Field Trips in Fiber - Adventures in quilting, hand dyed fabric and fiber art.

Another new project....

I know I said I was done decorating but I don't consider this one technically decorating. Our kitchen has an oak floor so I keep rugs in front of the counters to protect the floor. I've been buying cheap cotton runners and I just throw them out when they get grody. (Actually Chris uses them as floor protectors when he is painting.) But the cotton runners are getting harder to find and when I do find them they are too expensive to be disposable. 

I am still using the floorcloth that I made 2 years ago and it's holding up really well. I've decided to replace the kitchen rugs with floorcloths.

This is the basic design for the rug that's in front of the refrigerator. The other 2 are about 8' long but will be this same basic design. Next I needed fabric.

I wanted fabrics that would go with the tile backsplash and also look good in the oak floor. Here's that I came up with. It took 2 attempts to get a green that I liked.

I have my canvas, some paint, some ModPodge and I hope to get started in the next 2 weeks.

 

The elusive perfect black dye

Anyone who dyes fabric knows that the hardest color to get right is black, especially lighter shades in gray. Black is always a blended color and it's the only blended color that I buy. I absolutely love Dharma Trading's Jet Black (25). The black is really black and the lighter shades are mostly gray with a little blue halo. It's as good as it gets. Unfortunately Dharma is discontinuing it. Apparently one of the ingredients has gotten too expensive. They've replaced it with a dyed called Hot Black. I ordered a sample to do a test.

The fabric in the background is Jet Black. The fabrics on the top are 8 steps of Hot Black. The fabric that is sticking up is the same strength as the Jet Black background. I'm sure you see what I see. Hot Black is an awesome Navy Blue but it's not black. It really turns blue in the lighter shades. Before I started I sprinkled some of the dye powder on a wet paper towel. I saw cobalt blue, light red and yellow spots so I started my experiment with low expectations. Jet Black has cobalt and orange with some yellow and possibly something else. I know that I am getting something close to black with a particular blend of orange and cobalt. It looks like I am going to have to try to mix my own black going forward. Ugh. That's going to be hard!

I have about a year to get it done because I bought about a year supply of Jet Black to hold me. Wish me luck. I'm not sure it's really possible but I'm going to give it a try.

Getting the summer wardrobe ready

I used to make a lot of my clothes but don't do that anymore. I buy everything and now I dye some of it. Usually almost everything I wear is black or red. Black is my signature color. The problem this year is that black seems out of fashion. I HAD to buy new pants and shorts this year and the few that I found to fit are khaki or green or brown. That was a great excuse to dye some new summer shirts.

I didn't do anything fancy, just adding some color. I have lots of tie dyed shirts and I wanted some that were more subtle. Last year I discovered the pima knit tops from JJill. They dye beautifully! These are the perfect pima short sleeve and elbow v-neck. The JJill tops really keep their shape well through the dye process.

I wanted a couple of new tanks too. I almost never wear pastel colors so the one on the right will probably be overdyed at some point. These are the JJill tank.

A couple of weeks ago I was shopping with a friend and found this 3/4 sleeve rayon knit cardigan at New York & Company. I actually bought 2 of them but haven't dyed the second one yet because I wanted to see if it would dye. It also dyed beautifully! 

It was total serendipity that I got that great crescent pattern on the back. It's great for cool Spring evenings. 

I hate clothes shopping and am glad to be done with it for a while. Clothes dyeing, however, is a whole other matter. I may have to dye all those khaki pants black........

Design Wall Monday

I did get a lot accomplished this weekend but most of it was related to getting the new Thrive palette posted and the newsletter out. I have been sewing a lot this past week too and got the prototype of the Country School mystery quilt done. This week I will start writing the instructions and start a second version to test the instructions. 

These are the fabrics for my next version. These are all hand dyed samples from my stash. Anyone is welcome to join the mystery. The first clue will be posted May 20 and I'll post a notice on my blog when the clues are posted.  If you want to make one to donate to us to use for our veteran's project we would love to have them. The quilt will finish to 48" x 60". That is the size that the hospital recommended that we make.

I'm also going to make a larger version for a QOV and these are the fabrics that I will use for that one. The black is hand dyed but the others are all commercial prints from the stash. I am trying my best to use up the stash but it's slow going!

Last week I thought I would get out my psotage stamp UFO to work on this Friday and Saturday with my Country School friends. I've already changed my mind!

My friend, Denise, is coming to visit this summer from LA so I'm going to work on the quilt for the guest room to see if I can't get that room totally done before she arrives. I dyed the fabrics for the quilt a few weeks ago and I'm going to do a giant Carpenter's Star block with very wide gradient borders. It will be double sided with the tie-dyed backing. To be done by July it will get a pantograph treatment for quilting. But this is meant to be a quilt that's used a lot so that will be OK. Now I need to get the quilt drafted so I have cutting measurements ready for Friday.

In fun dyeing news here's a cool quilt back that I dyed for a customer last week. I hated to see this one go! 

I need to get busy ironing fabric and starting the second version of the mystery quilt. Meanwhile check out what everyone else is up to at Patchwork Times.

 

Design Wall Monday

I'm not sure what happened with last week but I barely got in 1 hour of sewing. Well, I actually do know what happened. Our UK friends were here through Tuesday and that was followed by 2 days of dyeing over 50 yards of fabric. Then a miracle happened and I had TWO, no kidding, TWO social events this weekend. I had drinks with former co-workers Friday and we went to a friend's house for dinner Saturday. It was all very unusual but great fun to get out for a change.

This morning I had my first massage in over 6 months and I was about 5 months past due and now I can get on with finishing ironing the fabric I dyed last week and maybe do some sewing tomorrow. That would be awesome!

Part of the 50 yards that I dyed last week was fabric for me! I dyed a quilt back and binding for the QOV that I finished last weekend and I dyed all of the fabric for a quilt for the guest bedroom. This tie-dyed mandala will be the backing but I think it's going to be a bedspread for the bed until the quilt top is done. I'll make sure the quilt is reversible so I can use either side.

I will make sure I can do a bit of sewing today though so I can look out my sewing room window at this view. The pink dogwood is spectacular this year.

Check out what everyone else is doing over at Patchwork Times.