Snow Dying....

Seems like a long while ago now but before Christmas we had some snow, just a little. I had been intending to try out Kathy's tips and techniques for snow dying.  Well, what do you know, leading up to Christmas was a busy time?
I decided in the afternoon to collect a couple of buckets of snow ready for later in the day when I might have more time to follow through.  The snow was actually ice and I had to scrape it from the grass but I did manage to collect two buckets full which I left outside until later. I left my fabric soaking in the soda ash solution.
So, the intention is to pour the dye over the snow, the temperature of the snow slows down the dying process allowing the dye to break down into it's various mix of colours and grab to the fabric at different rates giving texture to the fabric.

By the time I was ready to proceed my snow/ice had frozen into one big ice cube, as I had already mixed my dyes all I could do was tip the ice out on top of my fabric and add my dye, the ice just sat there on top of the fabric in a big hunk!
My PFD (prepared for dying) fabric is 60" wide so I had nearly 2 yards on each tray.
I used Procion MX dyes.

Tray 1....
1 tsp currant + 1/2 tsp sodium sulphate + 1/2 cup water
1/2 tsp purple + 1/2 tsp sodium  sulphate+ 1/2 cup water
1/2 tsp cerulean blue + 1/2 tsp sodium sulphate + 1/2 cup water
I placed this fabric on a refridgerator shelt over a deep tray.

Tray 2...
1 tsp avacado + 1 tsp sodium sulphate + 1 cup water
1 tsp turquoise +1 tsp sodium sulphate + 1 cup water
This fabric was place in an open basket from a vegetable trolley over another deep tray.

You can see the extra vegetable matter collected when I had to scrape the ice from the grass....

So,  as this was around 9pm at night all I could do was leave everything here in my utility room overnight and hope that there would be no avalanch before morning and all dye solution would stay either in the trays or drain off into the sink.

I need not have worried as by morning I still had big chunks of ice but there had been some migration of dye down through the fabric....who knew my utility room was so cold through the night? So I moved my fabric through into my kitchen where it was warmer and left it there for 2/3 hours to allow the ice to melt and the fabric to warm through hoping that the colours would set.

After a good rinse until the water ran clear and then a quick wash in the machine with Retayne, here are my results.  Although not a controlled scientific experiment the results are quite interesting, I was trying to use enough dye to make sure it soaked through all of the 2 yards of fabric in each tray.  The avacado/turquoise mix is more subtle but with lots of texture.....

The currant/purple mix is more dramatic with quite a bit of solid colour (wonder whether that's the currant or the purple, I'm thinking it's the currant) but lots of interesting ice textures, there is really no white on that piece it's more pink in colour but very interesting all the same.

There didn't seem to be any difference/marks left from using the open shelf or the basket and as the dye didn't dye the veg basket maybe next time I'll try two baskets instead.
That same day the snow/ice outside thawed and we have had no more snow falls since but watch this space, now that I have a little system in place I will be having another try to see how this works with proper snow with a quicker melt time?

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all of my family, friends and customers!

Are you like me, I get ready to be back in a regular routine?

I'm feeling rather sluggish after too many family dinners and Christmas chocolates but I think a good time was had by all.
We had a visit to Edinburgh, had a ride on the big Ferris Wheel over Princes Street and the Grandkids went ice skating in the Princes Street Gardens......

Photo taken by Brendan Macneill www.macneill.co.uk

www.macneill.co.uk

My nine year old Granddaughter received her first electric sewing machine from Santa, her first project is this Ten minute wonder cushion in Christmas fabrics, so she will always remember the first project on her new machine. I'll get it quilted before next Christmas, I'm sure!

We fussy cut the centre insert.....

Hopefully, normal service will resume shortly????

A Shepherd's Convention???

There's a collection of shepherds crooks and walking sticks left at my front door, I think the shepherds are having a meeting to see who gets Saturday night off?

Of course this is my DH's stick collection but this one is my favourite, carved from burr elm.....it was a Christmas gift a few years ago.

Handy Andy!

My new customer is a really handy lady, all of Margaret's quilts are hand pieced beautifully...because of this we chose simple quilting so as not to overpower the charm of her quilts.

This one really matches the colour scheme of my room......

The next two are '10 minute wonder' quilts

I have to add that some Longarmers may have continued there overall/pantograph pattern and quilted over these 3D medallions, even though it is more time consuming there is no way I could do that, I needed to make a feature of them!

All done and actually already delivered!

A bit of company.....

It's nice to have a bit of company sometimes when you are quilting.....


Meet 'Red' the Red Admiral....

 

I like to see butterflies on quilts but I don't really want to attach a real one....sometimes he gets so close to the needle I'm scared I'm going to stitch him in ....of course he's trying to get under the lights of my longarm.....he should really be finding a nice dark corner here in my studio to sleep in for the winter.

Merry Christmas Everyone.....

A Christmas message for you all!

Friends Across the Ocean!

Remember these? These are my block swap blocks....the deal was pick one black with white fabric, one white with black fabric, and two bright fabrics......

These 2 x 30 sets of blocks flew off to to my friend Shannon in Atlanta, Georgia, Shannon sorted all of the Friendship Star blocks and I received these blocks in return....of course you all know these are 'friendship stars'.....

My blocks are in the four corners pulling it all together, borders added and quilted with a 'star burst' pantograph which blends right on in and is hidden....Hmmmm.....to me the quilting can be the best part of a quilt and it can't even be seen....'Oh Well'

I had a few blocks left over that were perfect for pillow shams.....

I set myself a few tasks to finish up some UFO's before the end of the year and here it is all finished at last from my 'Friends across the ocean!'

Can you see your blocks?




Update:- this quilt now lives in Scotland capital city of Edinburgh with my youngest Son....

We are building a boat?

Two days ago these fields were under six inches of snow and it was difficult to travel into town....90 mile an hour winds along with torrential rain and a fast thaw mean the fields are now flooded along with my utility room...hey ho!

Invisible thread....Wow!

Honestly..... Wow.... I Stiched in the Ditch (SiD), the whole of this quilt with no thread breaks at all, not one! I usually use S's monopoly on my longarm but unfortunately had quite a few thread breaks so I recently purchased this Aurifil invisible thread, it's advertised as 'no break thread'. It's a 15000 metre cone so not exactly cheap, I wasn't pleased when I still had thread breaks but I thought I'd give it another try on this quilt. Once I realise I didn't need any kind of thread net, not even the more open plastic ones, it was a breeze, I just hope that I can find that sweet spot with the tension again next time???

Unfortunately you'll have to wait a little while to see this quilt finished as there is now another quilt on the frame that took precedence....'Thank goodness for Red Snappers!'

A few small finishes!

That's two Christmas wallhangings, two Christmas table mats, two pillow shams, and three cushions with quilted fronts and backs....and a partridge in a pear tree....lol....all of the cushions and the pillow shams are made up from either orphan blocks or pieces left over from quilts you have previously seen too, well except for one quilt which is still being bound.

OK, they are not all finished, I still have the binding to hand sew down on one cushion but it will get done tomorrow!