WINTER STAND

WEED - IN FABRIC

Remember the little painting I did of a weed I brought home from the park?  Well, it's what got me started dyeing fabrics in the first place.  Then I got distracted by the Ashtray.  I got to a place where I had to stop on the Ashtray top (I need to go buy gray threads), so I went back to Weed in fabric.  I finished it in one long afternoon.  Well, it's not finished - it's a top.  It still needs to be quilted and finished someway.  I haven't decided - it may be a pillow.  It's about 12" by 18", cotton hand dyed fabrics.

ASHTRAY - DAY FIVE

I finally got the actual ashtray on it today! It took me hours to get it just right.  I'm glad I waited to do it last.  I've learned quite a bit in this whole process.  It's a long way from being done, but it's looking really good so far.  

Next I will baste it to batting and a back and start on the quilting.  That will lighten up the 'ground'  (she says hopefully).  That's the plan, anyway.

Oh, and yes, I will eventually square it up, for you non-quilters, but not until it's quilted.

CONTINUING WITH THE ASHTRAY

While on my walk this morning with Lucy in Lincoln Park, and still frustrated from yesterday, it came to me that part of the problem is my lightbox.  Now, I must preface this with saying that I really love and use my lightbox all the time.  My cousin, Steve made it for me probably ten years ago.  I wanted a large one that I could use for putting quilting patterns on quilt tops.  I couldn't afford the ones on the market at the time, and I don't think they even made one as big as I wanted.

Steve made it for me out of scrap plywood and a nice piece of white plexiglass 28" by 22".  It's very nice.  But, there was only one fluorescent tube in it.  This project has layers of dark fabrics, and I was having a very hard time seeing my pattern, for alignment, underneath.

I decided that if I only had brighter bulbs in my lightbox life would be perfect.

So, after our walk, we went to the local home shop and looked at lights.  I settled on the little xenon lights used for under cabinets.  They were definitely the brightest ones there.  They came in an all-inclusive package of 5.  It cost me about $38 with tax and everything.

Back home again, it took me about 2 hours to get the old light out and the new lights in and wired.

 I was a little worried when I plugged it in and switched it on, but nothing blew up, nothing caught on fire!  But, one of the lights didn't work....so I switched a few bulbs around, and one of the bulbs is burned out.   That means it's back to the home supply store tomorrow.  I wish I could charge them for my time, trouble and gasoline.

I wish I could return all the extra stuff included in the kit which I had to pay for:

After all that fuss, time and money, I don't think these lights are any brighter and they are definitely hotter.  Dangmagang!

I went to work putting the fabrics on and sewing them down anyway, I just continued on as before, trying to see through to the pattern and occasionally lifting up the fabrics to make sure what I though I was seeing was really on the pattern.  I think I made a big fuss for nothing, because it was easier than I thought it would be.  

My Roxanne Glue Baste-It  came in real handy today.  

I use it instead of pins.  It's very good for small pieces, or in this case narrow pieces, where pins just get in the way or shift.  I like it because it just puts our one tiny light droplet of glue right where you need it and it washes out with water when you don't want it there anymore.

It was very hot up in the studio and there was one small fright when we experienced what we later learned to be a sonic boom.  [We all ran out of the shop thinking something had fallen on the roof or something had blown up somewhere.]  But, I managed to get all the dark fabrics appliquéd down.  I will get to the red ashtray tomorrow.

ASHTRAY - DAY THREE

Seam allowances!  What was I thinking?!

My plan was to appliqué by hand...too much...too impatient...too many pins!

So, I took all the papers off the backs of the pieces and re-pinned and started machine appliquéing the pieces down.  It's a learning experience.  It was hot in the studio, I was frustrated and feeling incompetent.  I'm wishing I hadn't made it so big.  I thought about tossing this one and starting over without seam allowances.  But, I'm out of one of the fabrics, or at least I don't have enough, I think.

Maybe tomorrow will be a better day.  

'ASHTRAY' IN FABRIC STARTED

I started to make the previous "Ashtray" sketch in fabric!

First things first, I need six gradations of gray and purples and three of the reds.  So, knowing I'd never find what  I needed, I dyed my own!  It's great that I can even do that, you know?

Not knowing anything about how much dye I'd need or anything about making gradations, I just winged it!  I guessed, but I was pleasantly surprised at the results.

What's funny is some of the things I thought I knew turned out different.  For instance, I wanted the purples to be clear and even and the grays to be mottled.  So, I put salt on the grays thinking that would cause some variation in the coverage.  Wrong!  They ended up being more clear and even than the purples.  The purples were mottled because I had mixed Cobalt and Fuchsia dyes, and they separated somewhat.  

The lights were not as light as I wanted, so I had to add some commercial fabrics that I had, so here is the group of fabrics I'm going to work with.  I really like the deep purples, they turned out great.

Next, I took the simple line drawing to the office store and enlarged it to 18" by 24" and made a 'cartoon', a working drawing.

Using freezer paper I started cutting out the pieces.  I'm learning as I go, it's going slow to start.  Here's what it looked like at the end of day one:

And at the end of day two:

Stay tuned!