Remember that Grey Fabric From Yesterday........

That light grey fabric from yesterday was some that I had pre-flood.







 It must have been close to the proximity of some Procion Dye containers.  there was a whole group of fabric that got some fugitive dye trapped in the fibers.

And there was the possibility it also had some blood.



I am not confirming nor denying that fact, but there was some red streaks on the grey fabric as well.  I did have jars of red and yellow Procion dyes in there, so, just sayin'.




At Joann's the other day, a tie dye kit just happened to jump into my basket.  It was on sale for $7.99 and felt like it needed to live with me for a while.   And it brought its friend, a red and yellow kit as well.




 Doesn't that blue bird bath look great with my dye bath fabrics?



So this morning I was successful in dyeing both my hands green.  I told my performance classmates as I attempted to do four push ups (and failed, I only did three but it was two more than last month) that gloves are for sissys. 







Along with these beauties, that used to be ugly grey streaked with some random fugitive blue dye and some potential crime scene blood there were some nicely colored wooden clothes pins. 

I will iron them out and show you nice pictures tomorrow.  I am going to celebrate with a burger and fries tonight......just sayin'

Green Stack and Whack Calla Lily Quilt is Quilted

Chips the 22 lb mean cat!

Cali helping with a quilt

I loved that story about the kitty waiting for the litter!  Sounds just  like a cat, too!  I miss not having kitty feet in the house.  We always had two or three at one time and they lived to ripe old ages of close to 20.  We lost the last one 2 years ago, Cali, my little tiny calico who was 21 and still catching lizards until the end!




The Calla Lily Stack and Whack quilt is now quilted and needs a binding.  I have to decide what to put as a binding and get that done so I will have a finish for May, at least!

I wanted to do a pantograph on the back table since the long arm is still pulled out from the wall for when the film guy was here.  I got everything set up and realized we never did put the handles on the rear of the machine!  So much for that!

So I resorted to working from the camera, but I couldn't figure out where to put one of the wires that turned the whole thing on!  I gave up and just did a free motion leaf and swirl.  It worked out well.

Now it just needs a binding!

And to show you just how much Frank is loved:

the snoring from all three is deafening!

Stack And Whack

From the Flower Expert

I really love this green calla lily fabric.  My grandmother loved calla lilies!  So it had a special meaning from the beginning.  When I cut the blocks, my mother had come to visit me from the ramshackle building she and her second husband called home.

Don't get me started on that.  I was never in favor of the arrangement.  I hated my mother there with those people.  She just couldn't be alone, and my father had not been the type of man who encouraged a woman to speak from her own mind.  But don't get me started on that either.  My father, were he still alive, would most likely have deteriorated into his own mind by then and I would have had both of them on my doorstep. 

My mother was already in the throes of Alzheimers and the only way I could get her to a doctor was to get her husband to let her come visit.  I have no idea if she told him I took her there.  If she did, he most likely thought she was speaking nonsense.

That night, I cut the blocks and lined them up for her to sew.  I have 8 more blocks I put together this afternoon thinking I would put them on the back, but I didn't think to do that until I had just a portion of the back left to fill.  So I put them away for another quilt top.

I did use up a lot of scraps.  And I like the way the top came together.  I am still not totally enamored of the light border.  I generally use darker borders rather than lighter.  I wish I would have had more of that brown to use as the outer border.  I tested several browns but none worked well enough with the brown already there.

And I don't use green very often, so this is a quilt unique unto itself!


Here is what the top looked like last night.  SOMEONE took the green fabric I was using for that last border and I was unable to finish it.  Luckily I found it this morning, damp with dew from the morning.



Here is the finished top.

                                          And the backing.


And now I need to find the perfect name for it.

So Far This Week..........

I am finishing up on the first baby quilt, the Squares.  I did diagonal quilting, but wished at some point that I had actually noticed I was quilting AGAINST the pattern.  Geez.....

It looks fabulous though, and the dark grey with yellow dots makes a nice dark frame around the low volume of the quilt itself.  I likey!

The Green Peace was shown, it was the least exciting of the group.  The Bamboo Bonsai was delivered.  Michael of course, outdid himself again. That man is just so talented.

I guess I have gotten a lot done, it just feels like it is not much since the pieces are so very small!

I will get you a picture of the baby quilt this afternoon after I complete the binding sewing.

I need to deliver it for the shower tomorrow night.

Green to Dye For

I am posting this on Creations by Nina Marie, go by there and enjoy what others are doing!
http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/2013/03/studio-pegboard-for-off-wall-friday.html

A couple of months ago, I purchased a bolt of white, or what I thought was plain white muslin fabric, from Mia's.  It was cheap enough and had been washed due to a leak in her front window that occurred during a hurricane.  When I used a piece of it, I realized it has some sort of a pattern on the front, and had actually been wrapped inside out back on the bolt.

I kinda forgot about it, and tore a strip off to do the green thing with yesterday.  So soaking in the pot, scrunched up was this piece of what I thought was plain white muslin.

Swirled mess

To dye this I wanted to try do do snow dyeing, but of course, we have no snow.  I used ice cubes instead.  I scrunched the fabric up with my fingers and place it into the pot.  I wanted a small pot to contain the fabric, since it was just a small piece.  And I tossed in a number of ice cubes and sprinkled my powdered dyes on top of the cubes.

The Procion Dyes I used were blue, yellow and red.  I put the blue on first, then the yellow and added the red as an afterthought.  What exactly I was thinking escapes me now, but red was added.    I then put the pot outside on top of the recycle bin to keep it away from basset noses.

About an hour later, Frank brings the pot in to me and is swirling the melted ice water around. After berating him for moving MY STUFF, I put it carefully back on the recycle bin and left it out there overnight in the rain storm.  A really bad rain storm.  It was under the car port so it shouldn't have gotten any wetter than it already was.

Wet is always much darker than dry

At some point, I did think about having all those dyes swirled together like that, but was unable to affect anything at that moment, so I ignored the thought.

When I poured the dye water out this morning, I thought I had a nondescript green mess.  But when I laid it out on the trees to dry, I noticed the red parts, and decided it might have been a good idea to have that in there.

When it dried, and for some reason the dogs didn't bother this at all (I am totally amazed at that!), it looked very very interesting!

The front of the fabric had these stupid flowers on it, the ones I had forgotten all about.  But the back......oh my.......the back was incredible!






I saw leaves all over the back, in real leaf shapes, like a dense jungle of bushes and trees 




Large leaves and small leaves.......LEAVES!













I think I am seeing my green piece for the Fiber Group, baby!  You bet!

Dyeing To Get In

LOL.  Remember that old cemetery joke, they had to put a fence up around the cemetery because people were dying to get in!  LOL

I got another of the Taking Names sets done.  This one is Mint Green with scrappy.  I used a lot of blue and green pieces and just love it.  It is not one I would have chosen but it is looking fabulous.

We are not heading for the Red Stick today, too much to do.  I hope to get a look at some backings for the two baby quilts.

I really need to complete the quilting on the Southwest quilt that is on the frame and get some other stuff going.  Like the baby quilts.  I want to do Baptist Fans on the Baby Steps quilt.   And straight yet wavy lines on the Baby Bricks quilt.

I have some dyeing going on.  I am trying to get a nice green for my Fiber Group.  But I am not sure how it is working.  I am only rinsing once so the effect should be darker than if I totally washed the dye out of everything.  It will be a small piece and not washed or put into a larger quilt so it should be OK.


Not so appetizing, huh?  We shall see.  Oh, yes, it is drying high on the top of my nandinas because of the Idiot Child Who Eats Fabric.  Need I say more?