Hand Dyes are Heaven

Here's an excellent reason to learn how to hand-dye fabric... I have about 10" x 43" of sky in the quilt I'm currently working on. It all has to be basically the same color, but there has to be a minute difference between the fabrics in order for the string piecing to look good. Because I was able to hand-dye my fabrics, I have five shades in various gradations of the color I need. Is that cool or what?!

If you haven't tried "low-water immersion dyeing", it's fabulous...very little water is needed--3 cups total per yard of fabric, and no salt is needed. Ann Johnston's book , Color by Accident, is a wonderful resource for this type of dyeing. It takes some water to rinse the fabric out later, but I rinse a few times with a tub of water in my deep sink then toss it into the washer for three quick rinse-and-spins. Then a final washing with hot water and Synthrapol is all that's needed when I do it. ***In case you're wondering, we have a high-efficiency (low water use) washing machine, and it's plenty of water for rinsing these fabrics.

Be sure to follow ALL safety recommendations with MX dyes.

Gotta get back to it.

WTYL

Anita

Darrell's wall hangings

Before mailing Darrell's Birthday gift wall hangings to him, I decided to seal the edges with a peweter colored Lumiere paint. I laid down a thick line of the paint on pallet paper and dragged the edges of his two fused pieces through the paint. It gave the edges a nice finished look and it will keep the fabric from fraying in the future.

This week...

We got a call on Tuesday evening from our soldier son, Bryan, saying that he had just arrived back in Germany after fifteen months in Afghanistan! We were quite relieved after months of concern for his safety.

This week I dropped off my two entries for the Asheville (NC) Quilt Show. One of them has the 14" x 16" photo of Bryan in it with the quilt built around it, and the other is a Quilt of Valor which will go to an injured soldier. I was hoping to have a Quilt of Valor Foundation booth at the quilt show, but there's no space for another booth. Instead we'll have informational flyers and hopefully my quilt will draw some attention to the Foundation. The show is held at the Arboretum Aug. 1-3, 2008 and is a wonderful show. Y'all come on by!

July 23rd is our older son Darrell's 25th Birthday, so I've been finishing up a couple of fiber art pieces for him in his favorite black and gray color scheme. These are pieces #1 and #2 in my Industrial Series. Hopefully they'll look good in his new apartment. The piece on the right in the photo is unfinished, but like the one on the left, it will be fused to a fabric backing and have a small sleeve fused to it. The fusing makes the fabric stiff enough to hang well. The piece has a contemporary look without a border, and unless it's necessary, there will be no edge treatment either.

Off to work now... WTYL

Anita

Today's Demo Class

We had a good time today at the demo at the Dragonfly Quilt Shop. I taught six ladies how to use several kinds of paint and a handful of methods to alter their black & white and white on white fabrics for quiltmaking. If felt like an afternoon at camp...we all had paint on us somewhere and we all had a good time.

This black and white sample is my favorite. It has crystals fused to it and Lumiere painted accents.

Working on a demo

This week I've been working on a quite a few projects. One of them is a demo for the Dragonfly Quilt Shop, Watkinsville, GA on Saturday where I'll show some ways to use and alter black and white fabrics and white on white fabrics. It's been fun discovering how many ways we can change the look of what is essentially a "blank page".

I'm nearly finished my second quilt that will go into the Asheville Quilt Show (Aug. 1-3) "Piece for Peace", but there's no peeking at that one yet. Here's a picture of the label that I'll apply before dropping off the quilts next week.

Yesterday I had a wonderful lunch and sewing time with my friend Frances who is a prolific and talented quiltmaker. Frances will be speaking at the Lake Oconee Quilters Guild in September at their regular meeting, so if you're in the area, stop by to see her amazing program.

Time to start sewing again. WTYL

Anita

Visiting Sanford Stadium at UGA

This isn't the usual type of post for me, but we've been living in Athens, Georgia for one year as of tomorrow. We love it here and have been fascinated with the University of Georgia's Sanford Stadium (it holds 94,000 people!) but had never seen more than the back side of it from the street. This evening we drove all the way around the thing before we found a way to actually get close to it. Here is my husband, Bill, as we admired it from "the bridge" behind the scoreboard.

Happy 4th of July everyone! Don't forget about out soldiers. Our soldier, Bry, will be out of the war zone before long.

Anita