A few more pictures (edited)

This is the third picture of the sateen snow-dyed fabric for my sister's perusal. Of course, there's no blue at all showing in this one. I'll take a look at all three again, next to the solid blue to see which looks best. Maybe post another picture at that time.

Snow dyes, samples & polyester

After doing some snow dyeing last year, I couldn't wait to start again this winter. The first two pictures are ones I did in December; they're also posted there for my sister to take a look at, because I don't remember which one she prefers. Got nice dark, or strong colors this year because I used a LOT of dye.


The blue fabrics are the four fat quarters I dyed together to try different muslins. From top to bottom, they are the "new" muslin (substitute for Jan Myers-Newberry's choice), not scoured, new muslin scoured, Nature's Way muslin, scoured, and Testfabrics' broadcloth. The muslin quality, as I may have mentioned in my last post, is very similar between the new and Nature's Way brands. The new muslin is not what I would call sueded, but it has a nice hand. I was surprised that the two pieces I scoured reacted somewhat differently, but they are different brands. The new muslin looks better, though this was not an exhaustive test. The unscoured piece did dye, but unevenly and took a lot more squishing. The broadcloth dyed the best, and it came out bluer than the muslins. A small bit of this is due to it being whiter to begin with; mostly it's due to the fact that it was PFD when it got here, and it is mercerized. The process I used was a 'mid-water' immersion. The water to goods ratio was about 5:1, the pieces were stirred constantly for about 12 minutes before adding soda ash solution, and for about 6 minutes afterwards. Then they were put into slide-lock bags, all the air was squeezed out, and they batched overnight.

These next pictures are fabrics I dyed for Kate. They show six- and seven-step value gradations, plus a white piece of fabric at the top. The brown shades are a four-step value gradation. The two lightest lights are .6% and 1.3% OWG, but there is less difference in person than in the photograph, I think. She's going to let me know what she thinks.



The last photo shows a piece of Robert Kaufman's
'NuSuede' in process on a heat press. You can see the difference in color between the processed fabric on the platen, and the unheated fabric hanging to the right. A local sign shop let me have some time on it, because it's a big expense to consider without a test drive. There's a learning curve with the press as well as with the color mixing, but it's definitely worth pursuing. Fun, too.

Testing Radiance and Muslin

Must be brief; here are samples of the fabric I dyed for the quilt below. Each row has the cotton side above the silk side. The four samples on the left of each row are mixed colors, the rest of the row are pure colors with Pro-Chem's names above.

Also received the sueded muslin. Did a quick water-drop test; it seems very like the 'Nature's Way' muslin I have gotten from Roc-Lon/Rockland Industries.


Unscoured muslin from Quiltworks

Scoured (by me) muslin from Rockland

TestFabrics mercerized broadcloth. This really shows the difference with PFD fabric.
I will be doing a test run with a piece of Nature's Way, scoured, and two pieces of the Quiltworks muslin, one scoured, one not. All three go into the same dyebath. Will post photos when they are washed out. Should do the broadcloth as well.
For your dyers out there, I have the Quiltworks muslin and the Radiance fabric for sale on my website, in quarter-yard increments. There's a link at right, or click on DippyDyes. Thanks!

Quilt for Lancaster almost done

Hi - just wanted to post a picture of the quilt detail showing the great colors that resulted. All that remains is to finish the binding. After the Christmas projects are done, no doubt.

Oops - updated website

My earlier post about the book - forgot to mention that I have both Artful Applique II and Applique Takes Wing for sale on my website, http://www.dippydyes.com/. And today I even put quantities into inventory so I CAN sell them. Thanks for being patient! A picture of the cover is at the right. The block is one Jane stitched - originally on fabric I dyed, but it was cropped out for the cover. The background shows on the Amazon 'zoom' page - the 7th image. Yep, still excited!

Early resolutions - getting all introspective

Well, inspired by the weekly notes from Morna Golletz of The Professional Quilter & International Association of Professional Quilters, I got the book 'Your Best Year Yet!' from the library today. I've never been a huge fan of self-improvement books, because they often seem like I'm kicking myself lower down. So far this book is really different. The two coolest things about it: the 'how to use this book' section in the front says 'it's ok to go ahead and start with the exercises in the back.' The other is from the meat of the Values chapter - the two basic life pursuits models. One model is 'What can I do to prove myself? To be good enough?' The other is 'What can I do with the gifts I have?' Not going to spend a lot of time quoting from the book, but they are two very different approaches, the latter being focussed outward, not inward. (I confess I'm still surprised when people are impressed by something I do.)

Another book I borrowed from the library earlier this year was Chris Gardner's 'Start Where You Are'. He's the author of 'The Pursuit of Happyness' as well; the Will Smith movie of the same name was based on a portion of that book. And a couple years ago I borrowed 'Getting Things Done' by David Allen, after hearing a short bit about it on NPR. That one I now own, after the test-drive of the borrowed copy. All three books tend to have a lot of common sense in common. My goal for 2010 will be to make use of that sense and be more productive. That may sound somewhat silly for a 'sweet little old ladies' craft' (SHRIEK!); if this can be my life's work, I need to be treating it professionally!

One realization I've come to over the past year is that while quilting show and tell is wonderful, whether I'm showing a quilt, experiment or dyed fabric, it's not the same as serious feedback. The Boyertown Guild was kind enough to commission a value scale of blue fabrics for the monthly raffle, and it was very gratifying to see the reaction. When the members saw me holding up the fabrics at the front of the room, a lot of them jumped up to buy their chances. And the guild made a bit of money, even though hand-dyes are normally twice the cost of commercial fabrics. (I did cut them a break on the price.) So the objective reporting - that the guild sold more chances - was good feedback for me. I hope to do more of the same by getting together to do some serious critiques with a friend. At any rate, I've learned to place more value on serious, considered review of my work. But I still enjoy the oohs & ahhs!
OK, enough for tonight. Tomorrow I will be putting the plan in motion!

Book is now available!

The long-awaited day is finally here! Jane Townswick's new book, Artful Applique II, is now in print, and for sale on my website. It's very exciting to see my work in the book, including on the 'Tools & Supplies' page, plus the back cover. That's because of Jane's great design. All but one of the design chapters are illustrated with work by her students; my Crown Imperial happened to be the one chosen. But the shape of it is so neat that it appears in the other locations too! Here's a link to Amazon's 'Zoom' page; my block is the furthest to the right, on the top row; the one in the middle row on the right below. The background I dyed, and the stamens are discharged black overdyed with fuchsia; doubtless there are other fabrics in the block that I dyed. And finally, here's a picture of my finished quilt:
Thanks for looking!