GOING TO THE DOGS

Not even spending the time to get a decent photo of this mess will make it better. 

This string foundation pieced project began at our 2016 PTA retreat.  It was supposed to be huge....destined for a large stairwell wall.  It's been a problem child from day one for so many reasons:  boring without the white sashing but when that was added, the planned finished size wouldn't fit my hanging device.  So I decided to make it smaller and use for a lap quilt.

The seams got very bulky given all the strips and muslin foundation. Pressing toward the white sashing allowed too much nasty shadowing and pressing toward the blocks distored the narrow sashing.

Stupidly I continued and basted it using a thin poly batting to avoid the weight of cotton.  What a mess.....I don't care what the label on the package said....it's NOT thin.  I continued anyway.....should have just eliminated the batting!!!  

It got worse.....I'm still regretting the purchase of the Janome 8900.  Despite my best efforts I can not get this thing to do what I want!!!  I quilted the sashing in the ditch, using the Accufeed system.....adjusting and adjusting to find the perfect tension.  I never did.   And now that those areas are all quilted.....the white strips look gathered!!  

My stupid continued as I started quilting diagonally through the center of each block.  While I had no thread breakage previously, now the invisible thread broke just before every intersection.  I'm SOOOOOOO done.  I'll rip out the three diagonal lines I stitched allowing each block to look like a beach ball.  And for the first time in my life I'll add the binding all by machine and call it DONE! 

Perhaps if I'd have been feeling better I'd have had more patience to correct my poor decisions as they came up.  Unfortunately my upper respiratory bug has lingered, making me realize I should have just been watching trash TV instead of trying to sew!

This piece is definitely going to the dogs.....our black lab rescue dog Sooty.

FOR THE DOGS

54" x 62"

You may want to check out these links of the SUCCESSFUL work of others this week :  Sarah's Whoop, Whoop Friday, Crazy Mom Sews, and Nina-Marie's Off The Wall Friday.

REMEMBERING

My twin sister and I learned we were identical twins, not fraternal as we were always led to believe, based on the DNA testing done prior to her bone marrow transplant, of which I was the donor.  Really, we simply couldn't believe it!!  We looked quite similar but not identical.

As I take a closer look at old photos, it's such a surprise to see just how often we were dressed alike! And what a goof I was.....my sister quietly on the right as I clowned on the left.

Birthdays aren't the same without you Nancy.......

Mary Theobald Stori           Nancy Theobald Willmas  

Mary Theobald Stori       Nancy Theobald Willmas  

Chuck Theobald (center)          

FOLLY BEACH DYEING MARATHON - PART 3

As I mentioned, much of what I dyed was not solid white commercial PFD fabric.

I wish I'd have retained a 'before' photo of this failed ice-dyed piece. The Marimekko print began life as a garment bag, used for one of my Fairfield Fashion Show Garments....way back when.

The decision to over-dye seemed wise. Unfortunately, these results weren't to my liking either.  Gulp, the piece was supposed to be put in the green/blue ice-dye pan....but instead it ended in the jewel tone one. Yuck!

Fiber Junkie member Denny gifted us boxes of Twice Fresh....a powdered chlorine bleach. I randomly sprinkled it onto the very damp fabric and rolled it up.  It sat in the sun for 4 or 5 hours.

As as often happens.....fabric backs can surprise and become the favorite. See how the bleach provided little sparks on the fabric?  (left-back  right-front)

The last day is always such a rush as we process the final pans that batched overnight; rinsing, washing, but no time for line drying given the nearly 6 hour drive home. Naturally, there's a lot of other clean up involved as well....as you dyers know well.  

So when I arrived home early that evening, I hung the still damp pieces on my antique drying rack.  I'd over-dyed a lot of wool and prefer to line dry them.

Kate spotted a brand new designer sheet at a thrift sale for $1.00.......which she shared with us.  Is this not amazing?!?

She also gave me some silk noil....my stash is depleted so I was thrilled.....and even happier after seeing these results.  It was dyed using our new window screen method.

This is a vintage linen table runner.....cut in half and ice-dyed using different colors.

I also dyed numerous pieces of gauze.  This one was initially ice-dyed but hadn't been properly arranged, leaving big areas undyed.  So, it was redyed in the microwave using some liquid mixed dyes.  

It's so much fun up-cycling fabrics that may not otherwise have had a purpose.  I'm already thinking ahead to our next adventure and will be digging in my stash with a very critical eye.

FOLLY BEACH DYEING MARATHON - PART 2

The weather for our first day was picture perfect....not quite so the following day.

Since I was beginning to feel punk, knowing now it wasn't allergies....I spent a lot of time out of the cold and wind in the storage/mechanical closet which was more like a small room.  Here I'm measuring/mixing small amounts of dyes.

Inexpensive plastic storage tubs (lightly covered with plastic wrap) work great for microwave dyeing. A variety of fabrics were utilized.....silk noil, National Nonwoven's Woolfelt, and commercial cotton prints.  I did very little using commercial white PFD fabric.

This particular piece of fabric from my stash had been auditioned a dozen time for various projects and the color was just never right. Hey...so why not over-dye it?!?

I was thrilled with the result....just enough interesting color/texture was retained after it was dyed with Acqua Marine.

We make a good team....each is responsible for specific meals....this was our lunch ala Judy.  Chicken salad, egg salad, shrimp salad, along with olive topped cream cheese filled celery sticks on a bed of mixed greens. Displayed here on some of our dyed fabrics.

Unmasked.....Kate (left) and Judy (right) are bundled up as we enjoyed Kate's dock........

Just in time for this lovely sunset.....

Stay tuned for Part 3.

FOLLY BEACH DYEING MARATHON - PART 1

Three of us fiber pals have made numerous trips to Folly Beach where we spend several days either dyeing or painting fabric. I just returned with a large pile of treasures, great memories and a bad cold/cough that I initially mistook for allergies.

We do most of our dyeing outdoor, beneath Kate's house which overlooks an ever changing marsh and river.  

Each trip we add new procedures to make the process more convenient, comfortable, and efficient.  These foam pads are an example....

Judy (being the super organized gal she is) long ago made samples for each dye she owned.  What a help this has become for us when choosing dye color combinations. It sure beats wondering exactly what Terra Cotta, or Stormy Sea will look like.

 Ice dyeing was on our agenda this trip.  And to fill the void once the ice-dyed fabric was batching, we enjoyed microwave dyeing.  That's fast becoming my favorite....I love that immediate gratification. Our ice dye set-up had been to place a long wire shelf over several kitty litter pans.  We are very careful to always wear masks when working with the dye powder and generally remember to wear gloves too! 

I've shown the step-by-steps of ice-dyeing in previous posts, so I'll skip that explanation now.  It can be quite windy at this location so we now have plenty of clothes pins on hand to clip the black plastic to the containers which will batch overnight.

I didn't get a photo of another time saver we came up with.  Instead of soaking all of our fabrics, willy nilly, in multiple buckets of soda ash.....we now each have our own bucket.  This really speeds up the selection process for each different dye pan. (Dah...why hadn't we thought of this before?)

Another new method that will be great once we perfect it, is to replace the wire shelf with window screening.  It's so much easier to keep the fabric and ice in place. Notice the set-up in the foreground.  

However, after this experiment, we noticed the screening sagged a bit during batching. Clearly it needed to be more firmly clipped to the container.  BUT......after more discussion, I wondered out loud if we could put the screening in some empty frames that our Fiber Junkie pal Denny gifted us.  We will try that next time.

The screening method results were wonderful.  Look at how much color splitting these pieces have.

This was our 6th time dyeing together and we continued to have more 'ta-da' moments.  Our fabrics get all mixed together during the dyeing, rinsing, and washing tasks and we wast a lot of time looking for the identifiers after they dried. So, now we hang each person's fabric on their own line. 

Safety pins with colored beads record which fabric belongs to each of us. We will be adopting a different method in the future. This isn't unique to us, in fact I used it when resist dyeing in a Chad Hagan workshop.  We staple a small initialed piece of tyvek on each piece of fabric.  I did a lot of microwave dyeing and of course pins would be dangerous to use, as I suspect staples would be too, so I waited to add the tyvek after each piece was nuked.

Check back for Part 2......

And....check out these wonderful blogs to see the creativity of other fiber artists.  Sarah's Whoop, Whoop Friday, Crazy Mom Quilts, Nina-Marie's Off The Wall Friday.

HAPPY EASTER

EASTER GREETINGS from the Blue Ridge Mountains in Western North Carolina.....where a lone peach tree is blooming.....

FIBER PROJECT FOR OUR VETERANS

A friend alerted me to this super worthy cause for our veterans. With the disturbing news reports about the inexcusable financial abuse in some of the programs designed to assist them....it seems so important to highlight a potentially excellent one which appeals to us fiber lovers.

Trish Browne is trying to launch a veteran based art project called Breaking Rag.  Her Kickstarter has gotten national coverage here. This crowd funding project is now 40% sponsored but it's an all or nothing thing.  If she doesn't receive full funding by April 14th, the dream will be over.  Please visit her website to learn more.

"Breaking Rag" is a term in paper making referring to the physical process of breaking fibers into pulp from which paper is made.

This post is being linked to:  Nina-Marie's Off The Wall Friday, Sarah's Whoop, Whoop Friday, and Crazy Mom Quilts.

Won't you consider helping?

FIRE IN THE MOUNTAINS

OH YIKES!!!  Activity across the street caught my eye late today.....yup....a fire racing up along the creek.  This is the time of year where the locals go out and burn the brush along the roadsides and fields. Why??  I never understood that....

Obviously.....this one got away from the fellow....way away I might add!!  We only have a volunteer fire department here....which is far enough away that we are penalized on our homeowners insurance.  And given that there are no fire hydrants.....we get another dig on our insurance premiums.  Fortunately there is a robust creek which provided the water for the firemen to put it out.

Their response time has never really been tested for our community in the 10 years we've lived here......this had a happy and swift end.

FIBER JUNKIES MARCH MEETING

This Fiber Junkies meeting was very special.....all three of our absent members were able to come. Val, who is back from her winter stint in FL stayed the whole day. Unfortunately, both Gen and Denny's time with us was shorter than we wished but we were so happy to have them there.  Both have been coping with major family matters so we are all hopeful that the group will be back in full force soon.

  In fact, we are planning on it for our April meeting where we will be playing with this product that Denny got for us.

It will be used as a declourant to create an interesting background such as this one that Kate made.

We've been using the last couple of meetings to help each other formulate plans for some unfinished work. I haven't touched the blue string pieced blocks I started at our PTA retreat because I am unhappy with their overall dull appearance.  Kate had suggested adding white to help it pop, which led me to considering sashing each block with white.  

When I brought them to Judy's to audition on her large design wall, suggestions began to fly.  Some thought altering the size of the sashing would be a good way to go, others suggested adding various colors might give it a fresher look.  I'm still not certain what I'll do but have decided to finish making the remaining 40 some blocks and then revisit the setting options.

 Now that I no longer travel-teach on the quilting highway, I've eliminated all my teaching samples by re-purposing or passing them along to others who can use them.  Judy is doing the same thing.  Here's one of her beautiful machine work samples.  It will be fun to see how she uses it.

This piece was a sample from her stamping class, esp. charming as her students signed it.  

 Denny's purging of her amazingly awesome studio continues. You really can't believe how fantastic it was.  However, a current family situation requires it be used in another way.  The Fiber Junkies are beneficiaries of her vast collections of 'everything'.  Bins of ribbons/trims were just some of the treasures we were able to pick from this meeting.  Any remaining items will be donated to a preschool to be used for art projects.

AND...to close......Here's our Gen.....who forgot for a time that she had trim on her head!!  It's great to have such good friends and heart-warming to know how we are all pulling together during these difficult times.

INTO THE NIGHT - Patchwork lap quilt

A couple of hours here and there....and this patchwork 'couch quilt' came together quite quickly.  The unusual color combination was inspired by the decorating scheme of my niece.....lots of blacks with touches of plum and lime green.

I tried for way too long to get a good photo of it....and it's just not happening. The purples come out pink and the lime greens = yellow.  However, in person it's surprisingly attractive.

Sometimes this is just the kind of project one needs.....and it's a stash buster too!

INTO THE NIGHT  48" X 66"  MARY STORI © 2016