New American Made Brand Fabrics

I recently had the pleasure to play with some new fabric by American Made Brand. This line of fabric is a gorgeous quality, solid colored line that is grown and made right in the USA. It can't get better than that!

There are three new fabrics coming out and they are perfect for all that I do. But then again, the solid colors they offer are perfect too, because they are the ones that I screen print my own designs onto. But, if you happen to be a dyer and printer and want something that is ready to design with, then you will like the new offerings.

The three new fabrics are:

1. AMB PFP cotton is fabric Prepared for Printing.  Fabric is free of finishing and treated in a way to let inks immerse the fibers in color during the printing process.  For the tech-savvy artist wanting to transform their digital creations into fabric works of art!
2. AMB PFD cotton is fabric Prepared for Dyeing.  No starches, sizing, or finishes applied to the fabric, allowing dyes and paints to saturate the fibers.  Perfect for dyeing, batiking, fabric painting, block printing, and all types of textile art media.  Let this fabric serve as a blank canvas to unleash your inner Picasso!
3. AMB Natural Muslin

Here is what I did with my piece of PFD cotton. 

I first dyed the PFD cotton with an orange fiber reactive dye. The color came out brilliant and gorgeous. Next I used textile paint to add some stenciled leaves to the surface. 

I decided to split my piece of PFP fabric in two so I could print two designs on it. For the first design shown, I used one of my Thermofax screen designs, another leaf design, and screened an avocado green color over the surface.

For the other piece of PFP fabric, I used one of my compressed sponge shapes. Yes, another leaf design (I must have been in a leafy mood). I sponged on textile paint in a teal color.

And for the final fabric, the natural muslin, I again used a Thermofax screen to create a fabric that has a stripe pattern.

Once the four pieces of fabric were finished I pulled some of my other printed AMB fabrics from my stash and created a small collection.

This collection called to me to make something so I decided to create a small quilt. I made an improv quilt block with a wonky plus design and then repeated the same block in a smaller size for the border.

I am very impressed that AMB has added these new fabrics to their line. I love using the AMB solids with my screen printing and now I can add these new fabrics to my stash so I can have an even larger variety of options when I want to create unique and original fabrics for my projects.

If you would like to see more of these fabrics and other AMB solids that are available, please visit:

American Made Brand fabrics is found on the web here, http://americanmadebrand.com/.

American Made Brand fabric is a division of Clothworks, http://www.clothworks.com. 

As always, thanks for stopping by and visiting. Please leave a comment if you have any questions.

Screen Printing and Dyeing, Oh My!

I've been busy. Very busy. I had planned on having some screen printed fabrics in my Etsy shop by now, but I've had a few hiccups along the way which has caused a slight delay. I'm hoping by the end of March, crossing my fingers.

I did manage to get some hand dyed batiks and other hand dyed fabrics into the shop recently. You can see those here.

I've gotten some fabrics printed, in the two designs above, but not as much as I wanted to get done before I found there were some issues I needed to deal with before moving forward. These two designs are called Rings Around and Dashing.

So I'm wondering, and would love your input, what would you prefer when shopping for my screen printed fabrics....your choice of printed design on your choice of fabric color or do you like to buy fat quarter bundles with mix and match printed designs and fabric colors? Thank you for any and all input!

My Own Fabric Line

For a long while now I've had a dream to see my designs on fabric for quilting/sewing. I recently had an eye opening jolt after seeing a designer from overseas doing something that I can actually do (but never thought of)...and she is very successful at it. That designer is Karen Lewis and she has a wonderful line of screen printed designs that she has created. You can see her site here.

So over the past few weeks I've been researching and planning and executing my plans. I've created several screens using my Thermofax machine and here are my first couple of printing tests. 

These fabrics are hand dyed by me and while I will offer screened designs on hand dyed fabrics, I also plan to use commercial solid fabrics with my designs screened on them as well.

Below is my new set up for screen printing larger fabric pieces. My husband helped me create a padded board and t-square so that I can easily set up for repeat printing. I used it for the first time this morning and am thrilled with how well it worked.

My studio space has become too small for me over the years as I've developed my likes in what I love doing. It gets a bit crowded in the room with this screen printing table set up...so I take it down and set it up when I need it.  Another goal/plan I have is to move part of my sewing space into an unused room in my house (living room). We never ever use that room, so I plan to sell some of my furniture and turn it into my sewing space and then use my current space for my printing/painting work. It's a plan that may take a few months or more to actually execute, but I look forward to it.

I am very excited to start creating more screen printed fabrics and hope to have them available soon in my Etsy shop.

Another fabric item I plan to add to my Etsy shop are my hand dyed batiks. I'm having so much fun playing with this technique. I recently learned how to use batik wax, which is different from soy wax. I much prefer the batik wax as I found the soy wax much too slimy and hard to remove the final traces of it.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope my hand printed/hand batik fabrics are appealing to you.

Happy New Year

Wow.....2016. It's a new year. Can you believe it? It seems like just yesterday we were entering the new millennium. I don't know about you, but time is just flying by.

Over the past few days I've been playing with fabric batik'ing. Here are three results that I'm happy with. I am going to be playing more with batiks in the near future. Just waiting for my supplies to show up. I ran out of batik wax so I had to get some ordered.

A couple weeks ago, I shared a quilt top that I had pieced, using all hand dyed fabrics. I've been thinking about how I will quilt this top and I'm sort of thinking about doing some hand quilting with these threads. The perle cotton was actually dyed with these fabrics so the colors are a match. I've seen some wonderful examples of big stitch quilting with heavier threads on the Internet and I like the look of it. So....we shall see about this. The good thing is that this quilt top isn't overly large, so hand quilting shouldn't take me forever.

And here is a quilt top that I'm currently working on. I found the central improv blocks recently in a storage container. I had pieced them some time ago...I have to say at least two or even three years ago....maybe. Well I decided it is time to create something with these so I'm slowly building the quilt top.

I plan to add more to this top but need some time to think about the next step. I have lots of scraps and pieces from other projects that coordinate with these colors so I am hoping to use those somehow. I have an idea floating in my head but just need to work it out.

Love/Hate Snow

Well we are finally getting some snow that seems to be hanging around and piling up. It was only after the second snowfall recently that I remembered that I'm supposed to have a new LOVE relationship with it. Last year I discovered I liked snow dyeing. And then I remembered that last year my snow dyeing days were numbered, because by the time I realized I was enjoying it, then we didn't get any more snow. By the end of that time period last year I had decided to try snow dyeing a white long-sleeved t-shirt. I had it all ready to go, with oodles of rubber bands wound onto it for some resist design and then......no more snow.

So I found my rubber banded shirt that waited for me to dye it and went to work. Here is what I got. I love it! At first, when it was still soaking in a tub of water to remove the excess dye, I thought I hated it. I was seeing murky muddy colors and thought the colors didn't turn out on the shirt. After the final rinsing and drying I found I was completely wrong.

I used three colors of dye on the shirt....Red Violet, Watermelon, and Aqua.

This past week I found myself wanting to create a quilt with only solid colored fabrics. In the past I have dyed many yards of fabric and over time they have sat on the shelf and not been used. So I pulled some and made this quilt top.

It is about 40 x 52" in its unquilted state. While I like the results and have always enjoyed solid fabric quilts that others make, I have learned something about myself....I much prefer to make projects with fabrics that have pattern/design on them. Silly huh?

Ice Dyeing with Resist

Oh My Goodness....I cannot believe how time has flown since I last posted here. I have had quite a busy past few weeks, but not in ways I really wanted to be spending my time.

Right at the end of October one of my outdoor cats sustained a head injury. The minute I saw her come home I rushed her to the vet. Luckily there was someone able to drive me there, because I was in panic mode. I had to feed her for about a two week period as she wasn't eating by herself. I'm happy to say she has made a fabulous recovery and we are so grateful.

Also during that time period I got really sick. I'm not sure if it was just a bad cold or a case of the flu, but I spent a lot of the time on the couch. Doing nothing.

I don't have a lot to show for the past few weeks. But in the days before my cat's injury, I had spent some time with local friends and we had an ice dyeing session.

In a recent issue of Quilting Arts magazine, Lynda Heines, of Bloom Bake & Create blog, had an article about ice dyeing with resists. In her article she used soy wax and Clean Line resist. My friend Sandy already had a bottle of the Clean Line on hand and she so generously shared with everyone. So a few days prior to our dyeing day, we each (at home) applied some Clean Line resist to fabric pieces. Then we met and applied soy wax to more pieces of fabric. And then we ice dyed.

Below are most of my results. I did not have success with the Clean Line resist. I think perhaps it dissolved on the fabric too fast. The only Clean Line resist piece that sort of turned out is the first one shown here. All the rest of the fabrics are done with soy wax.

I'm mostly happy with all my fabrics, except on some I wish I had applied more dye powder so there would be more color/contrast. However, with that said, who knows will happen as the melting ice is what decides where the color goes.

Discharge Printing

Remember the other day when I showed you the compressed sponge shapes I had cut?  Well, here is what I did with them.  So. far.

One day this past week I got together with friends and we had a discharge party. It was so much fun that I did some more the next day by myself at home.

This was the first time I had really gotten into discharging fabric to this extent. I had tried a piece here or there over the years. Lately, though, I had really been wanting to do more with it. I have quite a stash of hand dyed fabrics that I wanted to play with, some dyed a single color and some overdyed.

I found there to be a slight learning curve with the discharge printing. We used bleach mixed with monagum thickener. I found a thicker mixture worked best for the sponge applications. This first piece shown was my first attempt and my mixture was too thin. The thinner the mixture, the more moisture spread on the fabric and then you sort of lose the details of your design.

The fabrics shown are not all the ones that I did, but I think these are the ones that turned out best. Another thing that affects the outcome of this process is how long you leave the bleach mixture on the fabric. The longer it is on the lighter/whiter the designs become. So it is sort of a guessing game as to when to dunk the fabric into the rinsing buckets. For the most part I was able to stop the bleaching action at a point where I wanted, but sometimes not.

Another factor that is fun in this process is you don't know for sure what colors will show when the bleaching action starts. At least that is how it is for me, since I don't keep track of what colors I originally dyed the fabric with and some colors discharge differently than others.

I will be doing some more of this in the near future. This will be a summer activity for me because I don't like to use the bleach in the house. I don't want the smell in the house and my curious cats don't need to get into it.

One other thing that I want to try the compressed sponge shapes for is dyeing fabric with Color Magnet. Ohhhhhhh, can't wait!!!!!

My New Favorite Thing

I have found a new toy and I am in love with it. It is Jacquard Color Magnet.

This product is used with fabric dyeing and has been available for some time now but for some reason I just hadn't been inclined to try it. Well better late than never and now that I have I am totally hooked. The first jar I bought was gone in no time. 

For my Color Magnet trials I used both Thermofax screens and stencils. The first piece of fabric was my first trial and I mixed my dye slightly too dark, but I still love the result. It is much easier to see the results of this one in person.

What I don't love about this product is -- it is slightly too runny. I wish it was just a bit thicker right out of the jar. Also, there is only one size available. Yes, I want to buy a gallon, please!

Have you tried Color Magnet?

Shibori Fun

Last month, I went over to Sandy's house and we had a Shibori session. I had been wanting to do some clamped Shibori for some time and since Sandy has done this before, I asked if she would teach me how she does it. She has the perfect set up for dyeing--a second kitchen area that is dedicated to her fabric dyeing. She also had all the tools and supplies. So all I needed to bring along were a few things like fabric and dye and gloves. 

Sandy let me choose two colors of dye that we would work with. The dyeing method was not the low water immersion technique but a bucket full of color in which we submerged our clamped fabric and let them soak up color for over an hour. Below are the results from the pieces I did.

Out of all these pieces, I think the first three shown are my favorites. Some of the results were a bit less than exciting but that's how you learn, I guess.

The second to last photo was not a clamped piece, but a pole wrapped piece.

The last photo shown was a piece of fabric that Sandy gave me to play with. She had already applied some dye to it and let it dry. The dyes she painted on gradated from yellows to reds as you can see in the piece. Then after the dye is dried, it is clamped and them submerged in the dye bucket with the other pieces and the end results are pretty cool, even though I wasn't thrilled with the results of the shape I had clamped on it. She showed me some wonderful pieces she had done this way and I am anxious to try it on my own.

I've been collecting some tools for doing my own Shibori dye sessions and I have acquired quite a few now and I've also bought some clamps to hold everything together. I want to also try this with a low water dyeing technique and see what I think of that.