Snow Dyeing

 On Monday we had a foot of snow! Great fun! Time for snow dyeing!  I thought I would write up a little demo on how I do my snow dyeing.

I start off with Prepared for Dyeing (PFD) fabric. I have several bolts of Moda's version, but any brand will do. I tear my fabric into either yard or half yard pieces.

Soda Ash Bucket

Next it goes into the soda ash bucket. I let it soak for 10-15 minutes, making sure that it is fully saturated. I use an old wooden spaghetti fork to stir it around and to push it down into the liquid. *NOTE*when ever you use any kitchen tools in the dyeing studio, they can never go home to the kitchen!

Out of the bucket

Using gloves, I wring out the pieces and toss them into a plastic wash tub.

Mixing dyes

While the fabric is soaking, I will mix up dyes if I need more than I already have mixed up. I spread out a dampened mop up cloth to catch any stray powder. ALWAYS wear a mask when handling powder dyes.

Ready to go

Ready for snow

I have been playing with twisting some of my fabrics. In the wash tubs I try to spread out the fabric as much as possible. In the round ice cream buckets I played with some twists and accordion folds.

Snowed!

I then dump a bunch of snow on top of the fabric. In the past I have crammed it full of snow. This time I was testing just making sure that there was a decent layer of snow on the fabric.

Dyed

I pour the liquid dye over the snow in various patterns. I found out last year that some colors will meld and make brown! LOL! So this year I am trying out dyeing with complimentary colors.

All the dyed snow

I do this in the afternoon and let the snow melt overnight. I guess you could do it in the morning and rinse out in the evening. Whatever works for your schedule.

Melted snow

I love to see what dyes look like after the snow melts! Even though you think you know what you are getting, it is never quite what you expect.

Rinsing

I rinse out all the pieces.  I then toss them into a big bucket of clean water and let them stew for a bit. Then another quick rinse and into the washer.

Synthrapol

I wash the batch with Synthrapol. It helps set the dyes.

Brown, terra cotta and a bit of purple

I am trying to dye a background for a flower quilt. I have had several attempts that didn't quite turn out the way I wanted it to. Love this piece, but I am not sure that it is right for my flower.

blues

I may go back and over dye the light area

Pleated twist

I took quick photographs of the finished fabrics out in the snow. Some of the photos look a bit on the blue side.

Another twist

I may go back and over dye the light areas on this piece. I am really happy with the way the twist turned out.

Navy, forest green and yellow

Another folded one

This piece looks great in person. I folded it in half and then accordion folded it. I swirled it into the round bucket.

Another accordion fold,.

My favorites

These last two are much brighter in person. I love the bottom one the best of all this batch.

This is my off the wall and finished Friday post for this week.

Finally finished a project that should have been years ago

Years ago I conned,er um, talked a group of friends into a 12 x12 project. We each chose one word and then every other month I drew one out and everyone was supposed to make a 12 x12 art quilt piece inspired by that word. More friends wanted to join in. Others dropped out. I believe that only about 3 of us completed all of the words. I myself was missing 3 or 4 words. Recently I was thinking that I should go back and complete the set.  The last couple of years I have been in a knitting group with a couple of women in a neighboring town. We meet for coffee and chatting every couple of weeks. 

One of my missed words was Joy. Well, one of my coffee/knitting buddies is named Joy! Both she and Karen spin yarn. Joy has been spinning for a long time and it is a joy to her. Since her birthday is this week I decided to do a 12x12 in her honor. Joy's Joy.

Joy spinning on her wheel

I took photographs of Joy and Karen spinning one meeting. I am looking to get a wheel some day and it was a good excuse to ask questions and compare their wheels. While at the same time getting a photograph to base my quilt on.

It is all about the twist

In spinning, it is all about the twist! So I quilted twist into the background.

My pattern

I printed out the photograph in black and white. Then I traced the outline of the wheel. I fused some fabric and used the outline to cut out the shape of the wheel.

The spinning wheel

I used stitching lines to enhance the shape of the wheel.

Joy's Joy

I used a bit of my own yarn that I had spun on a spindle to put on the bobbin. I left a tail of fiber and then quilted Joy into the background. Karen's husband is a wonderful woodworker and made a hanging stick to go along with it. Joy was so surprised when she saw this!

I know that I still need to do Frog and Road.  I need to double check my list and see what others I am missing.

I am linking to Off the wall, TGIFF, and Finished Friday.

Sometimes you just have to take it as a win.

The days seem to be flying by this month. All I can claim that I finished this week is doing my entries for the Quilter's Blogger Festival that Amy puts on every year. I have entered my Karin  quilt in the original design category. And my Bark in the Art category.


Earlier in the week I went up North (as the locals say). I got to go to the pumpkin patch with my son and his family!  Then I got to play with my granddaughter and daughter. I also went to a luncheon and then went to my friend's house to play with her silhouette machine.  She cut maple leaves for me earlier this year. I want to do an art piece featuring Aspens.

Fancy pants cutting machine

Aspen leaves

Lisa traced a real aspen leaf and then filled the page with a variety of leaves in different sizes.

Gotta save the scraps!

This will be interesting to see how it turns out.

This is my off the wall and finished Friday post for the week.

Blogger's Quilt Festival 2015 Original Design

Karin

For my second entry in Amy's Blogger's Quilt Festival I am entering the quilt I designed and made for my cousin's daughter, Karin. I did a similar quilt for her twin sister, Caitlin, featured below.

Caitlin

They are similar in design, and I varied the placement of values.

Blogger's Quilt Festival Autumn 2015 Art Quilt

Bark

I am entering the Blogger's Quilt Festival sponsored by Amy of Amy's Creative side. This is my Art Quilt entry.

New sewing space

I am moving my sewing studio to a smaller room.  My old space is filled to the gills, so purging is required to help with the transition. I brought my beloved featherweight with me. I also brought an ironing mat and cutting equipment. What else do you need? Yeah, a closet full of fabric. Well, that will happen, still need to sort and pack.

My temporary sewing station

I did bring along 3 in process projects so that I could sew. First up is my leader project. Long before I ever heard of Bonnie Hunter, I always kept a second project next to my machine to use as "leaders" so as not to waste thread or worry about getting the starting threads all messed up. This evolved into my little box of inch and a half squares. I cut up all my scraps into as large a square or strip that I can get out of the piece. The inch and a half squares go into a little silver box. I run two squares through the machine in between my chain piecing. Then continue on to make little nine-patches.

Silver box and in progress nine-patch

They work up quickly without even trying. I have had this going on for over 10 years now. I always intended to pair these little blocks up with 3-1/2" squares and make double nine-patches.

Double Nine-patches!

It was fun to sew in my new room! Hopefully next time I will remember to take a photograph of the gorgeous view outside my window.

This is my off the wall  and finished Friday (not that I really finished anything, rather STARTED sewing in my new room!)

My purge of the sewing room continues. Coupon code good for 10% any $10 or more purchase.OOOPS! So sorry, I forgot to post the code!  BBLOG10

Vintage craft books and magazines

Craft books and magazines

Various craft supplies

My hand dyed fabric

Thanks for helping me pare down my supplies so that I can fit into my new sewing room!

Almost done!

I sorta finished a quilt! It just needs the binding tacked down on the back. And I missed on line of quilting. Didn't notice that until I was sewing the binding on. This is made all of flannel. It is for our new grandchild who is expected to arrive sometime the end of January.

Baby quilt

We had a storm roll in last night. It has been off and on all day. We can use the rain, but I can do without the wind.

Sunrise color

Afternoon clouds

Last weekend we took the ATV's up the mountain to check out the fall colors.

On the way up

Little waterfall off the side of the road

I love little bonuses like a waterfall that we had not noticed before!

Aspen

A lot of the Aspen are showing signs of red this year. I heard that it happens when there has been several years of low water.

One of my favorite trees!

This is my inspiration shot! I am going to do a piece on Aspen trees and leaves. I have a friend who is going to help me with the leaves. 

This is my off the wall post and my Finished Friday post.