More Snow Dyeing Results

All of our snow is long gone, but before it all went away I made a few more batches of snow dyed fabric.  I thought I'd share the results with you.  I hope you find it as fascinating as I do.  I'm already planning on experimenting with crushed ice dyeing, now that Spring is right around the corner.

I had a few yards of Kona white (maybe even Kona "snow") in my fabric stash.  I decided to give it a try, this time, separating the colors a bit more to see how each one reacted individually.

From left to right, there is a piece with all 3 colors, then a "wasabi green", a (mostly) gold, and purple on the very right.  As you can also see, the colors really bled onto the white.  With the original Pimatex cotton, the white stayed crisp and white, and the patterns were more distinct.

Here's a close up.

I also decided to dye a few scraps I had of white print on white fabric.  One pattern did quite well, the other became almost indistinguishable. For grins, I also threw in some cotton yarn to dye too, as seen drying in the picture below.

Finally, I tried out some 200 thread count white muslin that I was able to buy at a local store. The tight weave had my hopes up. This time I used mostly green with a few spots of purple.

But in the end it seemed to take up the least amount of dye, and showed the least "crisp" design in the fabric.  Neither the Kona nor the muslin was "PFD".  I don't know if that really makes a difference, as I prewashed them all, but for now, I'll be sticking with the Pimatex PFD cotton, and have already ordered a few more yards and some new dyes to play with.

The very first picture at the top of this blog post, shows all 3 together, from top to bottom, the Pimatex, the Kona, and the muslin.

I've also put a few fat quarters of the original batch of Pimatex cotton in my Etsy shop to see if there's any interest in it from buyers.

Olympic Rings Quilt Finished!

The Winter Olympics was exactly what I needed to motivate me to finish the quilt that I started 2 years ago, during the Summer Olympics.  I stitched on the binding this morning, just as the last of the snow is melting. It's 54" by 72"... the perfect size for snuggling under while we watch the Olympics on TV.

I decided to quilt laurel leaf wreaths in each of the rings.  As the legend goes, Laurel leaf wreaths were put upon the victor's heads during the original Olympics in ancient Greece.  The rest of the quilting is my attempt at flames, from the Olympic torch.  I think it was so neat to see it go into space during it's voyage to Russia.

I decided to use a black and white variegated thread in the black top and bottom borders, and LOVE the effect!  I'll be using this technique again!

The back is simple, just some coordinating solids I had.

I love the way the rings and other quilting shows on the back.  As I've gotten better at free motion quilting, I like solid colored backs more and more, as they show off the quilting, rather than hide it.

I hope you are enjoying the Olympics as much as I am.  Call me crazy, but my favorite events are the Half Pipe Snowboarding events, as well as the Mogul Skiing.  I find them mesmerizing.  I think my own background in gymnastics is what makes them appeal to me, as they have so many wonderful flips and twists.  What's your favorite event of the Winter Olympics?

Another totally off topic question I have is what camera do you use?  My point and shoot has bit the dust, and my son's who I've been using (same model, a Cannon Powershot), is following suit.  I took all of these with my ipad mini.  It's OK, but not great.  I really want to save up and get a nice one next.  Thanks for any advice!

Olympic-Inspired Quilt Top Finished!

With the Winter Olympics starting up this week in Sochi Russia, I was motivated to dig out the Olympic quilt that I made 2 years ago during the Summer Olympics (and never finished).

I always try to figure out why certain quilts get tossed in the UFO pile, and for this one, I think it was just too small.  I have no more wall space for any more minis, but decided that a throw quilt for the couch would be perfect for the Winter Olympics.  Luckily I still had some of the original solids that I started out with, and combined them with some solid white to make a bunch of half square triangles.  When I still wanted it a bit bigger, I got out some solid black to extend it, and I'm calling it done at about 54" x 72".

The back is already finished, and batting purchased.

With the 7-8 inches of snow we got over the last 2 days, I should have plenty of time to finish it.

I still have a tutorial for the center of this quilt on this blog.  Click the link above, or the tutorial link if you would like to see it!!

I also have to say that I just LOVE the patchwork quilt motif that is being used in this games.  It's my all time favorite!!

Adventures in Snow Dyeing

When life give you snow, give snow dyeing a try!  This has been on my radar for a few years, after buying some snow dyed fabric at a local quilt show a few years ago.  A conversation over the week-end with some fellow fiber artists about snow dying yarn reminded me of this technique. I bought some supplies this summer to try out batik dying (but never did), and with the addition of another cold snap, and some fresh snow this week, I "carpe diem'ed".

I found this tutorial, from Dharma Trading Company, the website / store that I bought all of my supplies. Of course I used snow, instead of ice.  I used the colors wasabi, hydrangea, and paloma gold, all pastels, but as you can see, almost none of those colors are visible in the finished product.  I used pima cotton that I also bought from Dharma Trading Company, as well as 2 white shirts that I bought from them, 2 womens, and 1 unisex.  The womens' shrank quite a bit during washing.  I am beyond thrilled at how this turned out, and have already ordered more dye and supplies, and am among the minority of people who are hoping for MORE snow haha!

Basically I soaked prewashed fabric in the soda ash solution for half an hour while I collected a tub, wire shelf / rack, gloves and snow.

I wrung out the fabric, crumpled and laid it on top of the wire rack.

Next, I piled a few inches of snow on top of the fabric, and sprinkled the dye powder directly on top of the snow.

...and waited

...and waited

...and waited

...and waited.

The next day, about 22 hours later, I then rinsed the excess dye out of all of the fabric.  This was my least favorite step in the whole process, as it took a lot of rinses, and a lot of time, but did provide a good upper body workout LOL.  Once the rinse water was clear, I put it in my washing machine and rinsed one final time, then washed in hot water with a teaspoon of liquid dishwashing soap.  I did not have any sythol, but read that you can substitute dish soap.  Seems to have worked.  We have a front loader with a clear glass door, and I could not see any color coming out of the rinse water in the final wash.  After a trip in the dryer and a hot iron, I was just delighted beyond words at how beautiful the final fabric turned out.

Sea Star Quilt Top Finished!!

After making a few new stars, I finally was able to sew up my "Sea Stars" quilt top.  All but 2 of the paper pieced stars were made using "Don't Call Me Betsy"'s Lucky Star BOM pattern.  I learned a lot doing these over the last year, and even topped it off by finally figuring out how to create a paper pieced star of my own in EQ7

I'm pretty thrilled about this, and if I can figure out how to share the PDF on my blog, I'll try to do that!

I also found another "Mariner's Compass" Star pattern that was originally on Quilting on the Square's website.  I think I found a link for it on Pinterest.  It was by far the most challenging block, but I love the way it turned out!

Almost all of the fabric is from Tula Pink's Saltwater collection.

Here's one last picture of the top with the 2 blocks I decided to take out.  I turned the quilt blocks on point, adding alternating blocks of the background fabric, and setting triangles.  It's all finished up with a boarder around the panel. The 2 extra blocks will either go onto the back of the quilt, or I may make some throw pillows out of them.  I'm happy with my decision to remove them.  One thing I learned from this quilt process is that I really don't like "mystery" quilts.  I really prefer to see the whole picture before I even start a quilt.  I'm glad I did it though, as I really got a great handle on how paper piecing works and I got lots of practice!!

What about you?  Do you like mystery quilts / BOM clubs?