DYEING GREENS

 Since it's snowing and the roads are impassable, I stayed home and dyed different greens for my Amity Baroque project.  These will hopefully be used in the background.

I have an image in my head that I want it to look like which includes some small dottings of a bright pink/red spinning out from the flower.  I'm trying to achieve that with my dyeings.  

I sprinkled some fuschia dye powder onto a few of the fat quarters before I put them into the green dye bath.  It didn't turn out like I wanted.  I'll have to try something else tomorrow.

QUILTED

I finished the quilting on Starry Starry Peace and moved on to making and attaching the binding.

I got the binding sewn down on one side, but I ran out of time and will.  Tomorrow.

AN UNUSUAL SUNDAY

Our Sunday's have become somewhat routine.  But all of this snow has upset the routine.

We did go to PCC in Burien for a breakfast sandwich.  But we only needed to pick up a few items, since I had stocked up last Thursday.

We usually go for a nice walk when we get back, but where can you walk that doesn't have 8 inches of snow.  We decided to suit up and walk up the street.  The dogs didn't complain too much about having to wear coats.  They really enjoyed being out and about.  So did we.  The sun was shining, but off in the distance you could see the really dark clouds approaching.  It's supposed to snow again this evening. 

I decided to take advantage of these great icicles and do some ice dyeing.  I figured Denise would love a tie-dyed back for her quilt.  I watched a few youtube videos, then folded and wrapped a huge piece of fabric (actually two pieces I sewed into one big square about 88" by 88").  I mixed up some dyes - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple and black.  I squirted the dye onto the fabric, both sides.  Then I added the icicles and wished it a good night.

DYEING FABRICS FOR NEW PROJECT

I got a strong urge to dye some fabrics for a new quilt project.  I saw a quilt pattern in a book recently, and I really loved it, but wanted to make it with my own fabrics. 

Mixing the different dye colors up first.

Smaller pieces of fabric are in plastic bags.

First day, two purples and gold.

Clean-up.

Plastic bags of fabric, dyeing overnight in the sink.

And a big chunk of fabric in a bucket.

And here they all are:!

The colors are not right on here, you'll have to come see them in person.

ICE DYEING ON A SNOW DAY

Wednesday, this week, we got 5-6 inches of snow here at our house.  The Seattle-Tacoma area was slammed with 5 to 12" of the cold white stuff.  It brings this town to a standstill.  Since it was treacherous to go out and I didn't need to, I made good use of the time, spending it up in my studio, sewing.

Then on Thursday, we got freezing rain on top of it.  

Since I'm working on my Connecticut Winter Quilt, and I'm getting close to finishing the top, I naturally started thinking about the back.  I knew I didn't want to use the leftover fabrics - then the back would be too much like the front.  And, I really don't want to buy fabric for it, because all of these fabrics were purchased while on our trip to Connecticut last winter.  That leaves just one option - dye my own!  I love this idea.

As my mind wandered while piecing the many blocks into rows, I thought remembered ice dyeing.

I had done a little of that a while ago - and the fabrics where beautiful.

I started some fabric heating in some soda ash mixture.

Then I let it drip dry for a short while.

I got out a large tray and over that I put an old window screen, where I arrange the folded prepared fabric.  I was thinking about using it as binding, so I folded it into strips, thinking that when cut on the diagonal for binding it would look very nice.

And then I headed out to get some of the 'local' ice.

  Brrrrr.  With bucket in hand, I smashed through the thick ice crust and broke some up and brought it in.

I had to break it up into even smaller pieces - it was soooo cold  - and arrange it over the fabric.

Then sprinkle the dye over the ice...

And wait, and watch as it melts.....

....and drips dye onto the fabric beneath....

...and does weird and magical stuff....

...it is so beautiful to watch as it slowly melts....

Then, the next morning, the ice is all melted into the tray below and the fabric has absorbed the dyes.

The dye-design on the fabric is like none you'd get in a conventional way...

Here's some close-ups...

Beautiful and strange and so much fun.

A QUILT FOR AMELIA

I had originally had a very dark brown as one of the bricks, but it was too dark.  So, I cut it up and stripe-pieced some fabrics together and then cut that into bricks.  I like it a lot better now.

Here's the label:

I actually dyed some flannel for this quilt.  I actually sewed the flannel - that's a first.  I don't like flannel.

When I showed my sister Julie this picture - she reminded me that she had told me the baby's colors were pink and chocolate.  I had only remembered the pink.

So, I made another trip to the store, bought more flannel and dyed some browns and a really interesting pink tie-dyed.  I bought some browns and a printed brown to hurry things along, which was good, because my dark brown looked too much like 'camouflage' and I didn't use it.  I even started over with a different focus fabric that ended up on the back.

It all worked out.  

And now I have an extra baby quilt  - do you know anyone that needs it?

This is the Welcome Quilt: