After QBL - August RAFA Meeting

This is a group picture of the ladies who belong to a small sub group in RAFA.  There are several of theses groups which have met for some time now.  This group seems to concentrate on finding art shows and then challenging themselves to create pieces inspired by the pieces in the show in a 12 x 12 format.  They do a wonderful job.  Sadly, even when I was here all the time, I was never asked to join any of these groups...

It is always fun to go to the meeting our Rochester Area Fiber Artists group has as many of the members have just come back from classes at Quilting by the Lake (QBL).  I used to call it summer camp for adults and it was fun.  They no longer allow any picture taking in classes or at the show so I have opted not to attend for several years now.  I have had at least one class with most of the teachers I really liked and really grew from the experience and met lots of nice people but no picture taking drove me crazy.  

This is a closeup of the piece done by Ann H

This was done by our very talented Val Shultz who is a master machine quilter!!

This one is done by Elaine.

This was a piece done by Sue D as part of a class at QBL.  It is one of two beautiful pieces she did (I believe the class was Rosalie Dace and used Kandinsky as the inspiration).  This was one of my favorites of the day.  There were several other really gorgeous pieces that the ladies asked that no photographs be taken.

Pat and Donna attended an Ann Johnston class (her website is in my side bar and she is easily one of my favorite teachers).  They loved working with the thickened dyes and did many pieces, some of which I show below! Pat is one the left and Donna on the right.

Janet took a class with Elizabeth Busch (she said her third time).  I took this class many years ago and was my introduction to painting with acrylics on fabric.  Elizabeth is another of those wonderful teachers that helps you develop.  Of course I am sure Janet was a star in the class!!!  Hope she finishes these all up.  She does wonderful machine quilting.  

I really liked the lines and colors in this one.  She had a couple of other pieces as well.  She is not only very talented but also prolific!!

Marcia who runs our FB page, just keeps getting better and better at her art pieces.  I really liked this one!!

Debra has a lot of beds to cover so she just completed this quilt and had Val Schultz quit it for her.  Wonderful use of the hand dyed fabric

The Rescue from Mediocrity -- Salt Dyes Again!

Well, my terminally ugly piece has new life as a beautiful deep navy with green and brown undertones -- I am very pleased!

Well, I posed a question on Dyerslist about my mix of soda ash and bicarbonate that I was using for my salt dyes. This is a mixture of 4 parts sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) and 1 part soda ash. My mixture was a year old and I suspected that was why I was getting such pale results. Indeed, someone wrote me that they had checked with ProChem on this question and said that sodium bicarb loses its potency in much less time than I had it. I really liked the last blues pieces I did today and wanted to rescue it from mediocrity (the previous night's blue piece) so I decided to apply Afterfix. I have mentioned this before as a way of activating the dyes on a piece that you forgot to presoak in soda ash. I figured if it was indeed the old bicarb, then this technique would save the piece. If it was the week- old dyes, then there was no hope! Well, it was the bicarb as the Afterfix is washed out and the piece is bright and remains pretty much the same as it was before washing!

It was recommended that you not use Afterfix on big pieces but I am not sure why that would be. If you use a paintbrush, it does take time to apply it (it is about the thickness of heavy cream and sticky). However, I decided to just use a paint roller. It took about a cup per yard and was very fast to apply. I may try some other things using this technique from now on.

The way you would use it would be to (1) paint your dyes all over your piece, (2) let it dry , then (3) apply the Afterfix and (4) after one hour, you immediately remove the Afterfix as you don't want it to dry on the fabric and then (5) wash out the fabric. It works like a charm but the secret is using that paint roller (one of those 3 or 4 inch ones that you use to paint in corners or near your molding).

I figure I can do 16 yards with a gallon (which is what I have). I bought mine from Dharma but I know ProChem carries a different version as well. Well, doing the math, it costs about $1.25/yard to use this stuff so that is probably why the recommendation for limited use. Soda ash is certainly a LOT cheaper!! But if you have to rescue a piece, it is well worth the cost!