Unique Dyeing Results

This piece reminds me of either a night sky in the western United States or caves and rock formations out west.

I love the patterning in this piece. I was tempted to make it into a garment but I put it back on the art/wall hanging/quilt stack.
This is the companion piece to the one I just showed. If I had used that one to make a top I would have also used this one.
I’m going to see if I can get some similar results with some knit fabrics.
I’m done dyeing, but I’m not done sharing what I’ve done. Stay tuned.
When I told the kids I was done dyeing they said I was alive again!

My Elusive Dream–First Attempt

I got the cart before the horse as they say.
Yesterday I posted one of my second attempts for a blue and brown ice dyed Mandala.

This is my first attempt. The colors are not as intense and accurate as the real piece is.
But no one would guess when they looked at this that I was attempting to make a blue and brown ice dye with a little yellow and red for accents!
Because I use a lot of mixed colors they break into their component colors when diluted with the ice.
One never knows exactly what colors will appear in the finished piece.
While this isn’t what I had envisioned it is still a successful piece with lighter colors than any of the others I have created.

I’m Always Chasing…..Color Combos!

This is my second attempt to do a blue and brown piece.
The blues worked but the browns broke into burgundy colors.
It is still a good piece. One never knows what will happen when using these dyes that are mixed colors.


This is a smaller piece I did with the same colors. I am always trying new things when I play with the fabric, ice and dyes.
These are my last pieces I am dyeing this season.
There are others from these batches that you will see at a later date.
My mind is already working with ideas for some more pieces.
The dyes have been put away and I am in the process of cleaning up my dyeing area.
But this does not mean my posts will no longer feature my dyed fabrics.

If At First You Don’t Succeed, Try, Try Again

Almost all of the fabrics in the black dye pot I did recently were things that needed more layers to make an effective fabric.

I believe this one started as a dye rag with big splotches of color.

Although the color on this one was lovely it needed something to tone it down a little and add some interest.

I dyed it on 3 poles at the same time.

I think this was originally dyed about 25 years ago. The black was just what it needed to make it come alive.

567,890 Blog Views

I’m a number person so I am always fascinated when the number of views on my blog reach and interesting number.
So this time 6 consecutive numbers make up the number of views on my blog on 5/7/2015 at 1:55 p.m.
You may not care, but I do!

Water Color Memories

I hope you enjoy this new piece with a lot of imagery and symbols that I am sure many of you will see.

Several people have said my ice dyes look like water colors. In a way they are watercolors as the dye is diluted by the water made when the ice melts.

The colors flow, much like water colors do when you paint with them.

You have some control when you paint with water colors.

When you “paint with dye and ice” you turn the control over to the “Ice Gods”.

Even I, who has been christened the Queen of Ice can’t control the results.

Why Do I Quilt And Dye Fabric?

It is something that fills my soul.

It is as necessary for me as breathing.

That is the best way I can explain it.

I LOVE color.

I LOVE fabric and fibers.

There are NO rules. If something isn’t satisfying me I can alter it.

It’s a creative serendipitous way to live my life.

I feel so fortunate to be able to do this. I am putting everything I have learned in my life to work as I design, create and play.

Hand Dyed Texture Fabrics

One of the types of dyeing I have been doing is to over dye previously dyed pieces of fabric.
They each are about 8 x 10 inches. There are almost 100 different fabrics.
Some of them have very definite strong textures and others have barely visible textures, with many somewhere in between.
Having a variety of textures will make for a more interesting composition when I use them to create something.
I will most likely use all of them in one composition.
The second layer of color adds so much dimension to them.
I LOVE seeing all of them together.
I am winding down on fabric dyeing for the season but I still have so many pieces I haven’t shared so look for them in the day’s ahead.
I hope to dye about 4 more pieces before I am done.

Nice Ice Dyed Mandala

I never tire of creating these as each one is so different than the others.

I can try to get similar results but that doesn’t happen.

I think that is one of the things that keeps me coming back….the serendipitous surprises I get!

I plan on keeping each one as a whole cloth piece of art.

Cutting would destroy what I worked for.

Kentucky Derby Fun

Lauren is the hostess with the mostest!

Her horse knew there was a party and came to meet the guests.

Lauren’s beautiful daughter with Ryder and Laney.

Sally and grandson Tucker…Lauren and Sean’s son.

BFF Sally and I

Drew borrowed Sally’s hat so he could be part of the story!

Of course no Kentucky Derby Party would be complete without a pool to draw horses names and hope our horse wins. Here Larry, the family horse racing authority, gives Andy an opinion as to his horses chances to win.

 

If you are a regular reader of my blog you may remember what a difficult time I had getting a photo of Sally and her children..Ted, Lauren and Andy on Thanksgiving.

This is a candid shot as they were watching the race!

My apologies to all of you who I didn’t get a picture of. It was obvious EVERYONE enjoyed themselves.

It was a great party with a great host and hostess, great company and great food.

Kentucky Derby Day In Ocala

The most important thing for anyone attending the Kentucky Derby is a hat.
You have to get your hat before you consider your wardrobe.
This is last years hat and I may be restyling it for this years party!
The first Marion County bred horse to win the derby was Needles in 1956. I think it would be too dangerous to add needles to my hat.
A highly rated horse in this years Derby is Materialize. Material/Fabric- - I could add bolts of fabric…..NO I think I already have material on the hat so I think I’ll settle for wearing it as it is.
Marion County is second only to Kentucky when it comes to raising the horses that are important to horse racing.
10 of the 19 horses that will race have Marion County ties.
Included among those 10 horses with county connections are morning-line favorite American Pharoah, at 5-2 and coming out of the 17 post, and Carpe Diem, at 8-1, out of the third gate. There’s a reason American Pharoah is the favorite. Local horseman J.B. McKathan, who broke him, touts as him as the horse to beat. I’m looking forward to attending a derby party in Ocala with this horse in the pasture!

The Story Of Turning Point

The name is very appropriate for this piece. It could be turning on an imaginary point in the very center of the quilt.
But more importantly it was a “turning point” in my journey as a quilter.

This quilt was created about 25 years ago.

It broke a long quilting dry spell I had after piecing the top Threads Through Time, a tribute to my ancestors. Piecing that quilt top was so emotional that I could not create for a long time after I completed it in record time.
I was signed up to take a quilting class from a well known quilter and teacher. We were to bring an original block design with us to the class along with a LOT of fabric.
Try as I might in the months before the class I could NOT draw an original block I was pleased with.
The night before the class the teacher gave a lecture to our quilt guild. She talked about having a dry spell with her work.
Somehow that made an impression with my brain and my lack of creativity.
I woke up the morning of the class and immediately drew the block I used in this quilt.

The simple rectangular block consists of only 3 pieces and features curved seams.
I really can’t tell you what the instructor was trying to teach us to do as once I set foot in the classroom my brain went off on it’s own path. Fortunately the instructor encouraged me to work in my own style.
I cut strips and used a variation of a technique I had developed called Tubular Spiral Patchwork. I was able to resolve the coloration as I moved from block  to block as I turned each block a quarter turn to produce the entire piece.
I had expected to fill in the center but realized it was better with nothing in the center.
This was the first quilt I ever had accepted in a juried ART show. After that first acceptance it was accepted into every show I entered it in.
And from that point on I never looked back….I’m still creating original design quilts.

Shades Of Black

Using Procion dyes on silk makes it next to impossible to get black fabric.
When a friend said she DID get black I did an experiment with many silk fabric in my possession.
Since I was doing a big black bucket of cotton fabrics I put samples of each fabric, some bound, some loose in the bucket.
There are a few patches of solid black, but I got a lot of green colorations.
The Procion dye I used is one that is no longer available but I do have a fair amount of it left so it was worth a try.

I got some great black overdyes on previously dyed cottons. These are just two of the many. I’ll be sharing some of the others in the days to come.

Ice Circles 1 Is Quilted

I really enjoyed machine quilting this quilt, the first of a set of 3.

It is made from two different pieces of fabric I ice dyed.

This is a close-up of the quilting. I LOVE machine quilting circles!

Backyard Beauties

The Garden Club in our community had a garden tour Saturday morning.

What amazing creativity in the back yards of 6 homes.

When driving down the streets these are things we could never imagine.

Lovely flower bed

Loved this screen and the flowers

Not only did I love this yard but the table and chairs each painted a different color were awesome.

Don’t miss the chandelier hanging in the tree…how clever!

Loved the glass totem on the pole made from a wine bottle and other pieces of glassware.

I took many more pictures and could have spent all day taking pictures.

Each yard was so different and I LOVED them all.

It was obvious that all these homeowners put many many hours into their yards.

Visit Today From Two Very Special People

Geri and Bob from Wisconsin were in Florida this week.

They came here for a visit today.

They are both as special as their smiles.

Since this was their first visit I gave them the “house tour”. We also spent some time on the lanai enjoying the weather and the breeze.

We visited, had lunch outside at the club house and took a short ride through a part of The Villages.

I will see Geri soon in Wisconsin.

Dyeing Layers Again….Is It Done Yet…..First Change

Thanks to the 500 of you who viewed this and made many comments about it.
Yesterday I painted the entire piece with soda ash which toned it down a tiny bit. It also is slightly blurred. The original piece had some dyes that weren’t “fixed” with soda ash.
This is what it looked like the first time I posted it:

I am guessing you won’t see much of a difference although some of the colors aren’t quite as bright and the white is slightly toned down.
It is currently being soaked and rinsed to remove all the soda ash. Then it will be washed with my 205 degree water temperature and blue Dawn.
It will be interesting to see what happens when I do that.
Stay tuned to this channel!!!
In case you don’t know you can add your email address to the space for it on the right of this page and you will receive a notification each time I post something.

Simply Gorgeous - Rerun

This is my post from exactly one year ago today. I was doing ice dyeing then as I have been recently.

It’s always a surprise to see the results when I do ice dyeing. This was my “masterpiece” from today’s fabric finishes.

It is quite bright, and the pattern can be seen through all the layers. The basic fold creates 16 layers but secondary folds create many additional layers in places.

This one is about 44 inches square.

Plum Parfait

Yesterday I dyed 55 pieces of fabric. By the time I got done I was wiped out. Not only did I dye all of them, but did numerous cold water rinses to eliminate the soda ash, but also did the 205 degree water wash with blue Dawn to remove any loose dye. Then I did another wash with a Shout Color Catcher sheet to be sure there was no more loose dye.

After that I put them in the dryer for a very short time and ironed them all dry. If I leave them in the dryer for a longer time or until dry wrinkles can become set and next to impossible to remove.

The 5 pieces you see are the result of another parfait where I put 5 pieces of fabric in one container and add dye to each one before I put another white fabric on top of it.

With this method of dyeing I never know what I am going to get as some dyes separate and react differently with the previous or subsequent dye.

I really am pleased with this group of fabrics.

More Layers Of Texture

 

I am continuing to add another layer of texture to pieces of fabrics that have been previously dyed.

This particular group has a lot of lighter fabrics. I prefer to use a lot of different values when I create something.

I may or may not use these all together.

These are less than half of the pieces I am adding texture to.

I enjoy seeing all the different textures that are happening. To me these read delicious!

Rome wasn’t built in a day …. and I can’t create all my fabrics in a day either. It takes time and it is worth it.