Coming along

Mornings are always the best time for me to get something done. The light is perfect for color matching. I surprised myself with the 7 colors I did yesterday. Four of them were perfect and the turqious was really close. The yellow/green was a failure. I got a great wheat though. I plan to split the turq into 1 yd pieces and deepen the color one run at a time until I reach the saturated turq needed.

Any of the failed color matches will eventually end up on the new page I managed to created titled of all things, Fabric for Sale! I still need to grab the code for Buy Now buttons from Paypal. Not sure which will work best for people.

S.W. Turq and a perfect purple/blue. This purple began as turq one shade darker than seen here. Overdyed with Imperial. I love it.

This picture doesn't do justice to the red here. I started with 2 TB Chinese, O/D with 2 TB Chinese and 1 TB Oxblood. It's important to do several overdyes (O/D) to get the depth of color.  The rust/red started out a rust orange, O/D with 1 Oxblood, O/D with 1 Chinese & 2 Oxblood. This one is perfect. I still need to do one a shade lighter.

I tried a new mixed color here. One run with 2 TB Marigold achieved the right shade. Will need to tinker with it for the other two shades needed.

This is the purple mentioned above. Yummy! You should see it pressed. Maybe tomorrow I'll get a minute to post finished (pressed) pieces.

Lazy day

Spent the day doing a whole lot of nothing. Well not really, but it sure felt like I didn't get much done. I am scouring 100 yards of 200 TC cotton for an order. I can only do this in 12-14 yard batches to assure stripping the finish. Here is what 50 yards looks like.

 

 

Between loads I thought I would use up some old dyes I had sitting around. I drug out several shirts and shibori tied and stitched them. This is what happens when you think it's a waste to throw out dyes or just pour them together for "muck" dyes.

Muddy, faded colors. Needless to say the rest of these leftovers are headed for a muck dyeing run. One yard of fabric is way cheaper than shirt blanks. Oh well, this one will be fine for a dye shirt. It sure won't matter if I splash dye on this!

I ran some fabric/dye samples today. The photos were too fuzzy to post.I'll try again in the daylight. I used 1-1-1 ratio on Egyptian, 200 TC and Sateen to compare dye strike, vibrancy etc.... The results were almost as expected. The 200 TC dyed much softer and muted than the other two. I was hoping the Sateen would have a better result than it did. It dyed up more vivid than the 200 TC,but not enough to justify the added cost per yard. I think the hand of the Sateen is heavier than the 200 TC though not as heavy as the Egyptian.

Here is a fun little bag I've been working on each morning. I spent 30-40 minutes each morning satin stitching & quilting the units. It's supposed to look like a Chinese lantern. I haven't decided what I'll use for the handle yet. Think I'll go browse the trim aisle tomorrow. 

 

I may use some fabric paints to tone down the lime green. I plan to bead the top as well as other areas. Maybe I'll foil it!