I gave you a sneak preview (previous post) of the central area I was working on. I will admit that this quilt is not what I had pictured in my mind when I was thinking about it. But as with most of my art, I think as I'm working, the piece speaks to me and tells me what it wants to be when it is finished. Here is a close up of the stitched texture.
I tried a new technique on this wall hanging. Instead of adding a typical binding around the edge, I tried a faced finish. I found instructions here and I'm very happy with how it turned out. Jeri Riggs was very generous in sharing her facing technique. I did find other similar techniques as well, but decided to try Jeri's. I'm very certain I'll use this technique more in the future.
I also spent part of my day yesterday, playing with some new dyes. I used to dye with the procion dyes but have since stopped doing that as the time and energy I spent at it wasn't enjoyable for me. I also think part of my problem was that the space I am dying in isn't set up correctly. Anyway, I read about these new dyes by Jacquard called IDye. You simply toss the dye packet into the washing machine along with your fabric and some salt. A wash load later, you have lovely dyed fabrics.
At this moment I have another load in the washer. I'm trying something different with this batch though. I thought I'd premix two colors of dye with some water, I filled the washer with water, added the salt and fabric and let that mix. Then, I stopped the agitation cycle on the washer and poured the two colors of dye, randomly over the fabric in the tub. Using a wooden spoon, I stirred a little to disperse the dye. It's now been sitting in there for a couple hours. My aim is to get some of each color onto the fabrics. I'll show the results tomorrow. I'm crossing my fingers that I get the results that I want.