still loves her cows

 

— A trip to the Vermont Quilt Festival

Great use of color with lots of pieces!

Greta use of color with lots of pieces!

 

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I ran into a fellow classmate from the Barn Lee Sproul and I was pleased to see her piece which was one of my favorites from the show.

 

Lee Sproul "Orange Link"

Lee Sproul “Orange Link”

 

Details of Lee Sproul's piece "Orange Link"

Details of Lee Sproul’s piece “Orange Link”

Nice job Lee and nice to see you!

— A trip to the Shelburne Museum to see the Nancy Crow exhibit

Hat and Fragrance Gallery entrance

Hat and Fragrance Gallery entrance

 

A link that reviews the exhibit as I took lousy pictures:

Heather Dubreill

 

—–A proud mom who is excited and happy that her boy ‘s team won the regional division and will travel to Phoenix in February . Only four teams left in the nation so good job Ben, my goalie man. Congrats!

——Lots of walks

Mountains in the distance

Mountains in the distance

—–goofy selfies

Hope and I with the top down

Hope and I with the top down

I am making the most of every free minute and every not so free minute and keep working and sewing. I am now working on making lots of lines this week-which I can’t show you.

Summer continues to be

Sign at the Shelburne Museum entrance

Sign at the Shelburne Museum entrance

Next week a little more  fabric dyeing as I need reds and greys. Never enough hand dyed fabrics!

 

 

 

 

Done Times Two

Some things I really appreciate. And finishing the machine quilting on a piece is one of them! This weekend I finished Rooflines #15 which has been accepted into Artprize 2014.

It is always with a bit of trepidation that I commit an unfinished piece to an exhibit but the last three years I have done it.  And each year there has been a moment of panic when there is a glitch. Not a devastating glitch- but a glitch. I pinned this up on the wall when I finished it before applying the binding to admire my work. And with a huge gasp, I realized I had a pretty significant skew and one of the main lines of the quilt was very “off to the left” .  I felt like I needed to tilt my head to look at the piece.

 

 

major squaring needed

major squaring needed

I just needed to be brave and lose a few inches in  order for it to look right.

Rooflines #15, 63X64, ©Colleen Kole, 2014

Rooflines #15, 63X64, ©Colleen Kole, 2014

All done and what a good feeling. I did a lot of procrastinating while quilting this because I had so many thread changes.

 

 

Details of Rooflines #15

Details of Rooflines #15

 

Details fo Rooflines #15

Details fo Rooflines #15

I also wrapped up fabric dyeing and over dyeing about 130 yards. And of those about 30 were overdyes as I started off very impatient and just didn’t tend to them like  I should have. I finished ironing last night and making some black and white sketches so today I will cut into theses pretties. I am ready to start something new.

Fabric Dyeing 2014

Fabric Dyeing 2014