Dyeing Day Reveal - You Win Some, You Lose Some!

This is one of the more successful pieces I thought.  It is from the second batch.
























Some were more of a success than others!!  The highly concentrated dyes do work pretty well though as I got some very very dark pieces.  This is from bin 1 which was the mixing red, sun yellow and intense blue.  Hardly any of the blue took and the yellow mingled far to much with the mixing red.  Definitely meh...

This and the next three pictures are of the batches before I washed them.

Some of these worked better than others.  I used strongest red, navy blue and lemon yellow I believe in this one.  My drop cloths were great from here.

These were the very poorest of the group.  I think I used intense blue, strong red and lemon yellow in this one.  Very pale.  Blues didn't take well at all.

This was again the navy, mixing red (I think) and sun yellow.

 This and the next three pieces are my "drop cloths" which I thought were the most successful pieces of the bunch!  Lots of color even on the ones were the Intense Blue failed.  I think this one was from batch 2.

I think this was from batch 4.  Up close they are even nicer I think!

This is from the first batch and you can see the intense blue didn't take at all.

 I think this is either batch 2 or 4.

I am pretty sure this is from batch 4.

This was one from probably batch 4 that was all curled up on its side.  That is why it is slightly uneven at the top.

This is either from batch 1 or 4.  Also one that was rolled up fat quarter.

This was again either 1 or 4.

This was a fat  half definitely from the first batch.

Also a fat half in batch 1.

This and the other striped piece were in the second batch and used navy which took well.

 This was from the second batch and I think it may not be a pfd fabric.  I had some random fabric that I folded and this may have been a high thread count muslin which dyes pretty well.

At least I think I have figured out how to fold to get the complex mandalas.

This and the previous one were definitely in that second batch.

I think this was my favorite of the bunch also from the second batch.

Last but not least, not sure which batch this one was in.

This was quite a large piece in the 4th batch.  I think again that this was not pfd fabric.

This is the only one of the smaller mandalas that I cared for.

This is one of the poor ones -- again non-pfd compounded by the poor combination of colors in batch 3.  You will notice I haven't showed much from batch 3!!  Figured I had to show one of the failures!

A Dyeing Day

Well, I am trying something different this time!!  I am going to use high concentration liquid dyes this time instead of just spreading powder around.  It is the technique that Cindy Lohbeck uses although I certainly don't know all her tricks and how much to use to get the effect that she does on her beautiful, beautiful pieces!!  I have done all sorts of folds and am putting more pieces on their side like I do the t-shirts.  I also fan folded a lot of pieces although the largest was a fat half yard as I really have trouble getting the fan folds nice an even on anything larger.  We shall see.  I am also only going to use blues, reds and yellows so we shall see!  I did a little bit of tying as well but nothing really tight as I really don't care for the white spaces that tie dyers get!

I will be using 6 tbsps of dye per 2 cups of urea water -- pretty intense as Ann Johnston does 1 tbsp per cup for the darkest shades.  1 tbsp is equivalent to about 15 grams of dye.  The ice will of course dilute the effect a bit but I do want the color to go all the way through everything.  I will be putting my usual "drop" cloths underneath all these folded pieces.  

This was the first of the folds.  It was fat halves which were soaked in soda ash after being folded into 8ths.  The two small pieces on the side ended up in the middle as the ice kept falling off.  The long fat halves were scrunched up so they would fit.  There is a drop cloth on the grate underneath.  I didn't put one on top like I usually do as I figured liquid dyes would not have the spotting that you get with the dye powders.  Below is the same bunch after putting the liquid dye on and then about an hour later.  The temp outside was about 65 but the pieces ended up in the sun and the ice was melted by late afternoon.

This was the same one pretty soon after applying the liquid dyes.  I only worked with primaries today.  This was mixing red, intense blue and sun yellow applied in stripes across.

 This was after an hour.

These and the next two were the second bunch.  These were all either mandalas on edge with many edges exposed or fat quarters pleated.  I used strongest red, lemon yellow and intense blue I believe on this bunch.

This was group three which was mostly my traditional mandalas in different sizes with one odd one on the bottom.

This was the fourth bunch which had a very wide folded fabric and a bunch of smaller pieces squeezed on.

Tomorrow will be the unveiling!  I will post what they looked like sitting in their boxes without any ice (they are sitting in my driveway overnight) and hopefully I will get them washed soon after!  I don't have a microwave down here that I can use so I have to be patient and wait for them to batch long enough.  They spent a lot of time in the sun today so that should be good!

QBTS March Meeting

Our speaker for this meeting was Kelly Ashton and I shared many of her vintage quilts on the previous blog.  Here are examples shown by club members from her class on the Inner City Block.  I missed it as I double booked my Saturday.

An even larger example from one of our members!

There was a huge number of Neo-natal quilts and tops turned in this week.  This is the pattern we used last Saturday and was quick to finish.  

 This and the next grouping are more of the Neo-natal quilts that were turned in.  I didn't get them all even!!

Dianne Brisson's Sweet Charity group showed a couple of the quilts that have been made by the group.  The first in the block will be the one we work on during the next meeting (4th Thursday, Coastal Sewing at 1:00.)

 There were even a couple of  quilts for Habitat for Humanity.

As usual, there were quitea few quilts for show and tell and as usual I either don't have names or have for forgotten who did them!! 

Barb finished her Mystery Quilt!

Wonderful setting on this sampler.

One of my favorites of the evening.  Loved the colors.

Spectacular quilt by Ann Millard.  Of course I love black and white with a little color!

This is just a fantastic blue and white quilt based on a Bonnie Hunter design.