And so it ends

I'm always sad when summer ends.

I had fun this past summer playing

with fabric on my deck.

Experimenting yet again with different

techniques and some old ones.

I did the stitched shibori which I

always love.

 

I used  Setacolor transparent paints

on "Cotton Classic" - bought at JoAnns

love the results of this piece! And

the hand of the fabric is soft.

And then I tried using a stencil to

make a sun print. I don't think that

I ever tried that before.

 I used Setacolor opaque Fig (color)

now I read somewhere that opaque will

not make a sun print - go figure. But

I did blend transparent Fuchsia with

it and maybe that's why it worked..?

Experimenting is half the fun!

I also tried Komasu Shibori 

I added borders around the squares.

I don't like the colors that I chose

for this one but I like the technique

and will try it again.

These a just a few that I did. 

What I wanted to try is to --- just

out of curiosity -- to make a historical

block using my dyed fabrics.

One block that I love is Broken Dishes.

It's easy and made out of half square

triangles .... but look

 it's an illusion. You can see

pin wheels - then a star - or just

boxes. I love this pattern!

 I used cotton and also my cotton 

sateen. It's hand quilted with cotton

thread and batting. I had no problem

stitching through the layers. It 

measures 12" x 12" - a small mat. I'm

going to try this one again with different

colors.

Another old one

Bachelors Puzzle - Only cottons

no sateen. Also hand stitched with

no problems.  These were made with

my leftover scraps.

I can't wait to try a few more!

The Garden ---->

Wild Onion - Allium canadense

I pull these out every year - they

grow all over the place. But I left

2 plants in because the  insects

just love them!

So, I didn't have the heart to pull

them out.

Even the Cucumber Beetle

This is what I will miss when the

cold weather comes. 

Happy Quilting!

Smell the Roses

I am taking a blog break - to take time out and 

smell the roses.

In the meantime, feel free to look around and I 
hope that I inspired you in some small way.

 

Eco Dyed - Onion Skins

As I wrote in my previous post -

I'm looking through the  fabric that 

I had echoed dyed back in 2010 - 2011.


The onion skins - The fabric turned

out (for me) like a mustard gold.

At first I had thought that it was

the tea dyed fabric but I did label

the fabrics and it was the onion skins.

I washed and ironed it and it still

held it's color!

Onion skin fabric purse

 Of course I just had to make a purse

out of it.  The lining inside the 

purse is the tea dyed - the outter

the Onion skins. You can definitely

see the difference in the colors.

Front of the purse - For sale in my Etsy Shop

 I hand embroidered some flowers

going to seed (i think) - with lots

and lots of French knots.

I'm very happy with the way that

it turned out. 

A couple of more pieces to go through

and I'll see what I can come up with

next. 

-------------

My daughter bought a new DSLR camera 

so.... she gave me her Sony! I have been 

using my Kodak point n shoot for the past

couple of years - it served me well!

Iris

 Now I have to learn more about

DSLR cameras. I took the Iris photo

with the Sony and didn't have to go

to photoshop to play with it. It 

created a very nice DOF (depth of

field) and it has more clarity and

sharpness than my Kodak. 

I can't wait to play some more!

Quilting, Dyeing, and 

Photography - oh my!

 


 

Dyeing Naturally - Pomegranate & Beans

As I am continually going through

my stash; I find the urge to try

more echo dyed (naturally dyed) 

experiments.

It started with the Pomegranate

fabric that dyed back in 2010.

Which baffled the heck out me!

There were spots all over the 

fabric - I wrote about it here

It was one of my first experiments

and I promised myself to be more

precise and careful to take better

notes with other experiments.

I made a small purse out of that

fabric 

What I'm most concerned about is

the durability of the fabric color -

in other words the light fastness of

the colors over a period of time.

Will the colors fade or change over

a period of time.

The Pomegranate piece seems to have

not changed at all in 4 years. Good!

It was rewashed and ironed and still

stayed the same. I'll test other

pieces in the future.

But the one that really fascinated me

is the Black Beans - who knew? I

found a photo on Pinterest and thought

that I would try it. The color is 

supposed to turn out a pretty blue -

But it was on Wool yarn.

 I googled and found a couple of 

blogs describing how to dye with 

beans and followed the instructions

but my first batch came out a tannish

brown! boooo  Not what I was looking

for! I also found that a lot of

bloggers had different results.

Which made me think that there are

a lot of variables. 

The batch above - cotton fabric

soaked in alum and rinsed. 

Soaked beans for 12 hours and 

drained in another container and 

put the fabric in to soak - which

is what I read and it didn't work.

I'm using Goya brand beans and my

tap water which is hard water.

so .....

I used bottled water (Deer Park) in this

experiment and soaked the cotton fabric

first in vinegar. 

I didn't wait 12 hours; I put the fabric

in immediately and put the beans on top.

It worked better this way for me...Yes!

It does have the marks of the beans

but that's what I want to do - mark

fabric naturally!  It was drying 

in the sun. 

I washed the fabric and ironed it 

and it faded a little and changed colors. 

I was disappointed....

The top part is bluish and the bottom

is purplish ??

A couple of bloggers found that the 

beans are light sensitive. 

Anyway, I left the beans in the spring

water for 2 days and then added another

piece of fabric and DMC cotton thread..

all untreated (no alum or vinegar)

 As I read that the beans were

light sensitive; I decided to scrunch

the fabric and let it dry in the sun.

I like it! But the color is a greyish

purple (I don't think that the camera

picked up the colors that I see in person)

Like I said previously, there are too

many variables to the beans - so I

bought 2 more bags to try again.

The only black beans that I found so

far in stores around here are the Goya.

Happy quilting and dyeing!

 

Eco Dyed and Imperfections

I had Eco dyed some fabrics 

back in 2010; washed and Ironed

them and put them away.

I did this to see if over time

the fabric would fade or stay

the same.

And they did! They were just

the same.

So, I chose the tea dyed with maple

leaves which I wrote about 

Here 


I decided to make myself a small

bag - to experiment design, hand 

embroidered stitches and also add

some machine decorative stitches.

I also used a piece of my shibori fabric

that resembled tree bark.


 From a distance, it doesn't look

too bad.  (although I think that the length should be longer)

What frustrated me the most is that

I should have been paying more attention

when adding the decorative stitches.

The line of the stitches is off at

one point about 1/8 of an inch! 

 And again a little further on. Grrrr

I even steamed and ironed the seam

before sewing to make sure that this

wouldn't happen!  

We learn from our mistakes - I'll try

again. 

I was so angry at myself and kept

saying "it's not perfect!" 

So I grabbed my camera and went

for a walk in my back yard.

I discovered "Imperfections" learning

to live with them.

 

Feeling a little Out of Focus

 

 

 like your banging against a brick wall?

 Broken

Rotten

 

 

Cracked

 

 

Imperfect

Pick yourself up,
Take a deep breath,
Dust yourself off.
And start all over again

Pouchettes - Hand dyed shibori fabric

I have been dyeing fabric for a couple

of years now and have accumulated 

another stash! 

I've made several hand bags out of some

of the fabrics and they all sold out in

my Etsy shop last year.  So I decided to start 

making more of them. 

A Small Clutch

 I love this one in greys! It's made from a piece

of my hand dyed greys and the middle piece

is from one of my shibori pieces.

I'm having such fun making them as I am

making them intuitively - which I love doing!

What I mean is that I am working with a

purse pattern but the overall design is 

intuitively pieced.   

The fabrics are laid out on the table and then

the selection begins. That's the fun part!

These little bags are light and great when 

you just need to carry your essentials - money,

cards, keys and phone. 

I take one with me shopping when I don't want

to carry a heavy hand bag all around with me.

This should keep me busy for quite awhile!

Happy Quilting!
 

Stash Busting 2 - Strip Quilts

I'm making progress using some of my

stash! 

I was thinking what patterns I could make

to use up some of the purple fabrics that

I had. 

I saw a strip quilt on Pinterest and decided

to try one. 

I used some out of print fabrics that I was

saving for what - I don't know....?  It felt

good to finally use them.

 The back is one solid piece of purple polka dots.

For the quilting; I used channel straight line 

with my walking foot. 

This measures about 37" x 39".

I had so much fun (and a lot of left over fabric)

that I decided to make another one.

 # 2 - I added more purples and a piece

of my hand dyed fabric in blue. And also

some of the purple polka dot fabric left over

from the back of #1.  As a matter of fact -

that middle row with all of the different

rectangles is a cut off of #1 also. 

 Channel straight line quilting on this one

also. But I had no backing - so I had to break

down and buy some. 

 Pretty in purples chevron pattern - gives

it a very modern look. 

This one measures about 34" x 40".

These were fun and they're easy to make

and use up some of your stash.

I've also collected 2 more bags to donate.

Spring cleaning!   I have one more bin

to go through.

*********************

I took a walk in the back of my yard -

since all of the snow had melted - Yay!

And spotted these pretty little crocus shooting

up.

 I walked further down by the little creek

and peeked in  at the bottom of the tree

and saw some strange fungi growing.

And then further down I couldn't believe

my eyes.

 My Neighbors - tree limbs all over the place

from the storm that we had. What a mess!

But you know I was thinking that better

down there than close to the house like

I had. It was one terrible winter all over.

I have to thank my son for sawing and 

taking away all of the fallen limbs. 

Happy Quilting!