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!

Completion & Natures Perfection

Letha's quilt made the journey to the long arm shop today. Here are the before and after pics. Of course no quilt leaves here without first being tested. This is Boo our official quilt tester. The pile of coral/green fabric is for the backing.

My husband has the green thumb in our house. This is one of his masterpieces. Oh, BTW the quilts in the background are a few of my class samples.

Pretty in Pink

Headed for bed soon, but thought I would post a few pics of Letha's quilt. She went shopping with me just before the holidays and picked out pinks, greens and a few browns. I added some white on white and a few pink pieces I had. I told her I learned something from the kids blue/brown string quilt. Hers' would be done in squares instead of rectangles. That way I didn't have to worry about placing the dark center strip on half the opposing corners. I also decided I wouldn't worry about light and dark halves. I'm just grabbing and piecing. These blocks are only half done. I put them up on the design wall to make sure my obsessive half would not surface and force me to do the light/dark thing!

One down

I remember now why I don't do these as gifts. The hours involved in piecing is unbelievable. So here is the latest. Moving on to MIL string quilt then maybe the spare Blue/Brown one. I've been playing with some shirts in between. I have a dozen or so waiting for dye now. Will post some pics of them later.

Multi-tasking

Just a few things going on around here. I did manage to get Judy's order finished and shipped. The photo with all the strips of fabric are my recipes for her order.

The ones with the pressed & unpressed fabric are the sample swatches as well as a few colors that weren't quite right.

The blue and brown string quilt was a gift for our oldest son and his new wife. I actually managed to complete the top, dye the backing and get it to the quilter in time to give it to them for Christmas. The block you see here is the one we will keep. It will also be king sized when I manage to complete it. I made a small error when piecing. I pieced all 90 something blocks going the same direction. Problem is if you want diamonds half of them need to be mirror image, hence 2 quilts!

The pile of pink, green and white will be another string quilt. This one will go to my MIL. She brought to my attention that I had never made her a bed quilt. One quilt coming up.

Pineapple baby quilt was a surprise to me. Hubby came home last week with the news one of his friends was a new grandpa. They know I do fabric and quilt, so a gift from the store won't do.

And last, but certainly not least there is Blue Boy. He is my work in progress. Too smart for his own good most days, but with that face who could stay mad? He is filling out to a beautiful boy.

Christmas 2009

Just a few member of the family. Will have to do better with the camera next year.

Scatter Dyes

A few pieces for sale on Bonanzle. Link on the left. Something new I'm trying. Opinions?

Costa Rica

As promised we returned with both pictures and tans. Enjoy the slide show.

Best laid plans

No pics tonight. I have been scrambling around all week trying to get everything done before we leave town. Not going to happen.

The fabric for the custom order took longer to arrive than I planned, the dyes struck the fabric at an alarming speed, so had to do several colors over. I will have to shoot for the end of the month.

I did manage to get the top put together for the kids' Christmas gift. My savior (Jamie) at the quilt shop agreed to quilt it before Christmas.

The dog knows something is up. We put the luggage next to the front door and he hasn't let us out of his sight since. He and we love his sitter. Cinnamon (yes, that's her name) stays here when we're gone and I thing she spoils him worse than we do.

I will return with pics and a golden tan!

Preparing for the Holidays

I overslept this am, so have been rushing around trying to get stuff done before I leave for work. I managed to assemble 13 Christmas cards (need edges finished), sew 12 blocks for the kids quilt and rinse out 12 yards of fabric.

I have an order for 88 yards custom fabric. I had this novel idea that maybe I should run test swatches (is a yard a swatch?) this time. I will be using Egyptian instead of the regular 200 TC which costs more. The Egyptian is on order and I want to have all my recipes ready when it arrives. I want to have this in the mail to Judy before we leave town.


I fudged on the cards this year. We will be gone Dec 10 - Dec 20 so I just won't have the time to design and make them from my fabrics. Oh well, they are still handmade and come from the heart. I still have several rows of the king sized quilt to finish for the kids. Not sure if I will have time to actually quilt it thought. They may receive only the top.

Here are the basic materials for the cards. Only 20 more to go!

Random Images

I was clearing old images off the camera when I came across a few that I thought would be interesting. Above is a common sight here in the Northwest. The ridge lines are covered in these. I find them strangely beautiful.


Tray dyeing in my state of the art studio!



View from my patio this summer. We have some of the most awesome sunsets. Sunrises aren't bad either.

Test runs for Judy's newest order. Normally I just jump in, but I will be using Egyptian for this, so don't want too many oops pieces.


This is my dream studio. It is actually a horse barn down the road from us. I would buy this property in a heartbeat just for the barn.

Supernova

Something new!!! I love this fabric. I haven't been this excited about a technique since I first learned how to dye. The color combinations are endless. Off to do some more.

Wax on, Wax off

Spent the day with Loretta playing with thickened dyes, thiox and silkscreens. This is one of my work aprons that didn't turn out as planned. Of course it probably would have helped if I had a plan!

Before discharge:



After Discharge:


Now I just need to put down a few more layers.

Face time with the laptop

Some days I have to force myself to sit down at the laptop. My stores desperately needed updating, so finally got to work on the one at Bonanzle. Here's the link for the store. http://www.bonanzle.com/booths/annettewink You can see a few of my items at left. Pictured is a few of the items I put up for sale. Gotta run for now. I'm on a roll!

Tabs and other random thoughts

Tabs, the kind on your web browser. How many do you have open at any given time? 2, 4, 8....?I just counted my tabs and29 is a little extreme even for me! I don't like bookmarks as it requires you to search for whatever page you want. Well there are some days that I don't know what I want. I'm looking for inspiration.

Here is a sampling of my open tabs:

I love the rotating gallery on the SAQA home page.
http://www.saqa.com/index.aspx

Go here if you are looking for inspiration.
http://www.surfacedesign.org/default.asp

I love Rayna's blog. I want here life.
http://studio78notes.blogspot.com/2009_08_01_archive.html

Hmmmmm...... not one of my pages. Well at least DH didn't close out the entire browser like he normally does.
http://www.mgshooters.com/shooterinfo.htm

One of my online stores. There are a few pieces of fabric and a bunch of random fiber pieces.
http://www.bonanzle.com/booths/annettewink

Here's the other one.
http://stores.shop.ebay.com/Badger-Canyon-Hand-Dyes__W0QQ_armrsZ1

We want to retire here someday. Will have to settle for a winter vacation for now. I think this would be an awesome place to open a surface design retreat.
http://www.google.com/search?q=costa+rica&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

Project Runway, need I say more?
http://www.mylifetime.com/on-tv/shows/project-runway/about-project-runway

This is the owner of my LQS. I love this lady, she really does enjoy teaching new quilters. She has helped me along on my twisted journey.
http://www.villagequiltworks.com/workshop.html

Think I'll go dig thru all those old bookmarked pages. This ought to be interesting.

Something Fun

I am trying to jump start my creative engine, but I'm having some difficulty. I just can't seem to dive into my projects with the single minded drive I used to. I have several things I need to get done besides the normal Christmas stuff. I know it's only August, but you have to start early.

This is something fun I put together this morning. Thought it may help the process. I took a toddlers jean jacket, removed the sleeves and made a backpack. Added a little hand dyed lace I had laying around, lined with a piece of hand dyed fabric and voila! a fun little bag.

Oh, the background fabric is something new I am playing with. I had some dyes dry out in the garage, so instead of wasting them I decided to play. I soaked some fabric in soda ash, crumpled it into trays, sprinkled the dried up dyes over it and added some extra dye powder. I'll get some pics of the other pieces and post them next time.