Category Archives: fabric dyeing

Summer Colors

I never do know what color is my favorite but I do like the yellow, greens and blues. Maybe because it reminds me of summer.

When you are in the Green Mountains, it is hard to know where the sky and the mountains divide…they all seem to blend together on a sunny day. Working on my third little top to show you this week. Finished number 2 last night, but too wet out to bring my silk piece outside.

I love how fabric dyeing makes you feel very productive. 25 more meters this weekend. The stack on the right is a pile of over dyes and I love how rich the color is.

I started out needing to make red. I guess I got distracted. Also working on doing some surface design with freezer paper. It’s a multistep process that I need to take my time with.

Speaking of time, I only have about 8 more days left here in Vermont. I am already thinking of how to get all this stuff home. And still have room for the two big dogs and two kids!

Should have done some reds. Maybe later. Fabric dyeing here is done with for this year as I have used all 150 meters up!

Happy summer,my friends!

Vermont Days

   It was so nice to have my whole family here this past weekend. Also, some old friends came to enjoy the weekend with us. They are marathon runners and they loved the hills..(my fat butt just likes to walk.) Anyway, we took some time to go blueberry picking after we dropped Marc at the airport.

 
(She looks great despite her near death car accident!) 20 lbs of blueberries later and stuffed with blueberry cobbler and ice cream-what is a girl to do?

I wanted to see what happens if I dyed my fabric with blueberry juice. I found 3 great old enamel pots to try some natural dyeing. I forgot my book though so if anyone has any info for me, let me know what my mordant should be-salt,vinegar,alum?  Crazy most days, I know.

Off to enjoy a great day of sunshine- the beach and finding old barns today. Don’t want to waste the day inside.

Happy Summer, my friends!

She Is Safe

     I keep saying those works over and over again…My husband called me at about 7:30 am on Thursday morning to let me know that my 19 year old daughter Erin had been in a car accident. He had seen her at the scene after a call from an unnamed good samaritan. He let me know right away that she was awake, alert and talking to him. She was on her way to work on the interstate , felt a swerve and rolled the Volvo station wagon 3 times. I was ok until he said the car flipped three times. Then the physical therapist in me kicked in and was asking all kinds of questions to make sure her spine and head were intact-which they are.

 She is at home with Marc and resting with a hard collar on until she goes to the orthopedic doctor on Tues. The car was totaled but the box which held the driver was intact. A definite miracle. It has always been one of my fears -not being there when one of my kids got hurt. But my husband has handled this very calmly(he’s shopping for another car-it was his….) and has taken good care of her.

    I desperately want to go home but she wants to come here as scheduled next week. And I knew after the comments-“Mom you will just sit here and make me crazy looking at me and asking me if I am ok.” I knew then that she was ok for now with dad until we have more information.  And snapping at me like that was understandable-even brought a smile to my face because I knew if she needed me she wouldn’t hesitate to ask me to come home.

     I don’t know if she will be ok to travel. Then I will go home.  But for now I just keep saying over and over in my head-thank you God for keeping her safe and with us. I can’t wait to hold her in my arms and let her know how much I love her!

  
  Everything looks a little brighter today. Even these fabrics that I dyed this past week. They aren’t ironed yet but that really doesn’t matter, does it?

Sewing is keeping me sane at night so hope to have some tops done soon. And if not, that doesn’t really matter either. She is safe.

Happy summer and if you pray, please keep us in your prayers.

Sunshine and Fearless

         I am exhausted. The fun has not stopped here today. It was such a beautiful day that we decided we would try to round up enough strawberries for a pie tomorrow. It’s been a new tradition the past few years as I have the easiest strawberry pie recipe- I am not a baker. But the field was picked clean. I have never seen anything like. No pie for us tomorrow. Maybe ice cream. It’s easier. The yellow fabric is some sunshine for you this July 4th. I managed to squeeze this in yesterday morning.

And then a little earth and sky for you too. The blues were really pretty this batch.

A good week’s work and fun.

Fearless: I am deathly afraid of heights. Who knows why I agreed to buy a second home in VT. But today I hiked to the top of Mount Elmore. No it wasn’t Mount Mansfield but it was  a good sized mountain. So no not technically fearless was I, but I made it. The first time in the seven years we have had the house. ( I am not sure they will invite me again.) I was very slow…. Had fun though.

Happy Summer, my friends.

Next week I will have quilt show pics. I need to figure out how to re-size them.

A Warm Rainy Day

  
  I finally felt like I could think again today. Everything is unpacked and put away. Groceries are put away. And it’s a warm rainy day here in Vermont. I spent the moring sewing. Slow mindless strip piecing with a few of the fabrics I brought with me. I decided to go backwards -I just seem stuck with all the new info so I went back to easy piecing. And it was just plain nice again. Not much brain work involved and I loved it.

     The kids were settling down and playing darts in the garage so I decided to start dyeing fabric in the barn when I saw the sun starting to peek out this afternoon. I picked a few colors I had purchased smaller samples of at the Quilt Festival on Saturday-butterscotch, eggplant, teal blue, nickel and then one color that was just a mix of old dyes I had. I thought I would just start out with about ten yards for today.

     Well you know how that works out. It just multiplies. I had lots of different kinds of fabrics that were leftover form previous dyeing days-linen, linen-cotton blend, broadcloth and just plain PFD cotton from Testfabrics. I kept going until I ran out of containers.

   It’s always nice to see your work all lined up.

Another rainy day tomorrow to wash it all out. Sorry these pictures are so blurry. My dial up connection is killing me! If anyone has any suggestions ,I will take them . Almost worth selling a  sewing machine for some type of a computer solution-just kidding!
Happy Sewing, my friends!

Earth and the Month of May

    I was dyeing fabrics on Friday and the word that came to mind was Earth. These are just the colors of the earth and I do like them.  I had a hard time with green and realized a fundamental dyeing principle -duh?-that I should of thought of eons ago. Different bases give you different results. And no matter how much blue I added, I didn’t have the right yellow to get a deep forest green. You have to give it to me on persistence. Ten pieces of fabric later, I finally gave up and will just go with what I have. Also, overdyed the browns and they turned out nicely.

     The month of May is very busy. I realized I am gone for more than 12 days this month-classes, wedding, soccer tournament. Three workshops this month-I take full responsibility for making my schedule crazy. Just fair warning if my posts are not as often as usual. I am taking Sets and Variables at the Barn next week,  a two day workshop with Velda Newman sponsored by our quilt guild and an on-line class titled cloth-to cloth workshop given by Jude Hill which runs for 5 weeks. What am I doing with this wide range of classes? I don’t know yet but I am hoping that it’s not mud.  You know when you mix up a whole bunch of colors and hope for that one glorious result-but it turns into mud…. They just all were offered this month and I couldn’t pass it up.

   The commission piece was approved by it’s new owner last week. I now have to sew the design together.  She loved it-and that’s all that counts! A sneak peek….

Happy Sewing, my friends!

Congrats my friend!

     I was so excited to get this postcard in the mail this week!  My friend Gail Baar is having a show at the Raue Center for the Arts and it opens this weekend April 28th. I met Gail a few years ago at  a Nancy Crow workshop-she was the quiet one sitting next to me. I remember looking up at her work wall on the second or third day and knowing she would be going far. I felt as if she had her own style two years ago. We have kept in contact and she has been working very hard the past two years. How many pieces have you finished in the past year, Gail? Hard work and talent have paid off for her. Congrats and someday I will be able to come and see your pieces in a show.

  
 Well, yesterday was my fabric dyeing day. I took your advice and worked on tans and browns. Some good results with the lighter colors. The pile that is ironed is the keepers. The pile behind it turned out grainy-as if the dye wasn’t mixed enough. Bummer because it was an eight step gradation. It will be overdyed today. Need greens yet. So much for getting it done in one day. The thing about dyeing is that you have this big quantity of mixed dye left that you are compelled to use up. Which in turn means you buy more fabric…

   I tried one thing yesterday that seemed to work. I soda soaked the fabric first. Then, I squeezed the dye on in another container, mushed it around and then dumped the excess out. Then I laid the fabric flat in the grass to dry. Popped it into the washer-presoak and extra rinse( no rinsing prior to) and dryer and I had fabric with good results without batching it overnight . I followed the directions in this Frieda Anderson’s new book, Fabric To Dye For. This is what I did for the lighter fabrics-you must wait until it’s fully dry and then she says it processed. I’ll keep trying it and let you know if I get consistent results.

     Might be taking a break for the next week as I need to drop my machine off for service. Plus with my foot I am very slow and far behind in general stuff….Yikes! I’ll let you know.

Happy sewing my friends!

The Color of Tulips

       Yesterday was a day filled with colors. I went to drop of one of my quilts for the Tulip Festival Quilt Show. It’s at a new venue this year at the Holland Arts Council and I can’t wait to see the quilts hung in this space. It was a beautiful sunny day and I did remember my camera! You guessed it that the Tulip Festival is all about tulips and this little town has planted them in amazing batches and bundles of color in every empty space.

By the bank

on street corners

reaching for the sun

my favorites-the pinks. Had a great lunch with my daughter and began the carting of stuff home from college. Then, I began folding and sorting of my fabrics for my class to see what colors I have yet to dye this week. It took longer than I thought it would….

it was fun grouping them

kind of like opening a new box of crayons when you were a kid

I dyed this majority of this  fabric last summer and have been waiting patiently to “open this box of crayons”. I am more than ready to cut into it.

If you have a clue, what am I missing? Maybe nothing? ( I mean seriously if you can’t make a quilt out of all this -you should have your head examined!) Tomorrow is my only window of opportunity.

Oh and did I mention that 2 other gals must ridewith me. They are dyers so won’t have the bulk initially.

Spring Break 2010

     Trying to find little pockets of time to work but yet have fun with kids and dogs running in and out. And feeding friends and kids. And feeding more kids…

       A little ironing of 25 yards of fabric finished up from last week’s dyeing. Couldn’t waste 80 degree weather in Michigan during the month of March. I never remember that happening before. Pretty spring colors. I’ll try reds next time.

Trying to find a solution for the Lucy quilt.  Maybe this or maybe that:

 I like the uneven borders. Haven’t used borders in awhile so don’t know why I did this time. Maybe Lucy  my dog didn’t like them either.

    And trying my hand at a little piece of slow cloth which everyone seems to be intrigued with lately-including me. Old feed sacks and jeans. Can you believe I am re-visiting recycled jeans?

 I need something slower to work on after my foot surgery Wednesday-outpatient and hopefully a quick recovery. It’s my sewing foot and my driving foot. I can’t quite think of how I will do if I can’t use my foot for two weeks-which is worse case scenario.. Just need to be able to be very active by the time summer vacation comes! I love long hikes in the summer. Will be gone for a few days and returning with a new and healing foot!

Happy sewing, my friends!

5 Things You Don’t Know About Me

     Yes, I decided to dye some fabric down the basement Friday. It was warm enough to mix the dyes in my garage and then move down to dye a few fabrics. I needed the perfect wine/burgundy color and knew it might be hard to re-create. Since, of course, I wasn’t very good at writing down formulas when I first started dyeing.

Too purple and a little to mottled for me. I will overdye them.

And then I tried red- too pink for me.

I quit before I ruined anymore. Oh, I will use them- it’s just not what I wanted. Today I will just sew. It’s quiet here today and I am loving it. 
Don’t you always wonder about the bloggers that you follow? What are they really like? Is what they write about all they do?(Some writers are brutally honest about who they are in everything they write about And I love them for it.) What are their other interests? And as a writer of this silly blog, I wonder who my readers are. So-this week- I will tell you something about me. But you must share too. Don’t be shy-just tell me one thing about yourself in my comments. It can be related to what you do or not.
5 Things You Might Not Know About Me
1. I watch less than 2 hours of TV a week. I just got bored with commercials and raunchy acting a few years ago. I would rather read or spend time sewing or knitting.
2. I read at least one book a week. The book I am reading right now is by Jodi Piccoult. Just started last night  and might save it for next week- I become obsessive to finish and have company coming this week… it may be a bit rude to not stop while they are here. Libraries are one of my favorite places to visit and I could get lost there for hours. 
3. I am impatient and not good at waiting. Ok, Ok, maybe that you already knew about me. I always take some form of stitching or knitting with me and my hands must be busy while I wait. Or I get a bit cranky. Kind of like a two year old cranky.
4. Up until about four years ago, I hand quilted all my quilts. Yes, I did. I love the rhythm of hand quilting and hand work. Very peaceful.
5. I have only two “things” I really enjoy and couldn’t live without on an island. My sewing machine, of course. And my VW bug-apple green and she just got let out last week.  She was very happy to be driven after a long winter of staying in the garage. I was very happy to be driving her. Zipping around and listening to music She would be fun to drive round an island.(I drive an old Yukon truck the rest of the time-very dependable and everyone, including my two dogs,  fits in it.) 
( Daughter joined me in car on Sat. “Mom-what are you listening to?” Picks up CD cover-“these people are really old. Please tell me you just didn’t buy this CD with a weird cover, Mom.”  Yes 🙂 I did. And then it became the topic of dinner conversation-mom’s weird music-to which even my husband said-“that is the utmost of uncoolness and I won’t even admit that you are listening to ABBA-” . I can’t explain my choice but they just sounded a bit like summer.  Weird moms like weird music. No other explanation needed.) 
Now I have told you too much information. So share with me something I don’t know about you.
Happy Sewing, my friends !