Dyeing Day Results

As promised, here are the photos of the fabric and threads I dyed yesterday.

First the three silk scarves ......

....... then the threads.......

.....then the scrim ......

....  and finally the fabric.

Dyeing Day

Had a great time this afternoon doing some dyeing.

I had some silk scarves I wanted to dye for a craft fair I have coming up soon so I gathered together some other fabric and threads so I could make good use of the dyes I was mixing.

I used mostly cotton but there was also some scrim and cotton perle.   I also included some paper 'thread' that I bought at the Knitting and Stitching Show a few years ago.  I'm not sure if I have dyed it before so I thought I'd give it a go and see how it came out.

Here are all the fabrics etc. washed and ready to go.

I also included a piece of fabric that I bought from Margaret Beal a few years ago although I had no idea what it is made from and whether it would dye.   Sadly, although it looked good as it came out of the dye bath, once it was washed, all the dye disappeared so it must be synthetic and no good for Procion dyes.

I think I bought it because the grid looked interesting.  It was only today that I notices it has little clear sequins knitted in to the fabric!

I space dyed the silk scarves in a tray and added a piece of cotton fabric in the bottom to add to my stash.

I went for blue, purple and magenta although the photo looks a bit brown in places!

The rest of the fabrics I intended dyeing using plastic bags but they have gone missing from the cupboard!   I therefore had to make use of anything else I could lay my hands on.   Thankfully I have several jugs that I use when dyeing so together with those, a bowl which I also use for dyeing and another couple of trays, I just about managed.  

The photos don't seem to look much but you should have seen the mess!   I really do appreciate how cleaner it is when dyeing in plastic bags so I must get some for next time.

Come back tomorrow and I will post photos of the finished fabrics.  They look good wet so let's hope they will look as good when they are dry!

Journal Quilts

Work on the Journal Quilts has continued with February and March finally being finished at the caravan at the beginning of April.   Inspiration for the next one was slow in coming but thankfully it came in time to get it finished and uploaded on the CQ Yahoo group with one day to spare.

The February quilt was inspired by a watermill which was beside the river in this section.   I took a wheel design, made a foam stamp and used it to print some green fabric.   I then cut it in strips and reassembled it to use for the land either side of the river course.  This area of the quilt was machine quilted with a wheel shape.   Once again the river was bonded and machine quilted.

For the March quilt, I used the contour lines from the OS map and cut shapes in two different green fabrics which were bonded another green background, leaving the river valley clear for bonding the course of the river.   I machine zig-zagged the edges of the cut pieces and machine quilted the river.

Finally for April I created a background fabric by bonding some cut rectangles and squares of various green fabrics to some fusible wadding, added some torn sections of the map and then covered it with some dyed scrim.   This I then machine quilted around the map sections, taking the quilted lines to the edges of the quilt.   I then hand stitched a torn segment of the OS map showing the river to the quilt using small stab stitches and highlighted the river with blue stitches.

 

More making and doing with Nanny

Much of April has been looking after our grandchildren, first Eloise and Samuel and then Hope.   As we were at the caravan most of the time was outdoors but there were a few times when we entertained inside with a bit of craft work.

I gave Eloise her first experience of using the sewing machine, making a patchwork pin cushion that was a giveaway on a magazine.   She had here foot on the pedal and managed to get the stitching fairly straight!   Sadly, no photos to mark the occasion.

We also had two sessions of decoupage, decorating a horse and a dinosaur with coloured papers.   They all managed very well without too much mess but thank goodness I purchased a PVC table cover for such occasions.

  

  

Make and Do with Nanny

Had a lovely time this morning making felt with my grandchildren, Eloise and Samuel.  As you can see from the photos, it's very serious business!

Eloise did something quite plain with the intention of adding some stitches to it once it is dry.

Samuel's had to have a dinosaur on it - everything revovles around dinosaurs with him!

   

 

  

 

 

 

    

    

 

 

 

 

 

South Downs National Park challenge - an update!

Following my last posting about "the boot" you may be surprised to hear that I did finish the boot and together with the quilt I came first in the Challenge.   There were only four entries but I felt rewarded for the time and effort that the two pieces took.

Thanks must go to my Thread and Shutter friends who were very positive about what I had done which spurred me on to get the boot finished and to add finishing touches to the quilt.

Around the front of the boot are the wild flowers that can be seen on the Downs but around the back is a reminder of the rubbish that can also be seen in some places along the many footpaths that cross the Downs.

On the quilt I added some stitches and buttons, again to represent the wild flowers often seen at the edges of fields.   I also used gesso to create a chalk path across part of the quilt, complete with foot prints.

The design for the quilted part of both pieces are based on the field patterns that can be seen all over the South Downs National Park and for these I used my own dyed fabric.

 

 

Front

Back



Journal Quilts 2014

After much deliberation I decided to once again take part in the Contemporary Quilt Group Journal Quilt Challenge.

This year the quilts have to be 8" x 8" and must have a line going from one edge to another.   I didn't want to just have a random line in each quilt, instead I wanted the line to show a journey over the twelve quilts.  With this in mind a explored a couple of ideas and in the end decided to show the course of the River Arun from source to sea.  The Arun is a river we often cross in the course of our travels and as frequent visitors to Littlehampton, we often sit beside the river, usually with ice cream in hand!

Armed with OS maps I plotted the course and then divided in into twelve sections hoping that there would be something in each section that would inspire the design.   This I will only find out as I go.

In the first section the river is crossed by the Downs Link footpath which, according to the county website, is bordered by wild flowers and butterflies.   This inspired a design of flower-shaped quilt blocks with butterfly quilting finished off with a 3D butterfly made using water soluble fabric and machine embroidery.   The river crosses the top of the quilt and this was appplied and quilted.  I used a combination of my own dyed fabric and commercial fabrics.

So far I have only completed this first one so have a bit of catching up to do.