Year of the Hand Dyes

I've deemed 2009 the year of the hand dyed fabrics. I really have been obsessed with hand dyeing and want to do some more. I am hoping that I will get it all out of my system and then I'll have to deem the next 500 years the Years of Sewing the Hand Dyes.

I want to get it all out of my system for many reasons. 1)I don't want to buy 5,000 yards of PFD fabric to dye, 2)I can't make fruity, sweet beverages out of any left over dyes, and 3)I will eventually run out of shelf space in my studio for displaying my lovely art hand dyed fabrics.

And to make matters worse, I've now got on order some bulk perle cotton to dye along with my fabric. You know, a girl needs to have matching thread to go along with those luscious hand dyes.

So the last couple of days I've been using up the last of my IDyes. In case you don't recall, these are the dyes you use in your washing machine. I had about 8 colors left and wanted to get them used up. In the first photo you see here, I combined IDye colors to create these two batches. I ended up with some mud colors in the lefthand group, but I guess sometimes you might need some of those huh?


Here are two groups of blues I created.


And here are two groups of greens.


And after all that, I still have a couple of colors of IDye left, although not complete packages as I like my colors a little lighter than if I'd used the entire dye packet. So there they sit, still waiting. I could throw them away, since there isn't much left in each package, but hey, I can't throw good dye away. So hmmm, I could give it away!

Here is a project I started yesterday. It will be a small wall hanging. My next step on this is to add color.


I had been working on a quilt for a few days and suddenly I decided I'm not liking it anymore. I wasn't enjoying it and wondered if it was worth continuing. Have you experienced these thoughts on a project? I decided to set the project aside and perhaps one day I'll see some potential in it. But I just didn't want to waste my time on it now.

Colorful Canvas Market Bags

Like so many, we are up to our necks in a constant stream of plastic bags. I used to use canvas shopping bags, but over the years they have gotten old, dirty and misplaced. I've been well aware that it was high time to replace and replenish my supply and get back into a healthy, green shopping habit.

While looking at my lovely Ikea fabrics, (see last post) and wondering what to make from these canvas weight delights, the light bulb went on and I realized they would be perfect for some bright, stylish market bags! Happily I also bought a few yards of sturdy weight solids, perfect for the lining. And joyfully, I have enough fabrics to keep us in a delightful supply of these bright cheery bags!

Blue Stars

I guess this got really wrinkled. I sewed the rest of the blocks together on Monday and then made the back. I used some of the extra blocks but still have three. I guess they will be added to the rest of the orphan blocks. As I was sewing the last little bit of the back a Realtor called. Can I show your house in 20 min she says. I say yes and spend the next 20 dashing around cleaning. The quilt got scrunched in a dresser drawer and I just took it out today to show to blog land wrinkles and all.

Blue Stars

I guess this got really wrinkled. I sewed the rest of the blocks together on Monday and then made the back. I used some of the extra blocks but still have three. I guess they will be added to the rest of the orphan blocks. As I was sewing the last little bit of the back a Realtor called. Can I show your house in 20 min she says. I say yes and spend the next 20 dashing around cleaning. The quilt got scrunched in a dresser drawer and I just took it out today to show to blog land wrinkles and all.

2009 Stash Report Week 26

26 weeks and the half way mark for the year. I haven't dropped out yet Judy I just missed a couple weeks. This week I used almost 4 yards and made no fabric purchases. So for the year I've busted 29 yards. I purchased 103 yards so far this year and used a total of 132 yards. So I may not be as close to my goal as I had hoped but I am rotating fabric. week 26 reports

2009 Stash Report Week 26

26 weeks and the half way mark for the year. I haven't dropped out yet Judy I just missed a couple weeks. This week I used almost 4 yards and made no fabric purchases. So for the year I've busted 29 yards. I purchased 103 yards so far this year and used a total of 132 yards. So I may not be as close to my goal as I had hoped but I am rotating fabric. week 26 reports

Sunday Morning

We tape the TV show Sunday Morning to watch, well, at another more convenient time which is usually not Sunday morning. This morning after an interesting interview with an artist named Jeff Koons, this flashed on the screen. This was particularly intriguing to me because normally after every segment they show a picture of the sun done by some artist, kind of their trademark. So at first I thought it was kinda weird that a quilt block flashed on the screen. But then dawned on me that this is a quilt artist's interpretation of the sun.

Because we had taped it, I had Mark rewind (love you, DVR) so I could take a picture of it because (a) it's a great quilt block and (b) I was quite sure that I already had several of the fabrics.

Yep, I was right. The scary thing for me (or for anyone who has actually seen the size of my stash) was how quickly I was able to put my fingers on these exact fabrics.

Off to my sewing room to draft a sun...

Appetizing combination

My everyday dishes. They make me happy. Every. Day.

The perfect Mother's Day gift from Aaron, Christa and the kids.

The table set for Father's Day.

Yummy.

Wednesday This & That

Hey! Hello! Whatcha been up to? Have you missed me?

I've recently been a bit busy with visiting relatives and working on outdoor projects, so I haven't been a good blogger lately. I haven't had time to make or work on anything either.

I did, however, grab some time to work on my hand stitching project while in the car lately. So here is a little progress on that.


And look at these two great fabrics I purchased. I'm going to dye these.



Another thing I've worked on lately is a new look for my website. Please take a look. I hope you'll like what you see there.

Blogging for Bucks

So what happens when you are trying to get your etsy shop going and then one of your favorite blogs decides to accept ads? Well, if you think the items in your etsy shop and the blog are a good fit, you make contact. And we are nothing if not chic entrepreneurial....

Christina was exceedingly patient with me. I told her we planned on adding a lot more items to our etsy shop. (uh, three little pendants....not really enough things to choose from). But time was working against me. I needed a couple of weeks but I still wanted to be at the top of her list. (Yep, ask for it all....) We worked the timing out and then she emailed me last week, saying, "Just send me your button as a jpeg and I'll post it." Huh?

A couple of months ago I had an etsy seller create a new banner for the blog and the etsy shop, along with a couple of avatars. Would those work? Nope, not the right size. So I contacted her again and for a whopping $4 she created a cool new button, which I then emailed to Christina, who posted it.

Ta da! Monday morning we got our first sale.

So check out Christina's cool blog, then click on our button (fourth from the top) and check out our etsy shop. I KNEW there was money to be made in reading blogs!

Wash Day

New Ikea fabrics,


all washed and hanging out to dry.

Tuskineko and Ikea

I've been asked by a few readers as to what paints I used for the dolls in my previous post. I used Japanese Tsukineko All-Purpose Inks. They come in a wide assortment of colors inside very small bottles. Applicators, such as the ones shown, are used to apply the pigment. (You can also use a paint brush.) Depending on how you use them you can get different results... very bright saturated color right out of the bottle, water color effect when used on wet fabric, to an almost coloring book effect when used in light amounts on dry fabric. Hope that helps!

In other news... My very sweet Hubby spent his Father's Day taking me to Ikea, where I went hog wild buying up their sale fabrics, priced .99 cents to $2.99 a yard. The last thing I really need is more fabric, but at those prices how could I resist? By the time we got home the light was getting too poor to photograph them, but after some web searching I did find images of some of the prints:

Most are mid-weight bold prints in a semi 1970's color pallet... They are going to give me a fun mental challenge!


These flowers are enormous... a yard wide each!


Flowers sprinkled over large, wonky stripes


Giant waves of color.


The super large, colorful circles on this print remind me of the game "Twister!"

Also got some wonderful light-weight bird and leaf prints, which I will show another day. I'm looking forward to playing around with all this new yardage and will show you the results soon, I hope!

Happy Dad's Day

It's early Sunday morning but I think Mark would agree that he already has had a good Father's Day. Last night we went with Aaron, Christa, Charlotte and Levi to a Fresno Grizzlies game, the AAA affiliate of the San Francisco Giants. Through some maneuvering on Aaron's part, I was the 2000th Facebook friend of the Fresno Grizzlies (which was a surprise to me because I didn't even realize that I wanted to be "friends" with the Grizzlies). Anyway, we got free tickets to sit in their 600 Club, which is kind of like a big skybox--nice seats, more leg room, and people who actually come take your food orders! The weather was beautiful and we had a great time.

This morning, we were leaving to go get a morning bagel (my treat--yeah, I know, big Father's Day spender...), and this was on the windshield of Mark's truck. As a little background, my mom and dad gave this to us on Valentine's Day and at first we were puzzled. First of all, what IS it? And secondly, when they saw it what actually made them think of us? Turns out this is a "fence topper"--you put it on a fence post and it looks like it's peaking over from the other side of the fence. In the last couple of months we have been using it for celebrations. Only the Harpers so far (but any of our friends and family could be the recipient at some point so keep an eye on your fence). It made it on George's fence for his birthday in March, again for Jessie's graduation, and then just this past Wednesday for Jessie's 22nd birthday. And now courtesy of Jessie and Valerie, he's back home.

So for all you fathers out there (and especially you, Dad, for giving us this funny little pig--we are having a great time with him), have a great day. We appreciate you and love you.

My own Fabric Postcards

Today I am making my fabric postcards and am hoping to post them off tomorrow morning. I can't post any photos yet but as soon as my friends have received them, I will post a photo of them. The first 6 are very similar........so the production line is running. I have discovered that I LOVE making landscapes big or small.

East End Cake Decoraing Club - June Meeting Competition

The Club held it's annual Cake Decorating Contest at the June meeting. There were four entries from members of the group.


The judges declared Lyne Coderre’s cake to a category of its own, and it won “Best of Show”


1st Place: Diane Kingston. Diane's entry includes a real cake and cake slice. The "china" teacup and saucer, the plate, the fork and spoon, the Pansy posy, the napkin ring, the napkin and the try cloth are made from gumpaste.

Second place went to Ruth Alves whose Van Gogh's "Sunflowers" were very lifelike.

Shirley Peters won third place. She fashioned an Artist's Box and Equipment. The oil paint sure looks real! Thanks everyone for your participation. And a big thanks to our two judges, Cynthia Lewis and June from Katie's Cakes. It was decided to hold the 2009/2010 year cake competition in the October.

The next meeting will be September 20th. Elections will be held at that meeting, and your membership of $25 will be due. Also at September's meeting will be demos on how to make gumpaste, cold porcelain and Mexican Paste and Royal Icing

My FIrst Landscape

I am in the process of making a framed landscape. It is about the size of an A4 page and is a gift for a friend (for her birthday) who loves Africa as much as I do. The African tribal dog in the landscape is a photo of her beloved dog that died from liver complications when she was 2 years old. I took a photo of the dog, printed it on fabric and cut it out. The mountains in the background are the beloved Drakensberg mountains. It's the view from my son Ben's school in the mountains. This mountain is called the Rolls Royce because it looks like a car. I added the Aloe in (again a photo printed onto fabric and cut the aloe out) just for the winter effect. The aloes are in full bloom at the moment. The photo below is the fabric put together - I still have to fuse and stitch the pieces together and then frame it.

Row, row, row our boats

Remember this?

When we bought this kayak, I just wanted something with my name on it, something for our guests at Lakeview Cottages. I never planned on actually taking it out on the water...I mean not me personally, that is.

So this is what things looked like today. Two kayaking veterans...and me, on my maiden voyage.

Okay, so I DID get something with my name on it.

And friends who were willing to teach me the ropes.


And I'm not talking about a little paddling around the boat dock. Uh uh. See all those boats in the distance? Yep, that's where we headed. Good thing I'm in such great shape I don't mind being sore.
Ah....no longer a kayaking virgin. Life is good.

Waiting

I've finished my quilt. I've named it Waiting. You can decide what she is waiting for.

Waiting
31" x 26"

Yesterday afternoon my Internet service went on vacation. It was out for about 24 hours. It was a hard and grueling 24, but I survived. I guess you could say I was Waiting for it to be restored. How addicted are you to the World Wide Web?

Friends

"Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive...


and it is only by this meeting...


that a new world is born." - Anais Nin

I made these two little dolls out of plain muslin, of which I am growing increasingly fond of for it's simplicity. The details were drawn with Pigma pens and then painted with Japanese fabric paints. These are part of my own personal collection, but I am thinking about doing more for the shop. They make me smile each time I pass by.

Sleeveless Pullovers

I seem to be posting about everything except quilts these days..... not sure if it is a good thing but anyway..... I finished 2 sleeveless pullovers this week - they were both started last winter but I ran out of time to finish them. Now my whole family wants a sleeveless pullover - they are ideal for keeping chests warm in our climate. It does not really get cold enough to wear jerseys but is too cold to just wear t-shirts. So... it's 2 down, 3 to go. I am almost finished the back of the 3rd sleeveless pullover.

This is David's sleeveless sweater.




My Sleeveless pullover:

CQInternational FFT#7 Gerry's block

Gerry's block was a delight to work on. I enjoyed so much the work that went into it before it reached me. Gerry's lovely green fabrics and the silkie in the middle, and then Nicki Lee and Mary's pretty additions. It's now time to post it on to Faye in Australia. This is how it looks now.

I added the tatting seam at the top (I wish I could say that I tatted the tatting, but I can't). I also added the rosebud vine.

A row of chevron and lazy daisy.

Bullion daisies in a shiny variegated thread and some beaded flowers. A row of silk ribbon french knot blossoms.

Last of the Hand Dyes

Here is my latest gradation. This is Deep Yellow and Lilac. I ended up with some very interesting greens. Not exactly what I was expecting, but that's part of the fun. And when you aren't using pure colors in dyeing, well then, expect the unexpected!


I mentioned in my last post about working on a quilt entry for the Blurred Boundaries exhibit. Here is a sneak peek. I have even solved my name dilemma and thought of one. I guess it just took some thinking time. By the way, I've shown you part of this quilt before. You can see the background in this post.


Oh and are you wondering about the title of this post? Well this will be the last hand dyed gradation for a week or two as I have depleted all my PFD fabric. I need to get some more ordered. I know I can squish some more fabric onto my shelves. I just know it!