Important Dyeing Info, Inspiration Pictures, and August Giveaway

First and most importantly is the dyeing information. I was so disappointed when I experienced a major color loss of some hand dyed sheets. They had been properly processed, or so I thought. They'd also been washed several times. They looked like this, the colors were very saturated and we loved them. 

Well they didn't stay that way. About two months later, and many washings, the top sheet decided to 'go pale'!  So, I've been trying to figure this one out. I ended up asking Candy Glendenning, from Candied Fabrics, if she had any thoughts on the subject. In her response she pointed me over to Vicki Welsh's blog and the extensive experimenting and post about a similar situation. The address for this is  as follows.  

http://vickiwelsh.typepad.com/field_trips_in_fiber/2014/01/bleeding-quilts-please-read-this.html

Rather than me going into the whole process, I will let you read it and decide for yourself if you will change anything in your dyeing methods. I am going to do an experiment with previously dyed fabrics and all of the sheet sets that I did recently. I'll keep you posted on how things work out. 

Now for the INSPIRATION. Here are some pictures taken on Folly Beach, SC at sunrise. First my recent art quilt. I'm inspired to make another one with quite a bit of color change. 

Aren't those incredible colors? And it really did look like this. The wet sand radiated with the orange glow from the sunrise. We were standing on the pier, it was breathtaking!

And just a reminder about this month's GIVEAWAY ! The studio has too much in it, and things are going to find some new homes! Trims, buttons, commercial cloth, hand dyed cloth, etc etc etc. 

Post a comment to be entered. The winner(s?) will be chosen September 1, 2015. Best of luck to all. 

And if you share about those creative things you like to do, the package will be more in tune with your activities. 

May God bless the work of your hands,

Luann

TA DA

Yesterday's post ended with this piece of fabric in a quart sized canning jar. 

All washed out and pressed! 40" only shrunk to 39 1/2" yeah!!

And for some close up shots. 

I read about this method in the Fall 1995 issue of American Quilter. The article was written by Vimala McClure. Here is what the lead page of the article looked like. 

It was the top picture of the "batching" fabric in jelly jars that first caught my attention. The rest, as they say, is history! It's definitely a part of MY story. If you have any questions about this method, leave a comment and I will try to answer quickly. 

And King Tut thread, by Superior Threads, to use with my longarm machine. Arriving any day!📦🚚

I am such a happy camper. 😎🚎

The Lord has blessed me greatly. May He also bless you with people that make your heart sing. 

Remember to create a little something every day. 

Luann

Giving Myself A Headache

I don't know why but it seems that sometimes I just give myself a headache.

Early this morning I was up and rinsing out fabric I dyed yesterday. I had used varying colors on 20 oversized fat-quarters. Most of them turned out just as planned but there are always a few that surprise me. And I have gotten to a level in my dyeing adventures that I document the 'lesson learned' when these nuances happen. One of today's notes was that Strong Navy will pretty much take up every fiber molecule it can touch and other colors will only have a stand if put on the fabric first, allowed to absorb for a substantial amount of time, then add the Strong Navy dye stock.

So, let's get to the headache of the day. After getting everything thru the final wash, rinse, dry, and pressed sequence, this is what they looked like.

I then realized that I didn't have any samples of a new 'black' dye I had gotten a few months back. I also wanted to put a 1 yard piece of fabric into a quart size canning jar and do my low water immersion method of turning the container upside down every 20 minutes for the first two hours. This is a take off from an article I had read many years ago. I used fat quarters and jelly jars at that time. So, I snipped my fabric at the 40" length, tore it across, placed it into my soda ash solution and off the the studio to mix up 1 cup of dye stock. I don't know why but I just could not wrap my head around how to find the grams for weighing out my dye powder. I could find the oz measure on my scale but the gram icon was eluding me. But the strangest thing was that where the g for gram should have been, was this weird squiggle mark. Well, I spend considerable time figuring out just how much in ounces 5 grams is. Made my dye stock, put it into the jar, squeezed out the soda ash solution, and then pushed the fabric into the jar. I spent the next 2 hours flipping the thing. 

The quart jar is now sitting on the window sill waiting for tomorrow. That's when I will do the warm water rinse, ice water soak, hot water soak, and then into the washer with the hopes that just one time through a hot water wash, and two cold water rinses will take care of all excess dye. There really shouldn't be much excess as I used the amount that 1 yard of my fabric should need for the proper depth of color I was going for. But, tomorrow will show me it worked, or what I need to adjust.

Oh, about the HEADACHE, that squiggly line that was where the gr belonged, it IS a lower case g. 

Funny how not having that r after the g made me think it wasn't what I needed. Like I said, Sometimes I give myself a headache!

May God bless you common sense to look closely when you think something isn't as it should be,

Luann

Composition Book Cover

I started this project a while back and knew that when it was finished I would know who it was to be given to. This is the front cover. 

And the inside front flap. 

And a closeup of my go to decorative stitch. 

This was made from various pieces of my hand dyed fabrics. I decided to not embellish the cover. Trying to write in a journal with a lot of embellishments can be challenging.  So, simple construction with the ability to change out a filled journal was what I wanted to accomplish. I like how it turned out and I'll share my process if you want. Just leave a comment or send me an email. 

May God bless you with a pleasant day,

Luann

And the winner of the hand dyed fabric is,,,,

Congratulations EVERYONE! 

Each and everyone of you that posted will be receiving hand dyed fabric from me!!  All you need to do is send your name and address to me via email.  Luann.fischer@icloud.com  I will try to get these posted by Friday. 

And,,, if a particular piece has caught your eye, let me know. That piece may be gone but I probably have something similar. Or, it could be the reason I use to have another day of dyeing.  

And a few more pictures of "dye candy".  LOL

Well, enough for now. Looking forward to sharing with those of you who took the time to post. 

And I may just need to do this again! Last week's lesson was a lightning storm in the clouds and this week we are onto "earth" in all it's splendor. 

May God Bless each of you,

Luann

Blueberries by the Quarts and More Hand Dyes

This morning we traveled to the MIL's house to pick some berries. We now have 16 pint sized bags in the freezer. And some for fresh eating now,

Next on the my 'activities for the day' was to press the 12 pieces that had been dyed a few days back. This is actually my favorite part of dyeing. I've said it before, it's so exciting and calming at the same time! I really enjoy watching the patterning that comes to life as the steam iron glides across the fabric. If I ever figure out how to do a very short video for my blog, that will probably be the first. And it would only be aimed at the ironing board, so you could watch the magic take place. I'm sure there is actually a scientific term and reason this happens. I just know I like the magic of it. 

And a few close ups of interesting textures that appear as the iron moves across,,

In the first image of the hand dyes, those four pieces on the left keep drawing my attention. What do they look like to you? 

Leave a comment and I'll add your name into the giveaway. Look back a couple of days to see the post about it. 

Please be sure to check on Monday for the winner.

Let's Create Today,

Luann

Challenge Due March 1st

I have a challenge piece due March 1st. It is with the Just Use It group on Stitchinfingers.ning.com

The challenge is to take a piece that I rec'd from one of the swapping members and "frame" it. Now it doesn't mean it needs to be conventionally matted and framed, just "framed" in some way. We are doing these to encourage one another to use, not just collect, all the lovely pieces rec'd over each year. I think I received over 100 pieces during 2014. 

It wasn't easy to chose which one to work on first, but Hazel's wisteria piece won. 

It was done on a white damask napkin. I totally loved it, but the white was too stark for what I wanted to do with it. I used some weak dye solutions and a method that Ellen Anne Eddy taught for coloring the background. The lace insert pieces on the left don't show their color very well, but they were done at the same time. 

I know where I want to take this, I'm just not settled on my method yet. I will keep you posted. 

So,

Let's Create Today!

Luann