Wave Goodbye

I was SO in love with my hollyhock-dyed jelly roll strips. I loved them so much, I couldn't decide if I should make a dress or a quilt. So I bribed myself. I promised myself I could make something of the jelly roll after I finished a few other quilts in progress.

That was five finished quilts ago!

In the meantime, my luscious lavenders turned to boring beige. The color faded, even though the strips were not stored in direct sunlight.


This batch of hollyhock had been mordanted with soy. It was an experiment. The experiment failed. Now I know better.


I began snow-dyeing again after a 16-inch dump, and that was followed up by another eight inches the following weekend. Plenty of snow for dyeing! Perhaps I could refresh the hollyhock strips by snow-dyeing them!

This would mean re-mordanting them, this time with salt and soda ash. The soda ash changes the pH of the water, which in turn changes the color of many natural-dyed fibers.

My 50 shades of beige (and a couple of still gorgeous lavender strips) turned green when I first stuck them in the mordant pot. A very nice green, but I knew it would not last. Heat turns natural dyes to yellow or brown. Or a combination of the two.




Within about 20 degrees, the attractive green went eggshell.


I actually liked these colors, but I didn't know how long the color would hold up with regular washing. So I moved forward with the snow-dyeing plan.

I'd hoped for lavender and dusty rose once again, to replace what I lost. But I feared what the ecru fabric might do to gorgeous pastel shades of purple. I opted for burgundy and mink professional dyes instead.




Once again, the powder dye color broke, which means, separated into the different hue components of which the initial color was made. Because I didn't have a particular color goal this time, I didn't mind. I wanted to see what I could get.


The colors after all the snow melted looked pretty darned good. The dye then cured for more than 24 hours before heading into boiling water to be permanently set. I didn't forget the heat stage of professional dyeing this time.


After boiling the strips, the color looked good. I hoped it would fade just a bit in the wash, but not to completely pastel.


After washing came the tedious three-hour process of detangling, chopping off unraveled threads and then pressing with a hot iron. Which allowed me to study each strip in detail.

Oh, my heavens! I've created The Wave on fabric!!!!!!!!!!

I now am the proud owner of the most beautiful jelly roll I've ever seen!










Linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

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15 Inches of Dye

When you're trying to train for a 450-mile cross-state bicycle ride and the weather does nothing but pound you with snow, might as well get some color going!

22 inches were forecast; we had 15 after the first 36 hours. Not quite the Storm of the Century predicted, but still enough for another round of snow-dyeing!

Five hanks of cotton yarn were prepared for dyeing (hanked and then mordanted), then a hank of cotton thread, two yards of cotton fabric, and finally, one hank of wool yarn. This would be my first time using snow to dye wool, as well as my first time ever trying fiber-reactive dyes on wool. The dye process for wool is completely different than for cotton, so my efforts with the wool were experimental. Didn't know what to expect, and didn't really care how it turned out, as long as the wool didn't felt (shrink and coagulate). (The wool turned out just fine!)






I was hoping for lavender and violet this time around; the color broke once again, which is one of the magic aspects of snow-dyeing, so initially not the color I envisioned after the snow melted, but still not bad. Four of the cotton yarn hanks are to return kindness to friends who helped me through various difficulties, and I thought they'd each be happy with the results.










This time, I did an entire 415-yard skein of size 10 Baroque crochet thread instead of winding it into individual 100- or 150-yard hanks. I decided I want enough of one colorway to make something besides snowflakes. Especially if I like the finished color.


The wool is totally different in color from the cotton, but I think it turned out great. I think this will knit up beautifully!




Then came the washing stage. Eek. Sometimes washing is the make or break in dyeing. I'd been doing only natural dyeing for most of the last 18 months. You don't use hot heat in natural dyeing; it messes up the colors, typically resulting in standard grays and browns. Not fun after experiencing color heaven.

This was my first time using professional dyes in quite a while, and I mistakenly applied the natural dye washing rules to the cotton instead of the professional dye washing rules. Professional dyes need heat to set.

My cold cotton color did not set.

Darn it.




Fortunately, I still like the faded pastel pink, and I can always overdye if necessary. I also learned a much-needed lesson and hopefully will not need to relearn it. With 16 more inches on the way and yet another winter storm in the extended forecast, I want to take another stab at lavender and violet, without so much color break this time, if possible. Reducing color break in snow- or shaving cream-dyeing is a challenge, and challenge is one of the dyeing aspects I apparently enjoy. I keep trying again and again and again...

Meanwhile, this pastel pink might work very nicely for me and my friends, each who've had personal close calls with breast cancer, actual breast cancer, or loved ones facing close calls or the real thing. Pink is always sentimental in my neck of the high plains meets foothills.






Linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

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Snowflake Day

My snowflakey friends hoped I might be able to share a sneak peak of my special project today, on the first official Snowflake Day/Make a Snowflake Day. I had hoped to have the project done by about mid-February. I'm not going to make that deadline. (Although the layout is done!!!)

One of the multitude of reasons/excuses for not being closer to finished on my top secret project is an adorable baby shower invitation I received last week...


I thought I had until May!!! But no, Madeleine will make her grand appearance in March! The shower is tomorrow!

I had planned to give Jennifer Snowdyed because I didn't know if she was having a boy or a girl. It's pink and blue.

When I learned Madeleine is a girl, I backed the sandwich with pink. Snowdyed perfectly fits the bill; but then I wondered: might Jennifer like something more bright and cheery? I decided to give this first-time mom a choice of the three layered and basted baby-sized quilts I have ready for quilting.


Turtle Sherbet


Skinned


Snowdyed
"Oh my goodness!! All three are beautiful!," she wrote. "I don't know how I can choose just one, buuuuut I'm gonna say the snow-dyed one. It's absolutely gorgeous!! Thank you sooo much!! I can't wait until you can meet Madeleine! =) Jenn-Bug"

So, Snowdyed it is!

When I finished my first disappearing four-patch with my newly snow-dyed fabric last year and photographed it with one of my hand-dyed snowflakes, Mrs. Micawber suggested a snowflake might be perfect for each square.

I thought snowflake motifs would be a GREAT quilting alternative, but when it came time to actually begin stitching, I had a huge stack of white snowflake leftovers (snowflakes that will need to be stiffened if I don't use them in other quilts) from THE special project, so I decided to appliqué snowflakes instead of just quilting snowflake outlines. (Fewer leftover snowflakes to stiffen!!!)






This process was a huge eye-opener for me. This little baby quilt features only 18 snowflakes; my special project has 130. !!! YIKES!!!

I didn't finish quilting Snowdyed over the weekend because snowflake appliqué takes a LOT longer than I remembered. My first machine appliqué attempt on this quilt was a complete disaster. I accidentally caught a fold in the underneath side of the quilt, and the only way to fix it was to rip out the quilting of the entire snowflake. I slowed the process down for all the rest of the snowflakes, and I ended up not having to take out any more stitching, but that meant the quilt couldn't be mailed on Monday as planned. Better a near-perfect quilt perhaps not in time for the actual shower than a flawed quilt in front of an entire audience of well-wishers.




My quilts don't HAVE to be quilt-show perfect, especially while I'm trying to improve my free-motion quilting skills, but that doesn't mean I shouldn't try to do my best. I didn't want this gift to look rushed. I want it to be a cherished heirloom, and I hope it will be symbolic of the love I have for my little grand niece. A fold on the backside simply was not acceptable.

This project was indeed great free-motion practice - lots of twists and turns and picots and bumps and spikes and popcorn stitches to work over, and it made me wonder if I wouldn't be better off doing the appliqué portion of my special project by hand. I now plan to throw that full-size quilt baby on my homemade frame this weekend to begin the long, drawn-out, tedious task of hand appliqué.

Because today is THE first official Snowflake Day, Sisters of the Snowflake win. Here is a tiny sneak preview of what's to come. It may be a full month (or more) before my actual project is complete, however. I have a lot of hand-stitching ahead of me.


The main focus for this week had to be finishing Snowdyed, and now it's a snowflakey finished Snowdyed. Rather fitting, I believe, since piles of snowflakes are responsible for the great coloring on this baby quilt!








I didn't have quite enough solid pink Kona leftovers from my various breast cancer quilts to back the entire baby quilt, sadly, so I threw in a strip of my pink (lavender) Spoonflower fabric, with a digitally manipulated photo of one of my mom's roses forming snowflake designs.




I tried to line up the Spoonflower strip so a snowflake from the front might perfectly overlap one of the Photoshopped rose flakes, and it was close, but no cigar. Which is fine, because I don't smoke anyway, and neither does anyone in Jennifer's family. Remember when men lit up "It's a Boy!" or "It's a Girl!" stogies to celebrate a new birth?!?


I initially had planned snowflake motifs in the squares that didn't have snowflakes, but after finishing all the appliqué work, I decided more motifs might be overkill. So then I thought Storm at Sea quilting might fit in perfectly. After quilting diamonds into each of the big squares and burying all the thread ends, I decided it was time to bind this baby, get it in the mail and call it good. The overall quilting is not dense at all, so the quilt is lofty soft, comfy and cuddly perfect for a baby.

I pieced almost all the rest of the snow-dyed remnants to create the binding and did the entire binding by machine, using Elmer's School Glue for basting. It's not my favorite method of binding, but I didn't have time to do it by hand.

Not only did this quilt need to be washed before making a cross-country trip so I could make sure it will withstand the multitude of pressures of covering a baby, I needed to make absolutely certain the fabric wouldn't run, too! I'd rinsed and washed the fabric after dyeing it, but adding all the white snowflakes... well, I just needed to know for sure. And sure enough, the color is fast!

I can't be at Madeleine's shower, but I've packed up and mailed a few layers of love and even wrapped them in my very own Spoonflower wrapping paper! I'm looking forward to meeting the newest member of my family as soon as I get a chance!


Snowdyed, Before Washing


Snowdyed, After Washing


Snowdyed, Before Washing


Snowdyed, After Washing








Linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Crazy Mom Quilts.

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