Transparent fabric?

This quilt is a really neat example of transparency in quilts. Boy, I wish I could say it was my work! It's by Modern Quilt Studio, and it's super! It is a good quilt to dye for, once you know some dyeing basics.

"Swatch" by Modern Quilt Studio

And transparency is the subject of my upcoming class on Saturday, May 11 at  Quiltfest Lancaster!

You'll learn all the basics of dyeing, plus receive lots of recipes for colors that you can use to create your own unique transparency effects!
At the bottom of this post for the first time are all three versions of my Shoo-Fly Transparency quilt. What all these quilts have in common is the illusion you can create that one fabric is laying on top of another, and the combination of the two creates a third color.
P.S. - for a look at more samples of transparency quilts, check out my Pinterest board. Thanks!

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)

Back to school and teaching and quilting

Greetings! Busy as usual here and ignoring the blog. Just took a look at my recent photos to try to figure out where the time has gone. My family surprised me with an early birthday present - a trip for everyone to the Phillies-Mets game. So now I have a Phanatic dangle hat, because I've always wanted one! And the Mets won, so the nice guy behind me was happy. And we got to see Rhys Hoskins first hit. Once he got that, he's been on fire! He's the NL Rookie of the month for August, and I'm personally taking all the credit. (Ha!)
It's almost time for our last show of the year, the Pennsylvania National Quilt Extravaganza at Oaks, PA. That's just west of Valley Forge, for those of you outside the area. There's still room in my Dye Basics class - and you can still sign up online here, by phone or in person next Wednesday 9/13 or Thursday morning, 9/14 before 9 AM. Let me know if you want to buy a kit with fabric.
Coming up next spring I'll be teaching at MAQF in Hampton, VA in February and - New Date and Location - QFNJ in Edison in April. If none of those dates or locations work for you - I have some really big news! I will be teaching at Pro Chemical and Dye on May 17 - 18. Sign-ups begin in October - watch this space for a link! And below is a picture of one of my class samples.

Look for quilts by Lisa in next year's shows - there are currently three on the to-do list that tie into either the upcoming classes or general business of dyeing.
The to-do list also has 'blog more' included - hope I will see you here!
P.S. - in you are coming to the show at Oaks and don't get the newsletter 'Hues & News' from DippyDyes, please sign up (we send show coupons.) There's a link at the top of the column to the right, or click here. Thanks!!

Dye Cadets, at ease.

Dye Boot Camp is coming up at MQX - the Machine Quilters' Festival in Manchester, NH. I will be teaching and lecturing there all week - the first class is Dye Boot Camp on Wednesday, April 5 at 8 AM! It will be a quick four-hour version covering everything you need to know about dyeing cotton quilt fabric - AND about washing it out! #MQX
Sign up here! (It's the third on the list.)

Class hard at work, learning something new. :-)

 Colors, colors and more colors!

No hat this year, but the whistle might have to be pulled out!

One time event!

This week is the Quilt & Sewing Fest of New Jersey. It's in Somerset, at the Garden State Convention Center. I'm teaching on Saturday, and it's the only time I'm taking this class on the road. There are only three seats left, and you can sign up Thursday and Friday at the show. Here's a peek:
https://youtu.be/0ugDcsgLvr8

Two minute intro to deconstructed screen printing

Friday, August 12 is the deadline - if there aren't enough sign-ups for my DYE Classes at Oaks - the Pennsylvania National Quilt Extravaganza - they will be cancelled. To pique your interest, watch this:

Thanks, and here's a link to the class descriptions! Classes are September 16 & 17.
Next up, an introduction to the other class - a vest that is machine stitched, then dyed. Time to take more pictures!

Blastoff into the New Year!

My latest newsletter is all set to go to your inbox this evening. Things have gotten so busy, that the blog is languishing (again) and I haven't sent a newsletter in three months. So, after taking the Organize Your Art Business class from Alyson Stanfield over the past six weeks, I'm acting on all the tasks and resolutions the class and the season of the year have generated.
On the home front, we made a visit to Florida in August to help my sister-in-law try to get her mom's home cleaner and safer for her. Mom is now 95 1/2, and spent several weeks recently in the hospital and rehab. She fell and didn't break anything, but has finally realized she can't be living solo. She came home a week ago. We've thankfully been home in Pennsylvania over that time-frame, but have been doing as much to help my sister-in-law as we can do long distance.

In much happier home news, hubby and I have put a lot of hours into our kitchen remodel. This has been going on for years, and the end is in sight! The awesomely talented Lawrence built all the cabinets from scratch. (I helped some, mostly as the human out-feed guide, plus with painting.) The doors started life as the shutters from the first-floor windows. The two doors with glass on either side of the window came from an architectural salvage house. And the island was a treadle-powered table saw! It came home with us from an auction maybe 25 years ago. It didn't have an actual use at that time; we're so glad we hung on to it! If you see Lawrence at the quilt show, tell him you saw this picture!

Painterly class samples - NJ class

Now he's stuck working at it solo, as I work on the Organizing class and resulting projects. Among those projects is preparing for the upcoming shows in Virginia and New Jersey - I'm teaching on the Saturday of both weeks. Other recent work has included more custom dyeing of solid fabrics. The fact that I was late delivering one of those was the straw that broke the got-to-get-organized camel's back.
The rest of this month will be spent making more samples for the new class I'm teaching at the Quilt & Sewing Festival of New Jersey:  Painterly Effects with Various Thicknesses of MX dyes, plus, of course making more inventory!
More teaching news, and I don't believe I never posted about it here on the blog! I will be teaching a five-day introduction to MX dyes in July at Pro Chemical & Dye in Fall River, Massachusetts!!!!!! Thanks so much to Vicki Jensen at Pro Chem for selecting me as an emerging teacher. Now the following is not meant to be hiding my light under a bushel, but it seems likely that the class won't fill up completely. That means those who attend have a good shot at getting a worktable all to themselves! The class is called 'Super-Sized Super MX Sampler' and will include the basics, an intro to different manipulations plus a section just on pipe-wrapping. Then we'll experiment with thickened dyes and with discharge work. My goal is to let you try the Smörgåsbord before you decide on a week specializing in just one technique, er, cuisine.

Discharge samples on Kona bundle

Before I close, the date has been set for my portion of the Quilted Adventure Virtual Retreat. Fearless Dyeing for Beginners begins on Monday, March 21. Before that are two more classes, and there are 12 total classes plus a 12-step block of the month!
Well, that needs to be enough for now. Thanks for reading, and I hope you'll see more here soon - I just have to stick with the resolutions!

Fearless Dyeing!

Here are the class samples for 'Fearless Dyeing for Beginners.' It's just one part of a set of 12 video classes for quilters, and now's your chance to win the class completely free!
1 - please share this post
2- click this link: Share_And_Win_DippyDyes and enter your name and email
This contest ends on Saturday, 10/17 - winners to be announced on Sunday 10/18.
Thanks for sharing this!

Introducing the Quilted Adventure Art Retreat!!

I just learned more about the other classes that are part of the virtual retreat where I will be teaching. Here's a sneak peek!

Remember that this week only you can enter for a chance to win all the classes - even before it goes on sale! The drawing is Saturday, with winners announced on Sunday. All 12 teachers are selecting one winner, so you could be the one! Just please share this post, and fill out the form found here: http://bit.ly/Share_And_Win_DippyDyes It's that easy! Thanks!!

A bigger booth

Today the invoice came for my show booth at the Mid Atlantic Show. It is both scary and exciting. I have a bigger booth this year, so my location has moved. The new booth number is 605, and it's very close to the front door, and across from wearable art! Woo-hoo!
I've posted the schedule for the year here: DippyDyes Calendar

This is a partial view of the first booth I ever set up, in 2008, plus my neighbor's booth behind.

Class preparation

Well, there are just under four months to go before my “No Muss*, No Fuss” thickened dye exploration class at the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival and Quilt Fest of New Jersey. I’ve been busy making samples and taking photographs AND planning what each workstation will contain. I will also be offering kits so you don’t have to pack your own supplies, which adds a whole new wrinkle. They need to be packed by February 1, or earlier if you ask hubby! So here are some photos to give you an idea of what you’ll be working on if you can join us.

Lots of techniques will be sampled.

A color sampler monoprint.

Screen printing.

Printed tree fabric.

Ready to spread dye through the screen.

Two examples of stamps.

Spreading dye with a scraper.

Stamping in action.
*Did you know that ‘muss’ is really a word? I didn’t. It is, among other definitions, a synonym for mess, or ‘a state of disorder.’ Well, there will doubtless be disorder in the classroom, but then that’s why I’m working on creating order this early!

Results from washout

Here's the result of my wash-out test. Everything had a cold rinse, and some were hung to dry. When all the fabric was dyed and rinsed, we filled the washing machine with the hottest water available, added Metaphos (water softener) and Synthrapol. Once it was full and had started agitating, we added the fabric. I ran the washer extra long - 25 minutes, then let it finish its cycle and dried. No backstaining -yay!

 

Fabric manipulations class

Hi all – I will be teaching at the Quilt Fest of New Jersey again this year, in a class called “Manipulation – It’s a Good Thing.”  Here’s a picture of some samples:




For more information and a supply list, see the Manipulations Class page, also listed at right. I hope you’ll join us!

New class at Innovative Beads Expo

Next Sunday, May 20, I will be teaching my felted and beaded coin purse kit at the Innovative Beads Expo at the Allentown Fairgrounds. There's a picture there of a coin purse in progress; here's another one that I'm working on now:

I have another, but it's in my purse. This project features a hand-dyed piece of Peltex, wool roving and beads, and is for beaders who haven't felted and felters who haven't beaded and quilters who may not have tried either! Hope you can join me!

Off to Cincinnati in June

I’m trying a new-to-me show with ‘The Original Creative Festival’ in Cincinnati. I’ll be in booth 106, as of this writing, and I am going to be introducing some new fabrics for garment sewers, as well as my snow-dyed and discharged fabrics, polyesters and wool roving. And I will be teaching ‘Dye Boot Camp’ again – come and join the fun!

Somerset NJ Class posted

It has been in the works for a while now - I will be teaching a 3-hour Dye Boot Camp at the Quilt Fest of NJ VIII, on Friday morning, March 2, 2012. Here’s a link if you want to learn more about it:
http://www.quiltfest.com/workshop_detail.asp?id=1105

And my name is in their advertisement in Quilters Newsletter – woo-hoo! Hope to see you there!