Dyeing for Snow

It actually snowed last week!  

The cats and I were so excited.

It wasn't very deep but enough to enjoy.  I was actually surprised that Keiko even went into the snow.  She usually stays on the patio out of the wetness.  She is getting adventurous in her old age.

I decided to try snow dyeing using just the dye powder as I do with ice dyeing, rather than mixing the powder with water first as I have in the past with snow dyeing.

I used my two newest colors:

chartreuse and . . . . .a-red-color-that-I-don't-recall-the-exact-name-of.

Come on, you can't really expect me to remember something like that from last week, can you?!  Besides, I'm too lazy to walk down stairs and look at the name on the jar.  Maybe I'll look later and add it here. And maybe I won't.

Here is the powdered dye on top of the snow:

It actually dissolves quite quickly.  I dyed about 6 half yard pieces of fabric.  One was a cheesecloth like fabric and one was a very silky cotton.  They all came out something like this:

and this:

I really like this color combination better than I thought I would.

I used up the last of my PFD Cotton fabric.  I can't believe I have already dyed 15 yards of fabric.

I ordered another bolt and hope it arrives before the next snow flies.

Last week I also experimented with a couple of other dye techniques that I will be posting about very soon.  See you then!

Family Day Quilt

Michael Miller fabrics has a beautiful panel that I combined with a few other fabrics from the same line to make this wall hanging.  I haven't decided on a binding yet but I'm thinking it will be orange.

It was tricky fussy cutting these girls from the fabric and then figuring out how wide to cut strips so that everything equaled out.  These are the kind of math problems I should have been given in grade school!

I wish I knew someone to give it to once it is done hanging in the shop!

Handiquilter

I had the opportunity to take a little tour of the Handiquilter facility in North Salt Lake last week.  Handiquilter makes 24", 18" and 16" long arm sewing machines as well as my favorite the Sweet 16 sit down model.   All of their machines have parts made throughout the world but they are each assembled and tested in North Salt Lake, Utah.  

Darren, the Chief Financial Officer of Handiquilter, was our tour guide.

It's not a large assembly plant but it gets the job done.

I was impressed to find out that each and every machine goes through hours of testing at different speeds to make sure it will work properly when it arrives at your house.

Every machine is also set up and stitched with for at least 20 minutes.  The quilt sandwiches created from these hours of testing are bound and donated to local charities.

This gentleman is assembling a new machine.

And here is a tester at my favorite Sweet 16 model.

I was able to spend about 4 hours playing on several of these Sweet 16's.  I'm still saving my money for one of these babies. I love the open arm space of these machines and being able to see everywhere you are going.  Lots of power and lots of fun!

Thank you so much to my new friend Anita over at Annie of Blue Gables who allowed me to hijack her photos for my blog.  I can't believe I didn't think to bring my own camera!

More Tangling

I just can't get away from zentangling.

It is so relaxing and can be taken with me anywhere.

I really like doing it while I wait for children in the car.

I'm determined to add some color.

I'm not feeling as chicken about adding color as I once was but I just have to remember to bring some color with me when I go out or remember to bring my sketchbook down to the studio!

Painting

I am taking an acrylic painting class to help me grow as an artist.  I wanted to paint with acrylics because they are what I use on fabrics and I hope the lessons I learn in my art class will transfer over into art quilting.  We are painting still life in class and after 4 classes I've finally created something I don't mind sharing:

Pin Free. . .

How do you baste your quilts before quilting?

I hate basting my quilts with pins!  

Straight pins stab you as you pin and as you quilt.  Safety pins make my fingers raw.  But if a quilt sandwich isn't basted properly the quilting looks awful.

A few years ago I read about basting spray.  I searched and the only product I could find at the time was at my local big-chain-fabric-store.  It was a little sticky but did the job of keeping things together.

I was so excited even if it meant I now had a lifetime supply of large curved safety pins.  Not having raw fingers made it all worth it!  I never tried another brand online because I never thought about needing the spray until I had to baste a quilt and I always need to baste them NOW!

But the reviews for 505 were so high and widely spread across the blogosphere that I decided to keep my eyes open.  I finally found 505 in a booth at a vendors mall and proceeded to buy two cans.  I AM NOW A BIG FAN OF 505!  It sticks beautifully and doesn't gum up my sewing machine.  My quilting mistakes are now my own and not because of a poor basting job.  Yay!

Today I discovered something I thought I would share.  ODIF, the company that makes 505 has a great little comparison on their website where you can look at all the spray products they make and decide which product will work for what you need.  Great information!  I had no idea there were so many different sprays for different jobs - permanent, temporary, fabric and paper.   I can spray a paper pattern onto fabric - again no pins to poke me.  It's beginning to sound like I'm not a big fan of being poked or of pins. Crazy!