Category Archives: hand dyed fabrics

Clamping with Resists

     Last week’s class with Elin Noble was definitely a techniques and knowledge class. So, my goal for the week was to try everything at least once so I would have a good understanding of how to do it when I went home and tried to reproduce it. I was rotten at taking notes with my gloves on but I made a boatload of “samples”.

My Fabric Samples Wall-mid week

 That’s a better picture for you. I even did a shirt!

Linen  (clamped) discharged with Thiox and over dyed 

Linen (clamped) discharged with Thiox and over dyed

Cotton Bamboo blend clamped 

Cotton clamped and overdyed
Betsy having fun with her formulas

We looked like mad scientists mixing and fussing with all this color and fabric. I didn’t take enough friends pictures and the ones I did have others work in them so I can’t post them. Class rules. The procedures were time-consuming but it was great fun unwrapping what we worked on.

All the samples I have shown above are done with Procion Mx dyes. More results tomorrow. Elin is a great teacher. If you have the opportunity to take a class from her, do not hesitate for one minute!

Loving Color #2: I Fooled You

     Don’t you just shake your head sometimes and wonder what I’m doing? I can imagine some of you saying -what in the world will she do with the screechingly (is that even a word?) awful pieces of fabric from the last post? A strange and loud tie dye creation?

     But I fooled you. It was just the first layer and I have overdyed the batch to see what happens. Well, I suspected what would happen. And I was right.

     The deep colors I wanted for the next project. I also overdyed some snowdyed fabric which just didn’t turn out bright enough.

     Much better. Also, finished up the rest of the floss.

     It is freezing in the garage which is where I do all the mixing and rinsing. I think I am good on dyeing for awhile. Just needed a fix of color in January.

     I need to get ahead writing my posts and taking pictures. I use to love to blog at 7:30 am but it’s still dark out here until about 8:15.  So here I am at dinnertime :).

     Be creative, my friends!

Loving Color

     Maybe it’s just because it’s winter.

A few of my favorite hand dyed threads from this last batch.

 And against the starkness of the white snow, color is more appealing.

 Tray Dyeing with highly concentrated dyes on folded and pleated cotton. It was a happy mistake to not dilute my dyes but to just pour it on. Oops…

                                             
                                                       The Colors of Christmas
                                                                    28x 33
     I made this little piece at a workshop. Some people don’t finish workshop samplers. I do because I remember fondly my time there and it helps me to remember what I have learned. I like it better now that it has the added element of stitch. Stitch changes everything, doesn’t it? The colors are bright and bold. And that’s ok with me now. At the time I was comparing myself to others who were using subtler colors around me. Bold and bright is where I am at now. 
     Color is just beautiful and I am having fun celebrating it this week. 
Be creative, my friends! 

#2 in the L Series

     That is a really lame title. But my tired little brain can’t think of anything else. I was having sewing machine issues so went to newly bought -used machine-but that was having problems too! But my very dear local dealer replaced it with another used machine and this one is sewing just perfectly for me-at this minute. So I just can’t think of a catchy name for this series right now.

     I am continuing blocks with a “L” theme and this time I went much larger.

     The actual sewing together of this one was very challenging for me. Oh alright, that was a polite way of saying it was driving me crazy at one point yesterday. A construction nightmare. I haven’t done inset seams before. Just sewn by hand but not machine. Until this week. And I heard a very distinctive voice, say to a workshop participant this spring-“At this point you should be able to figure it out. I am not going to tell you how to sew it together. You have to find your own way.” Over and over, I repeated those words.:)

So.that is what I did.

Figured it out.  One seam and one piece at a time. I ripped it some seams out SEVERAL times until the top was done.

     And it’s not necessarily any wonder- design wise. But I just feel accomplished because I didn’t give up. Hand dyed fabrics look pretty outside, don’t they? It measures about 32 x 60 unquilted. How does it fit as part of this series? Well…I did follow the “L” motif but I should have played with my original easy design before I jumped into this one. Or maybe not. Maybe it’s an improvisational series.

     Next, I am moving back to machine quilting these last two pieces. I need to add finished pieces to my tally for 2010.

     Happy Sewing, my friends!