Alphabet and Circle Quilts

This is Yvonne's adorable pink Alphabet quilt.    I used variagated pink King Tut thread and Heart's In Bloom pantograph.

This is also Yvonne's Circle quilt using a fabric collection from Connecting Threads.  The fabrics have a oriental print so we decided to go with Dragonfly Pond for a panto and beige thread to blend into the bright fabrics.

Block of the Month

So I have put away the dyeing gloves and am back into quilting full swing.  This is Darlene's quilt and it was the local fabric shops BOM project from 2005. I have quilted a few of these and this time I did a combination of custom quilting on the borders and a panto in the center. 

The outer border is a free hand feathers in Navy thread, the inner border is my favorite quilting design the feather feather swirl in red thread and the centre pantograph is called Rhapsody, quilted with beige thread.  The backing fabric was white... so white bobbin thread it is for a nice wholecloth look on the back.

Rhapsody is a Willow Leaf Studio design.

Snow Dyeing - Day 3 The Experiments Continue

Day 3....the screen test. Okay it is more like the lack of screen in this experiment.  I needed a backing for my Jelly roll quilt  and I snow dyed this piece the same color that I used in the sashing of the quilt.  But this time I tried just putting the fabric in a bucket with no screen to see what happens. Here it is a few hours into the melting.

And the result is the same great texture as with the screen...

So why use the screens if it give the same texture as without? That led me to my next set of experiments.

I wanted to snow dye two pieces of fabric the same color with the only variable being the screen/ no screen to truly see if there is a difference.  I went through my hand dyed samples and picked this color to try.

Snow dyed one fabric in the bucket and the second one on the screen.

  

 

The results where quite different. The fabric on the left is the no screen has a darker intensity and has what I texture similar to Immersion Dyeing.  The fabric on the right is with the screen and has the softer texture and more muted colors that have separated more.  So it basically comes down to the look you want.  I like both but find the screen dyed one more pleasing to they eye and I would likely pick that one to put in a quilt over the more intense one. But that is just me :)

Hope you enjoyed my experiments but now I hear my longarm calling...



Snow Dyeing - Day 2

I am having way too much fun with this snow dyeing and the results just keep getting better and better.  I'm addicted!!  Yesterday I decided to try mixing Teal and Brown, my two favorite colors at the moment, and was just thrilled with the results.  I use Procion MX dyes from G&S Dyes.  I have two brown dyes, #611 Soft Brown and #615 Brown so tried them both with my teal recipe. 

Here they are on the screens with the snow just after pouring the dye on.

  I cut all my dyed fabrics that I have the recipes for (all 172) with my 6 1/2" Square Go cutter die last week so I have nice size samples to refer to when needed. 

 Here are the samples of my teal and #611 Soft Brown...

...snow dyed they made this piece, my new favorite!

My teal and #615 Brown...

...snow dyed made this piece.

And here they are together!  So pretty!

I might get Tim to build some wooden frames so I can stretch these and make wall art.  He received a new uphostery gun for his air compresser this xmas so that would be a great project for him to try, right dear :)

I have two more fabrics in the works down in my dungeon (crawl space) at the moment and I am comparing the difference between snow dyeing on a screen or just dyeing it in a bucket without the screen.  The results I have seen on a few blogs without the screens look very similar to the results with screens so I thought that was a worthwhile experiment.  Are you starting to realize I am quite the GEEK!!!  LOL!

I started working on my clients quilt again on Monday, I haven't abandoned quilting for dyeing....yet!  The nice thing about snow dyeing is it takes 5 hours for the snow to melt giving me lots of time to quilt.  I have a large semi-custom quilt on my machine so should be done that one soon.

Oh, I made this placemats for myself over that holidays and just finished hand stitching the binding on all 10 of them!  I bought a fat quarter pack from Fat Quarter Shop called Honeysuckle Bali Batiks from Hoffman Fabrics, I can't resist a bali sale!!

Snow Dyeing

Snow dyeing is a technique used to dye fabric using snow and since we have a lot of snow I thought I would give it a try. Actually Lori kept emailing me all week to say she was going to try and that I should too!  She knows I need a kick in the pants to try new things and since I didn't want her to have all the fun I gave it a go :)   This is a very cool dyeing technique and I love the results. 

The basic science to this is the cold temperture provided by the snow cause the dye molecules to slow down their ability to attach to the fabric giving the dye time to separate into their original colors if your using a mixed dye, not a pure dye.  Some colors will move a bit faster and attach to the fabric first creating the really cool patterns on the fabric. This is shown really well on the fabric dyed with the color Chino.  It almost looks like burnt paper the way the colors separated.

This post is just about the snow dyeing process and if you would like to learn more about fabric dyeing using the low immersion technique as well as what dyes and supplies I use see my tutorial post here.

To start I got my husband to build me two mesh screens to hold the fabric above the buckets that will catch all the melting snow. My fabric was presoaked in Sodium Carbonate ( Soda Ash) for a few hours.

I then piled as much snow as I could on top of the fabric

I use Mx Procion dyes and mixed 1/2 tsp yellow, 1/2 tsp salt with 1/2 cup water, and the same for the Fuchsia and Cerulean Blue.   I then pour the three dye mixtures on top of the snow on the first fabric. 

I poured Navy and Royal Blue on the second.

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Here is Chino on one and a Scalet/Red mix on the other.

Once all the snow has melted I rinse the fabric with TNA soap and then soak the fabric in Raycafix for a few minutes to set the dye.  Then a quick rinse and spin in the washing machine, a trip to the dryer and voila!!

Here are more pictures of the end results

Here are a few links to some of my other snow dyeing posts.

Brown and Teal snow dyed fabric

Difference between using the mesh frames or just a container

Snow dyeing Green fabric and Purple fabric
Snow dyeing Orange fabric

I have started snow dyeing quilt backing as well.

Close up of the texture.

I also like to mix the dye powder directly into the dry snow to get very bold colors.You can see that post here

Accuquilt Go - Rag Square Die

Take a good look at this Go cutter die, it has genius written all over it.  The 8 1/2" Rag Square die pre cuts the fringes for you ( my least favorite part) but even though this is brilliant I was sceptical.  My main concern was would the fringes drive me nuts when piecing the block together?? I'll answer that in a minute, first I want to show you all the steps to make a rag quilt using the Go cutter.

The first thing I did was cut my flannel into 9 1/2" strips. I bought 2 metres of each fabric and cut it all to make a baby quilt.

Next I folded one strip in half to make 4 layers of flannel and placed it on the die. Then I placed the cutting mat on top and then tried to roll it through the cutter....nope...way to thick!!

So I just unfolded it and used 2 layers, that worked fine.  Here is the finished cut after removing the extra fabric and you can see the fringes.

The instructions with the die said you can cut the batting squares for this project with the 6 1/2" square die. So I gave that a try thinking it would make a big mess and the batting would stick in the die blade or mat (you know like the mess batting leaves on your cutting mat when you trim a quilt when it is done).  Well to my surprise no mess.  Not even a piece of lint was on the die block.

Once all the batting squares were cut I quilted the 30 quilt sandwiches with just an X.

Now to answer the question did the fringes get in the way when sewing the blocks.  Not really but it did make it tricky to match up your seams when stitching the rows together.  But this is a rag quilt and I was going to just let that go.  After all I didn't have to do any clipping and that was wonderful!!

I only found a few fringes sticking out on the backside that had flipped and got caught in the stitching as I sewed the rows together.

Here it is not washed yet.

So if you like to make rag quilts this is definately a great die to purchase if you have an Accuquilt Go.

A New Year - Scrappy Star

I haven't been too productive this past week as we took a trip to Winnipeg to see family over the New Year.   Now we are back and all have colds so my energy level is pretty low.   So I am really glad I did my first quilt of the new year in December before we left.   This quilt is the same pattern as the scrappy star quilts I made for my boys expect for one change.  My client doesn't have the half stars on the outside edge so only has full stars in the light fabric and it looks really nice.

She asked Lori to dye the backing for her and picked a medium toned green to go with the bright batik fabrics.  The pantograph is Whirlygig and I used a soft green So Fine thread.

Since I lack the energy to quilt I started playing with my Go cutter yesterday.  I tried the 2 1/2" strip cutter to cut binding strips for some placemats I had made and with one pass through the machine I had 9 straight binding strips cut!!!  I was impressed. This machine does take a bit of muscle to crank all the layer of fabric and the padding on the die through the machine but that doesn't bother me.

Today I am going to try the 8 1/2" Rag Square die.  This die if for making Ragtime quilts and cuts the fringed edges for you so I can see this one being a huge time saver for this project.  Just don't know if the fringed edges will be a nuasance when sewing the blocks together. I"ll keep you posted on this project.