Pillowcases

Sometimes, I just need to sew for the thrill of combining fabrics with a simpler plan than most of my work. This past week, I made 7 pillowcases for Ryan's Case For Smiles (caseforsmiles.com). Formerly ConKerr Cancer, this organization gives pillowcases to children in hospitals to brighten their day. Of course, I found plenty of possible fabrics in my stash. I chose the fun pieces.

Some of the combinations may be a stretch, but I chose them with my youngest granddaughter in mind. She loves the crazier, the better. I also finished a Linus blanket, but forgot to take a photo. It always feels good to give to others, and even more so in this season of giving.

Hope your giving touches you as well. Karen

#41, 42 and 43 -- A scarf and a surprise

The second half of the ice dyeing with the socks was a rayon circular scarf using imperial purple, fuchsia and brilliant blue. I ran out of ice, so this piece has more white than I would prefer. Nice outcome. I will wear it during the holidays.

Surprise -- interesting patterns appeared on the piece of fabric that I placed between the plastic grid and the socks and scarf -- a nice grid effect.

Of course, I had to play with getting more of that pattern. I made a double decker sandwich of plastic grid pieces and fabric and topped that with ice, then grape and cobalt dyes. Cool. I plan to do some larger pieces using this grid effect later. This piece is 10" x 20". On the left, you can see a bit of the circular grid used in one layer.

Tomorrow I'll share the charity pieces I did while taking a break from dyeing. I wanted to use some fabrics sitting alone and to make things to give away to brighten others' lives. What do you do for others during your holidays?

Peace, Karen

Nos. 39 and 40 -- Fun Socks

I really love bamboo socks and I found two pair to ice dye last week using imperial purple, fuchsia and brilliant blue. Fun to wear on these chilly days and nights.

I also dyed a couple pieces of fabric using the same colors. Life was crazy for a week or so and kept me from pressing those pieces. I'll show them in a couple days.

Hope you have some quiet time in this busy season. 

Karen

Nos. 35 and 37 -- Decolourant

While cleaning up a mess of fabric, I found some pieces that I had dyed years ago - pieces just waiting for a bit of discharge. I used Decolourant gel on four pieces of dyed fabric. Only two were somewhat successful.

I used a bamboo stencil on the bottom and several texture 'stencils' on the top.

This has some promise for a small quilt.

This fabric began with a red and dark green surface. The Decolourant removed quite a bit of color, taking it down to the soft green shown here.




Hope you have had a lovely Thanksgiving and starting a relaxing weekend.

Thanks for stopping, Karen

Nos. 33 and 34: A Bit of Tie Dye

Well, sorta tie dye, sorta a bit of shibori. So, two 'ish' pieces. I began by folding and tying with rubber bands. 

No. 33 was done in the traditional way using slightly damp fabric in a plastic bag and pouring the dye mixture onto the fabric, then adding fixative later. I like the definite pattern here.

No. 34 was done as an ice dye with the fabric soaking in soda ash mixture before folding. I used Pro Chem's mixing red. I really like the texture of this piece. Curious how differently they turned out.

My next exercise is to use Decolourant to discharge some color from two pieces that I dyed some time ago, but do not like them. Thanks for visiting. Karen

Number 32

Sample Number 32 uses a technique I read about on And Then We Set It on Fire blog using cups, lids, etc. to create a bit more texture. I started with soda ash soaked fabric. I used some corks, a couple bottle lids and a couple small plastic containers and wrapped the wet fabric around each using rubber bands to hold the fabric over the objects. The fabric was placed in my dyeing colander and covered with ice. I sprinkled small bits of Dharma's #29 bright green and #22 cobalt blue dye on the ice, covered it with plastic wrap and waited til the ice melted. After rinsing and washing, this is what I found.

This photo shows an area that had been wrapped around a cork.

 Just having fun here in Westminster. Thanks for reading.

Karen

Number 31

I think I can change my goal for this project "70 and Counting" as I am almost halfway toward 70 pieces. This ice dye was done with creamsicle and mocha dyes from Dharma using the colander arrangment. The mocha could be too old - it wimped out here actually becoming grey in some places.

If you are interested in snow and ice dyeing techniques, check out the blog And Then We Set it On Fire at http:andthenwesetitonfire.blogspot.com.  Ice and snow dyeing are the focus this month.

Thanks for checking in. Karen

So much to learn

As I am having fun. Below are the prints from my second venture with deconstructed screen printing. I like all the prints and am learning lots. In some of these, I think I 'squeegeed' too many times. I added some yellow dye for the 8th and 9th print, just to see how that would work. Nice enough. I added some red for the final print - it came out with tiny little spots because the red dye powder did not dissolve completely. I certainly want to do more of this technique -- hopefully next week. I love how the prints change. I haven't even begun to think how I will use these. Right now, I  want to play more.

Thanks for visiting. 

Here are the results from my first deconstructed screen printing exercise. (Blogger and I are having problems - I will label each to show the order of printing).

Print One

Print Two

Print Three

Print Four - used some of it

Print five

Print Six

The textures are great and will be useful in some new projects. I am fascinated by this process. Today, I started another screen design using four 'texture' pieces under the screen before I applied the thickened print paste with dye.

Here's the screen after I applied the dye paste.

I have to let it dry and hope to print with it on Tuesday.

Thanks for reading and hanging with me while I learn the newer Blogger. 

Karen

And it is said "it's simple"

After a belated post earlier this evening, I thought I would change the look of my blog. And I did. Not exactly what I wanted to see, but here it is. Maybe another day I will tackle this again. For now, I will simply try to stay up to date on blogging about my 70 And Counting project and stick to fabric things, not technology!

Karen

I'm back

I've been to Maine for a workshop (fantastic), the Eastern Shore for a quilting retreat (fun), and trying to catch up (tiring). So, here goes ...

My last ice dyed fabric and socks look good. And the socks are warm. I like the results even though I think I used a bit too much dye. 

 

Tomorrow I'll share the results of the deconstructed screen printing session. I need new photos to do that.

Thanks for reading and sticking with me.

Karen

Week Four

Autumn has arrived with temps in the 50's. It's time to get the socks out and time to dye a new pair. I love bamboo socks. So, I added a pair to a piece of fabric for a small ice dye. Here's the set-up before the dye. 

And after: 

While waiting for this to batch, I prepared a screen to play with as an attempt to do deconstructed screen printing. I am following directions by Rayna Gillman as seen in Quilting Arts, August-September 2008. Right now, it's pretty messy in the drying phase. More later. 

The rain has stopped here - we had a bit of blue before sunset. Hope you are dry and cozy. Karen

Week Three

Parfait time. Not with calories, but an exercise from Ann Johnston's book, Color by Accident. Using a plastic pretzel barrel container, I began by pouring sun yellow dye solution on one piece of fabric. 


After that batched for a while, I poured soda ash as fixative, waited just a bit, then scrunched a second piece of fabric on top and added mixing red dye solution. 


After waiting a bit, it was time for more soda ash, then turquoise dye solution and a final dose of soda ash. I let it batch for a few hours before rinsing and rinsing. Nice. I want to repeat this with another trio of dyes.

My last piece for Week Three was an ice dye. I used a set-up that I saw somewhere on the internet using a plastic colander to hold the fabric, ice and dyes placed in a large bowl. This works best for smaller pieces of fabric. I used kelly green, cobalt blue, strong orange and violet. Looks lovely. 

Ice dyes usually surprise me in nice ways. The next time I repeat this, I'll take a photo of the set-up.

Thanks for visiting. Let me know what you want to try.

Karen

Week 2.5

Already, I am posting a bit late. Sorry, family issues needed attention. All is better now. Back to the dyeing adventures.

A few years ago, while in Oregon, I bought some potato dextrin to use as a resist. Finally, I dug it out and tried on two pieces. They are okay first tries with this resist. 

The first piece was from Week One using thin yellow and blue dyes on wet soda ash fabric - not exciting. I mixed the potato dextrin using a recipe and spread it on the fabric to dry overnight. Didn't quite work. A thicker batch of resist would have cracked as it dried. I had to twist and crumble this piece to get breaks in the resist. I brushed on a medium print paste with indigo dye and let it dry overnight. I got some texture!

The second piece was white fabric previously soaked in soda ash and dried. I used an edged tool to scrape lines in the wet resist. After drying overnight, I brushed on medium thick indigo mixture and let it dry. Next day, I soaked the fabrics to remove the resist - that was the easiest step. I will repeat this technique with a thicker mixture of resist and one day try a flour resist.

Here I mixed a "thin" mixture (dye concentrate and urea water) and applied it, leaving white areas, with sponge brushes on damp soda ash soaked fabric. The dye mixture spread and created nice shapes and textures.

I used thin dye mixture here, but on dry soda ash soaked fabric. Okay, but not quite what I hoped it would be. I can always print on top of this. Hmmm.

All of these examples were created using exercises in Ann Johnston's book, Color by Design. This is why we practice again and again, often by mistakes. I just love messing about with fabrics and dyes.

More to come.

Thanks for visiting. Karen

Results from Week One and Two

In Week Two, I took my 'blahs' from Week One and played with them. 

This was first dyed flat in a shoebox by squirting turquoise and sun yellow all around. It was okay-ish, but not enough texture. So ...

I decorated it with Elmer's blue gel glue and let it dry. I did shapes, squiggles, letters and dots and lines. It took a while to cover this 12" x 21" piece of fabric. Actually it became rather meditative. It took a good while to dry.

I brushed on thickened indigo dye (dye with print paste) and let it dry. After drying and rinsing, I got more texture and interesting shapes. Nice, but I need to run it through the washer to get the rest of the glue out.

Number 3 started as an ice dye. I expected interesting results just like all my ice dyes in the past. However, it came out quite blah. The dye powder may have been too old, who knows. So I scrunched it into a stocking toe and steeped it in indigo dye. 

I am happier with the results - more texture and actually more green than this photo (the camera insisted on blue.) I have been working on greens to take to an October workshop with Susan Carlson.

This one started folded up and bound with rubber bands in turquoise dye. After a bit, I unfolded it and folded it differently, then poured on sun yellow dye and waited. Not at all what I hoped for. A bit boring. This may have been a subconscious piece -- I have been dealing with some neck problems this year and going to physical therapy. Some of these shapes remind me of my vertebrae that are suffering with arthritis.

Thanks for reading. More to come.

Karen

70 and Counting

Yes, it's been a long time between postings. I hope to be more attentive in this new year -- my new year.  Ten days ago, I celebrated my 70th birthday, complete with purple hair. 

It was temporary and I have a lot of the stuff, so I can experiment more. It was interesting how many strangers came up to me with compliments. Fun, fun, fun - which is what birthdays should be.

As I was reviewing my life and thinking what is next, I decided I needed a project that could run throughout this new year. "70 and Counting" was born. My intention with this project is to create at least 70 unique pieces of fabric through dyeing, printing, discharging, overdyeing and all other methods I can play with. My intention is to document all my efforts and to blog twice a week. One reason for this effort is to use the many techniques that I have tried or learned in classes or read about in books and magazines. You might know the routine: take a class, get all excited with the learning process, return to reality where life crowds our time. So, as one of my chocolate wrappers says "What are you waiting for?" Here I go.

 
In Week One, I focused on greens using turquoise and sun yellow, dyeing four small pieces, 12" x 21". One, an arashi wrap on a medium pole, turned out nicely. The other three turned out weak and boring - to be addressed in Week Two. I feel a bit out of practice with these dyes.

More later this week. Yes, I realize that a lot needs updating on this blog -- soon. Enjoy the lovely September weather.
 Karen