Rusty Nails

Wet PFD, vinegar and rusty nails and clips.

I spread out the nails and clips on the plastic.
Then covered it with the wet fabric. And then poured
some vinegar over the surface.

After one day.

I soaked the piece in salted water.

Hanging to dry.

The whole piece.

A friend of mine was inspired by a recent Quilting Daily post about a surface design Round Robin.  So she conned, er invited a bunch of us to participate.  I decided to start my piece with some rust dyeing.  I had done a trial of that a couple of summers ago.  Of course, I can't find the instructions that I used nor did google bring up the one that I used.  So after reading several other tutorials, I decided to try the vinegar method.  The previous time it used kosher salt.  I first wet thoroughly a half yard of PFD.  I spread out a piece of plastic (a used plastic birthday tablecloth from the dollar store).  I scattered a bunch of rusty nails and clips over the plastic.  I then layered the fabric over the rusty items, pressing down to make sure that it was touching as much as possible.  I doused the fabric with white vinegar.  I used the plastic tablecloth to cover up the fabric.  I didn't want it to dry out too fast.  I put some rocks on the corners, I had it outside so that the sun could keep it nice and warm.

I checked it that evening and it had dried out a bit, so I spritzed it with water and covered it up again.  The next day I checked it and it was still wet.  Later in the afternoon I decided it was dark enough.  I threw all the nails and clips into the bucket for the next time.  I rinsed out the fabric and then I put it to soak in a small bucket of salted water.  I did not measure the water or the salt.   I let it soak for several hours.  Then I rinsed it again and let it soak overnight in plain water.  Very little color was in the water in the morning.  The hanging to dry photo has a better view of the real color.

So now I will press it, put my initials in the corner and mail it off to the next person.  Our group likes to do the "no peeky" rule in round robins.  So I won't be able to show what I will do to everyone else's piece.

This is my Off the Wall post for this week.  Check out what everyone else is up to at Nina-Marie's blog.