Back to Dyeing

Back to Dyeing

The beginning of 2014 was incredibly busy for us; it included 4 quilt show vendor booths in Florida, Georgia and North Carolina, and a move to a new and smaller house. New house as in new-to-us, and a comfortable 1968 jem.

We haven't been able to dye much fabric so far, but this house came with the perfect dye set up!  I'm using the indoor dye room with a tile floor, back yard access, and deep sink while Bill has made himself and his "guy things" at home in the basement and shed.

We've produced about 40 yards of dyed fabric so far and the dye tubs are lined up as I write.   My favorite indigo dyes are below:

We're on a roll and preparing for our next show, the Alabama Quilt Symposium in Birmingham, Alabama (Hoover) June 4 - 7.    We hope to see you there!

Anita

Infinity Scarf with Valorie Wells Knits

 A couple of months ago my friend Mary Ann made a beautiful infinity scarf for me using Valorie Wells' and Free Spirit's "Wish" knit fabrics.   

Today Mary Ann made another scarf for me from this blue pattern.  Lots of infinity scarf patterns can be found online.  These are great for holiday gifts and only take about 1/2 hour to make!  Here's how she did it:

Cut a 9" x by 54" piece of knit fabric, then fold it in half, lengthwise, with right sides together.  

Leaving a 3" opening at the beginning and end, sew along the long edge of the scarf using a knit machine needle and a walking foot, if desired, to control the fabric.   Mary Ann used a 1/4" foot and a Universal needle for this easy-to-manage knit fabric.

Here's the trick:  put your hand in one end of the "tube" you've made and and bring the other end of the tube inside and back to where your hand is.  This will leave your ends with right sides together.    Match up the edges (like in the photo below) and sew that seam at the edge with a 1/4" seam.  Note:  There will still be an opening for turning.

Through the opening, turn your scarf right sides out.  It should look like this when you are done, with the scarf  shaped like a circle.

 Press the scarf so that it will lay nicely, and then stitch up the opening with needle and thread.

 Here's the finished product!    Isn't it beautiful on Mary Ann?   She made one for herself, too, and it's perfect with the outfit she's wearing today, yes?

Spray Basting a Quilt

This morning two of my beginner quiltmaking students came over to spray baste their quilt sandwiches on my spray basting wall.

It's so easy to do and so fast compared to any other basting method I've used before.  The method was developed by Patsy Thompson, machine quilting guru.  Here's a link to Patsy's wall spray basting technique:

Patsy Thompson

Lori and Stacy's quilts are lovely and they are both ready for machine quilting!

Cabarrus Quiltl Show

Come and visit us at the Cabarrus Quilt Show in Concord, NC this weekend if you're in the area.  Concord us just to the northeast of Charlotte.

http://www.cabarrusquiltersguild.org/Quilt_Show.html

The Jacksonville QuiltFest Show

The Jacksonville QuiltFest Show

We were first-time vendors at the Jacksonville QuiltFest Show this weekend.  It was the best quilt show I had seen in quite a while.  The quilts were of high quality with fine workmanship and there was a nice variety of quilt styles--traditional, modern, fiber art and miniature.

These were my favorites:

(The artist's name and quilt information is with each set of photos)

 This quilt was outstanding and it was my overall favorite of the show.  This piece did not win a ribbon, but a similar quilt by the same artist (shown at the bottom of this page) won a ribbon.

The owl wall hanging below was Bill's favorite piece and I loved it too.  The wings had, I believe, actual owl feathers.  Wonderful!

 

Patricia Styring's smaller quilt, below,  won a ribbon.  Her style is quite appealing and her quilts give the viewer plenty of eye candy to discover.

 Other favorites...

 

Beautiful Day!

It is such a beautiful morning that I grabbed a seat on the dock outside of Sewcial Studio to take in the cool breeze and listen to the birds.  It's a great way to start the day...

Ahh, Sewing

As a business woman I have crossed a line between working on Quick Books all the time and learning it enough to actually have some time to sew too!   Let's give a big hooray!