Birdie Quilt

I finished the little birdie quilt that I was working on.


I'm happy with this one. I didn't get a very good photo of it, but I'm feeling lazy today and didn't want to hassle with a time consuming photo shoot.

Other things I've done today...rearrange some of the fabric on my shelves to get all my IDyed fabrics in one area alongside all the other hand dyes. I'm starting to run out of shelf space where I keep all my fabrics. Hmmmm, I wonder if I can lift those ceiling tiles and put some up there. So now I'm asking myself, "Why am I planning to dye some more fabric?"

Yesterday I had to toss some old jars of textile paint into the trash. A few of them I've had for quite a while and when I opened them they smelled oh so awful and some even had moldy dark spots growing. I guess that should teach me something huh? Start painting more, maybe?

Year of the Hand Dyes

I've deemed 2009 the year of the hand dyed fabrics. I really have been obsessed with hand dyeing and want to do some more. I am hoping that I will get it all out of my system and then I'll have to deem the next 500 years the Years of Sewing the Hand Dyes.

I want to get it all out of my system for many reasons. 1)I don't want to buy 5,000 yards of PFD fabric to dye, 2)I can't make fruity, sweet beverages out of any left over dyes, and 3)I will eventually run out of shelf space in my studio for displaying my lovely art hand dyed fabrics.

And to make matters worse, I've now got on order some bulk perle cotton to dye along with my fabric. You know, a girl needs to have matching thread to go along with those luscious hand dyes.

So the last couple of days I've been using up the last of my IDyes. In case you don't recall, these are the dyes you use in your washing machine. I had about 8 colors left and wanted to get them used up. In the first photo you see here, I combined IDye colors to create these two batches. I ended up with some mud colors in the lefthand group, but I guess sometimes you might need some of those huh?


Here are two groups of blues I created.


And here are two groups of greens.


And after all that, I still have a couple of colors of IDye left, although not complete packages as I like my colors a little lighter than if I'd used the entire dye packet. So there they sit, still waiting. I could throw them away, since there isn't much left in each package, but hey, I can't throw good dye away. So hmmm, I could give it away!

Here is a project I started yesterday. It will be a small wall hanging. My next step on this is to add color.


I had been working on a quilt for a few days and suddenly I decided I'm not liking it anymore. I wasn't enjoying it and wondered if it was worth continuing. Have you experienced these thoughts on a project? I decided to set the project aside and perhaps one day I'll see some potential in it. But I just didn't want to waste my time on it now.

Wednesday This & That

Hey! Hello! Whatcha been up to? Have you missed me?

I've recently been a bit busy with visiting relatives and working on outdoor projects, so I haven't been a good blogger lately. I haven't had time to make or work on anything either.

I did, however, grab some time to work on my hand stitching project while in the car lately. So here is a little progress on that.


And look at these two great fabrics I purchased. I'm going to dye these.



Another thing I've worked on lately is a new look for my website. Please take a look. I hope you'll like what you see there.

Waiting

I've finished my quilt. I've named it Waiting. You can decide what she is waiting for.

Waiting
31" x 26"

Yesterday afternoon my Internet service went on vacation. It was out for about 24 hours. It was a hard and grueling 24, but I survived. I guess you could say I was Waiting for it to be restored. How addicted are you to the World Wide Web?

Last of the Hand Dyes

Here is my latest gradation. This is Deep Yellow and Lilac. I ended up with some very interesting greens. Not exactly what I was expecting, but that's part of the fun. And when you aren't using pure colors in dyeing, well then, expect the unexpected!


I mentioned in my last post about working on a quilt entry for the Blurred Boundaries exhibit. Here is a sneak peek. I have even solved my name dilemma and thought of one. I guess it just took some thinking time. By the way, I've shown you part of this quilt before. You can see the background in this post.


Oh and are you wondering about the title of this post? Well this will be the last hand dyed gradation for a week or two as I have depleted all my PFD fabric. I need to get some more ordered. I know I can squish some more fabric onto my shelves. I just know it!

Blueberry

Here is my latest two-color gradation. I'm calling it blueberry because I think I would maybe see some of these colors in a bunch of blueberries. I used brilliant blue and lilac to create this gradation. It is a very subtle gradation, I imagine because the two colors are close together on the color wheel.

I decided I should document my two-color gradations somehow. I'm hoping that my friend, Vicki, will be proud of me for recording my efforts, although they are somewhat simplistic. Vicki??? How am I doing here? Is there hope for me?

I've been working on a mixed-media quilt this weekend that I am hoping to finish within the next day or two so that I can get some photos of it and submit it to an upcoming quilt show. The deadline for submissions is June 28 (deadline has been extended one week). The show is Blurred Boundaries and you can read all about it here.

I need to come up with a name/title for the quilt too. I always have such a difficult time naming quilts.

Amazed and Baffled

I am so amazed that last weekend we were having temperatures in the 30s, and getting slushy rain. Today we are into the 80s and I'm wearing shorts.

The first two photos show some textured surfaces that I added color to yesterday. The top one is Neocolor II crayons and textile medium and the blue one below is Dye-Na-Flow.


My mail delivery person brought me a package today. I ordered some art supplies and I could only find one supplier who had the colors I was looking for. This was the first time I had ordered from this company and, well, I was quite baffled to see this box. Baffled, because I knew what was inside. See that little bubble wrapped pouch in front of the box? That is the supplies I ordered. You can see below what was in the bubble wrap.


Okay, am I missing something here? Was there a great need to package this small order in such a huge box? They shipped it priority mail. I know the Post Office has free priority mail boxes and there is a small one that would have worked perfectly in this situation. Sigh! I think it's one of life's little mysteries.