Meet the family

No, not the relations, the "family" of dyed fabrics I made at the Festival of Quilts. The task was to dye a range of values using just two colours. I chose lemon yellow and black and my fabric was some basic cotton. We used fifteen fat quarters in all. Twelve were used in the first dyeing using the black dye;  sorted into three groups of four with three different strengths of dye solution, light, medium and dark.

In order to get a flat colour without texture we had to manipulate the fabric in the bath and exclude all the air bubbles. This did not prove to be so easy and my fabrics do show quite a bit of unintended texture. Never mind! So left overnight the next task was to rinse thoroughly. This proved very difficult partly because we had to share the sinks, but also it proved very hard to shift all the excess dye. Had I been at home, I would have put it all in the washing machine.

The next job was to  resort the black and grey fabrics into four groups, each one containing a light, medium and dark. One group was set aside and not overdyed. One of each of the three undyed fat quarters was added to each group of three. Each set of four was then dyed as before in a light, medium and dark dyebath but this time using lemon yellow.

More manipulation, rinsing etc and here they are, but now having been thoroughly washed, dried and ironed.

Unfortunately, the light lemon yellow did not take too well and I think was contaminated with some excess black that hadn't been washed out.                

And here they are in black and white showing the range of values.

Not 100% successful, but a start nevertheless and next time I will do better I'm sure having learned a lot. One thought occurred to me was what difference, if any it would make to dye the yellow first and then overdye with black. the possibilities seem endless, but will have to wait until I have a permanent home where I can make a mess with dye that won't matter.

In the meantime we are enjoying walking the cliff path and just chilling out while we wait for the dream home to come on the market!

Sore feet...

but never mind! Having done three days dyeing with Jo Lovelock at the Festival of Quilts, I had some lovely hand dyed fabrics to take home with me. Also, I had got to spend time with some lovely people, both in the class and also around the show.

So here are a few photos from the class.

Jo giving lots of advice!

Susie's rainbow silk scarf in the greenhouse tray!

 Tray dyed pieces drying on the wall board.

Pat and Ann deep in conference!

Family dyed cloth drying,

Susie with her rainbow silk scarf!

A quiet moment!

Jo and Noreen discussing the latest tray dyeing experiment.

A thoughtful moment while Pat drinks her coffee.

This was a wonderful experience, but it involved a lot of standing so was very hard on the feet and ankles. As for the show itself. well that will be for another post because my dinner is ready!

Don't you just......

hate it when you've got a train to catch and you've packed your bags, had breakfast, cleaned your teeth and are ready to go a whole hour before you need to leave!

I remember my Mum insisting on leaving so early that we always got to the station hours before the train was due leading to being teased about leaving the night before "just in case". Now my DH teases me about my anxiety whenever I have a train to catch. So here I am updating my blog!

Some quilting has been done, but we have been taking advantage of the fine weather and have been exploring during the day before crashing on the sofa in front of the olympics in the evening.
 What will we do now it's all over? More quilting, obviously!

We have discovered that we can see the sea from the garden and we are rapidly falling in love with it here. I am beginning to wonder why I decided to go to the Festival of Quilts for almost a whole week, but then I think of the wonderful people I will see and the lovely things I will buy!

Time to get the car out and go!

To do list

So now I have a lovely room in which to produce lots of lovely work, I'm spending most of my time on the sofa watching the olympics! But I have made a start quilting the disappearing nine patch quilt which I hope to send off to my DD for her birthday.

I signed up for a Craftsy class called quilting a big  project on a small machine  and there are a lot of different techniques which I'm sure will be helpful The main one is to ensure that your quilting surface is at the correct height and sadly, mine isn't! This makes it very difficult to move the quilt smoothly and ensure that the stitching is even. Still I am making progress and I hope to get it finished by the end of the week.

Just a little taster;

Then I have to get my fabric prepared for the dyeing workshop with Jo Lovelock at Festival of Quilts oh, and I must also do my four yellow journal quilts by the end of the month! So no pressure then!

And what is my DH doing while I am sweating over a hot sewing machine?

Boys and their toys!