2019 Schedule!

There are just 25 days left this year. Yikes!! Time to share the plans for the new year. Click on the links below to get more information and Sign Up!
Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival: February 28 - March 3.
Metro Modern Quilt Guild, New York, New York: Saturday, April 6 (Vending)
Quiltfest Lancaster: May 9 - 11 at the old 'Host'. Class: Transparent Illusions, Saturday, May 11.
Dynamic Disperse Dyes class at Peters Valley School of Craft, July 26 - 30.
Lancaster Modern Quilt Guild: Trunk Show and Class: No Muss, No Fuss Thickened Dye Exploration, August 10.
(updated 2/21/2019)

Doesn't everyone use three timers at once?

At DippyDyes, we dye a lot of solid fabric. The easiest way to do this is with a washing machine. For three-yard pieces, a table top washer is ideal. The washer does the stirring for you, because if you want solid fabrics, you must stir. A lot. And then stir some more. Up to 90 minutes for the darkest values.

From left: phone timer, washer base with timer, kitchen timer.

Here's where three timers comes in. There's a timer built into the washer. That runs, stirring the fabric for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes of being still, it needs to run for another five minutes. So when I start the five minutes on, five minutes off period, I set the washer at five, the kitchen timer at ten minutes and I set my phone timer for 30 minutes. The ten-minute timer reminds me to jump up and restart the washer for another five minutes. The washer does a good job of stirring AND of snarling a three yard piece into a mess, and it just doesn't have hands. So at the 30 minute mark, it's time to completely rearrange the fabric.
Yes, there's a little compulsiveness going on here, and thanks to that, I get good solid fabrics. If you'd like to learn more, you can sign up for my email list here: (http://eepurl.com/cHfygr)  Thanks!
Gotta run - my timer just beeped at me!

Spring Clean Your Studio Blog Hop

Oh, my. Where to start! This 12th century quote is attributed to St. Bernard: "Hell is full of good intentions or desires." (That's a hint.) Cheryl Sleboda annually holds a blog hop focused on cleaning our studios. When she announced it, I thought the timing couldn't be better. I had just acquired this:

That is a full set-up for painting silk, including a whole array of Tinfix dyes. The big beast on the right is as steamer, and I've already steamed cotton painted with MX in it - it works great! It will live either in the garage or the basement, because I need to use it outside, not in the studio.  And, yes, even I need a step-ladder to use it!
My first step was to make sure all the studio stuff was up on the third floor where it needs to live. The before pictures of the storeroom show the existing mess with new goodies added.

Well, it does look a little better in the after picture. The UFO pile at the top behind the door has actually been added to, but for me that's organized.
Here are the views from the door into the storeroom.

Still an improvement. But the dirty secret is that the adjoining room looks no better. That's where half the junk got relocated. And that's just the two nice corners of the room.
The actual studio space is in about the same condition. So, to make a tedious story shorter, I moved the needle some, but the tank ain't full!
The up side of all this is that I've learned a lot of things I shouldn't do! When you have every weekend in a month already booked; when your income taxes still aren't done; when the total rework of the website is barely begun, do not, I repeat DO NOT commit to any more time-consuming projects! Look for future posts on studio cleaning, because I am not going to allow myself to play with the silk-painting goodies until taxes, website and studio cleaning are done.

Here is the awesome list of all the rest of the participants! There's a lot of great inspiration to see, with more to come!

April 23 – Lori Crawley Kennedy – http://theinboxjaunt.com/ 
April 24 – Jennifer Thomas – http://curlicuecreations.blogspot.com
April 25 – Robin Koehler – http://nestlingsbyrobin.blogspot.com
April 26 – Andi Barney- https://www.andibarney.com/
April 27 – Misty Cole – http://www.mistycole.com/blog
April 28 – Carolina Moore- http://alwaysexpectmoore.com/
April 29 – Heather Pregger – https://heatherquilts.blogspot.com/
April 30 – Linda Bratten – https://lindabcreative.blogspot.com/
May 1 – Lisa Reber – dippydye.blogspot.com/
May 2 – Teresa Coates – http://www.crinkledreams.com
May 3 – Lisa Chin – http://www.lisachinartist.com/
May 4 – Jamie Fingal – http://www.jamiefingaldesigns.com/
May 5 – Sam Hunter – http://www.huntersdesignstudio.com
May 6 – Jessee Maloney – http://www.artschooldropout.net/blog
May 7 – Randa Parrish – http://www.sewartsyfartsy.com/
May 8 – Sarah Vedeler- https://meaningoflifedesigns.com/
May 9 – Jessica Darling – https://jessicakdarling.com/
May 10 – Melody Crust – http://www.melodycrust.com/
May 11 – Debby Brown – http://higheredhands.blogspot.com
May 12 – Cheryl Sleboda – http://blog.muppin.com