Moving Right Along…

I was right about this new dye color called Curry.  It is phenomenal.  Shown here with streaks of Amethyst,  I love the rich golden “curry powder” color.

I still have more to iron…the ironing is constant when you dye a lot of fabrics.  When I wholesale my hand dyes, I leave out the ironing!  The buyer gets to do that.  But here are some results of Monday’s dyeing spree…

..with onesies to match…

The plan was to clean out the 5 onesies I had in my room that I planned on dyeing a long time ago and never did.  Instead, because  they were so cute and I have some events coming up I think I could sell them at, I purchased MORE!  We’ll learn shortly if this was a good idea or not.

Yesterday, I discharged the last of the black cotton sateen I had…the whole time I’m thinking, did I need any plain black cotton for anything? And I couldn’t think of a thing, so I discharged all of it.  Later, while soaking in the bathtub I remembered…I did need a fat quarter of black cotton to make a sample with.  This may not be a dilemma for those of you who live near a quilt shop or a Joann’s, but I live an hour from anywhere and I have just made my bi-monthly trip to anywhere with a fabric store and won’t be going back anytime soon.  Oh well…

Like the donut design?  That is from a pool noodle.  I cut slices of it and used it as a stamp.

Now off to do the rest of the things on my list. I might have a little fun today and make some more paper cloth….er..well…that’s not officially on my list.

Today’s Lot…

I am dyeing cotton yardage and onesies this morning. I got a new shipment of dyes last week, so now it’s time to try them out. I leave for the Indiana Heritage show in just a little over a week. It’s time to get all the loose ends tied up…what does that mean? For me, it’s dyeing fabric, discharging fabric, and maybe painting some sky fabrics too. It’s always hard to know how much to take anywhere. I guess one just works til the day they leave…and that’s about all you can do. All of my other products have arrived, so I’m good on that front.  I am checking things off my list.

Today I am testing Pro-Chem’s Curry color…I think I’m going to be in love.  :=) Any of the yellow gold muted type dyes are right up my  alley.  They always go well with all the other colors too…the plums, the blues, and amethyst type colors.  I have done some multi pieces and some parfait, which is basically the same thing, but done in a different way…and the results are somehwat different too.  Of course, these are batching right now, so there are no pictures to show you yet…except this one.

I went to Evansville on Saturday to shop, pick up my class sample from the class that didn’t make and meet a couple of artist friends for lunch.  I have this habit now of buying all the luscious colors of thread I can find when I get out there.  It’s weird, I used to be into the shiny Sulky rayon threads, and yeh, I might still use them for something,  but these days my heart has been captured by the colors of polyester that are out there…yummmm….I am so totally smitten…

Hmmm…now that I have them all out, it looks like I am low on oranges…

Discoveries…

I get plumb silly with myself when I make an exciting (to me anyway) discovery while I’m doing art. Remember this piece of paper cloth? It was the piece I did the tutorial on (see sidebar link).  I am finding this paper/cloth with metallic paint on it notoriously difficult to photograph.  It looks like blotches of paint when it really has a nice warm color all over it.

I decided to make a needle case today for a friend of mine out of this paper/cloth.  I layered it and quilted leaves and hearts on it.  As on the last one I made (see tutorial) I colored in the leaves with Tsukineko Fabrico marker #165 Pine.  The ink is transparent which is a wonderful asset because it doesn’t totally cover all those luscious designs on the papers below.  The heart quilting could barely be seen. Coloring them posed a greater challenge to me because the garnet and orange markers make a pretty solid look, which was not what I wanted. (To see what I mean, see the Tutorial–one of the needlecases has hearts that are painted with the marker and left to dry.) On a whim, I colored a heart with the Garnet #125  and Autumn Leaf #153, but instead of letting it dry, I smudged it with my finger…PERFECT!  I kept doing this to all of the hearts with both colors.  Results? A luscious look full of depth…and you can see the hearts but  they blend softly and don’t  stand out.  Something so simple…

I’m so pleased with how this turned out!

More Fun…

See this stencil?  This is from Crafter’s Workshop. I have a bunch of these coming in.  It is 6″ x 6″ and they are $4.  I took this stencil and metallic gold paint…

…and just for fun…I stenciled on a painted yellow dryer sheet…

The painted gold tyvek beads from yesterday looked SO plain…I had to do something else to them…

NOW they’re pretty….

Snow Dyeing…

There’s been so much talk about snow dyeing on the lists I belong to…perhaps it’s because there’s been so much snow!  I had to start dyeing this week for the show I am doing in March.  I wanted to wait for it to warm up a bit, but that wasn’t happenin’ so I cranked up the heater in the garage and got to work.  Since I had all the stuff out, and since there was snow on the ground, I decided to try my hand at snow dyeing.  I scrunched three yards up in a tub (my usual method of dyeing), picked up a bunch of snow and put on top (and it was very cold too), then poured three different dye colors on top.  I used greenish brown, bordeaux and a purple-y dye I found left over in my dye fridge. Here’s how it came out. All three yards look pretty much like this.  Interesting.

I used to be an x-ray tech, so basically some of the shapes in this fabric reminds me of  intestines…too much information?

Today’s Experiments…

I am preparing to vend at a quilt show…I really am…so I am doing some experiments with making Angelina beads today…and other kinds of beads…here are my results.

Clockwise from upper left:  painted Tyvek beads—the tyvek was painted first with green and metallic gold, then the strips cut and rolled, then heated a bit (the heat makes the colors darker); painted Tyvek beads–this time the tyvek strips were cut first, rolled around a skewer and then painted with gold metallic paint (I think I like painting the tyvek first, then making the beads); next is beads made from Angelina film—I crinkled the Angelina film, then rolled it on the skewer and heated, on one of them I cut up bits of fibers, heated it and rolled it (these are very sparkly and shiny which you can’t tell so much since I didn’t use a flash for the photo); the purple beads are made from layers of Angelina fibers, which, the more you heat them, the deeper the color gets; and the last beads are made from a sheet of fibers with gold crimped Angelina on it (that’s why it looks hairy), rolled, then heated a bit (could be heated more to control the hairs).

It’s been fun! Now to find something to use these on.

A New Week…

It’s Monday.  SuperBowl is over. Yeh. I haven’t been doing all that much and I don’t really know all that much either.  I am in the process of reading Art and Fear, a present from my friend, Robin Koehler.  You can tell I’m reading it because I posted a quote I liked from it in my sidebar.  I have also been perusing the new Quilting Arts and the recent Cloth Paper Scissors magazines.

I guess the reason I don’t have much to report is because I am doing all the “boring” stuff, since I am preparing to vend at the Indiana Heritage Quilt Show in Bloomington, IN.  This requires thinking and planning.  I do well to write notes to myself on a piece of paper about what I’m thinking, let along write it on a blog.  You probably wouldn’t want to read about it anyway. Planning what to stock and placing the orders…see it’s the boring stuff.

But this week I plan on dyeing some fabrics.  Even though it’s still cold here, I am going to crank up the heater in the garage because I just can’t wait til it warms up.  When I have a free week, I need to get cracking on dyeing.  I guess there’s enough snow here, I could try snow dyeing.  It seems to be all the rage right now on the quiltart list.  And we are supposed to get more this week…

Today…

I had to go to town today to pick up election supplies.  I am an election judge and will be serving Illinois voters tomorrow all day for the primary elections in.  It’s a long day, but worth it being part of the process and seeing how it works.

I made a pot of chili for tomorrow.  This recipe is from the CrockPot Blog that I joined on FB.  It’s excellent with cumin, garlic, chili powder, oregano, and a bit of red pepper.  The weather has warmed up here to about 35 degrees and the snow is melting…all that wonderful 3-5 inches we got this past weekend.  Now I have to get some handwork ready to take with me…it will be a long day and probably slow since it is a primary, so to stay awake, I must have something to do and reading makes me sleepy!

To everyone living in Illinois:

Vote February 2

It’s a privilege AND a duty.

I guess the only picture I have for today is FOOD!