Nos. 67, 68, 69 and 70

These two samples are the result of an ice dyed parfait

with Soft Orange on the bottom and Avocado on the top.

On the same day I did some other ice dyes in colanders.

#69 is Iris and Cherry Blush. I did a bit of a loose

accordion fold before the ice and dye.

#70 uses Lavender and Deep Navy.
#70 means I have reached my goal of 70 fabrics in this year
after my 70th birthday, but I cannot stop.
More to come.

Hope your day is as beautiful as ours is here in Westminster -

Spring at last!

Working with Some New Dye Colors

I bought some new dye powders from Pro Chem. 

To test them out, I did two pieces with each powder.

The darker shades used 2 T dye concentrate

and the lighter shades used 1 tsp of dye concentrate.

Soft Orange

Avocado

Cherry Blush

Aqua Marine (I really love this color)

Boysenberry

Chocolate Brown

What are your favorite colors?

Some Dyes from January 2016

 These were snow dyes using one color at a time. First is mixing blue.

Here's mixing red.

Some secondary colors. Mixing blue and mixing red

Turquoise and sun yellow

More results soon. Thanks for stopping by.

Number 49 -- a Snow Dye

Taking advantage of Jonas the snowmaker,

 I dyed this yard using dye powders on top of the snow.

My mix included basic blue, bright yellow,

sea grass and black.

Again, a surprise.

I had hoped it would end up as vibrant as it began.

The dyes, liquid or powder, react differently with snow

than with ice.

I want to keep playing and learning.

Hope you enjoyed a beautiful pink sunset sky tonight.

#48 A snow dye attempt

This is my first attempt at snow dyeing. I used some dye solutions that were more than

six weeks old, but in the fridge. I used mixing red, sun yellow, indigo

and turquoise. It's softer than I hoped it would be.

Here's the cloth that was under the yardage. The pattern is from

the rack the fabric was on.

I think I will adjust my dye quantities the next time.

But I can wait a long time for more snow.

Enough is enough!

Hope you are warm and clear of snow.

Starting again

Whew, I took a long break from dyeing. There was Christmas, cookie making, a couple nasty infections, recovery time -- just like so many other people. Now, it's time to get moving again. I have been doing some free motion quilting on a large quilt. It's not ready for prime time, but it is coming along - finally.

And I returned to my dyeing project. I've started thinking about making a new quilt for my bed and want to think about the colors. So, I did a few ice dyes as tests for my quilt. Here they are:

Cobalt blue - maybe too dull.

I'm liking this grape.

Imperial purple is always nice, in my opinion.

Kelly green turned out too pale. May be overdyed.

And then we had a mammoth snow storm this past couple days. So, time to prepare some snow dyes.

For the above one, I used up some dyes that have been in the fridge for a bit. Below, I sprinkled dye powder on the snow.  I'll show results after the rinsing and washing.

I mixed new dye concentrates for these three. I'm up to #52.

Back to a bit of work hoping the snow plows will visit my street and parking lot.

Thanks for stopping by. 

Karen

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