My Hand Dyed fabrics part two

There were two more techniques left that I didn't get to show you yesterday.  The first one, I failed at miserably!  It was supposed to be wound up a bit like a cinnamon roll.  I just couldn't seem to manage that.  The fabric turned out....let's say, interesting.  The pink and yellow was the second one I did in this manner.  It turned out a little like it was supposed to.  The other one, not so much.

My favorite technique was folded in squares.  I had finally gotten the hang of being sparse with the dye sometimes!  The red, white and blue was the last one dyed this way.  So happy to see the white didn't get swallowed up by the other dyes! 

 

That's all for today!

My Hand Dyed Fabric

I recently took a class from Carol Morrissey on dying fabric.  It was a simple introduction to the art without all the chemicals, mixing and breathing apparatus.  The dyes were already mixed and in bottles.  The class was held at Quilt Country and was loads of fun!  I'm going to be sharing my dyed fabric here with you today.  I wasn't great at the techniques Carol attempted to teach me, so my fabrics don't all have the look I was going for, but I'm happy with it all regardless. 

The first three photos show an accordion folding technique.  That was easy, but I tended to be heavy handed with the dyes on each technique. 

The next two were scrunched up and wound around a PVC pipe and held with rubber bands.  My heavy handed dying messed up the look.  If I remember correctly, we started these two with blue fabric.  All the rest were dyed on white. 

As usual, I'm having problems with Blogger.  I'm going to end this post here and write another one for tomorrow. 



 

Catching up on my Kaffe Fassett Grandmother's Flower Garden Blocks

It's been a while since I've posted.  I think I told you last time that I haven't done a lot of hexagon piecing lately, but I have been slow piecing when I have a few free minutes.  So, this will be a heavy photo post.  Hope you enjoy.  The large hexagon has the small white dots in the centers.  These are made from 1 and a half inch hexagons.  There's only one of these this time. 

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the larger hexagons.  I've shifted my focus to the smaller ones, but I have several of the large ones cut and ready to sew!

 

The smaller ones have the large white dot in the center and are made from 1 inch hexagons. 

Did you notice that this one and the pink and orange flowers below are the same pattern?

 

Some of them are so odd as flowers that I just love them.  This one and the one below belong in that category!

This is one of my favorites!

I love this pattern!  I've bought all of the colorways I can find!  This is the same pattern as the large one at the top.  LOVE IT!

A new favorite pattern! 

 

 

The next three are partial flowers.  I'm not sure if I'll leave them this way and use them along the edges or if I'll finish them later on.  Only time will tell. 

 

This one hurts my eyes to work on.

I might like this one better if I'd had enough fabric to center the flowers.  It's just not working for me here.

This one looked better before I cut it up.  I may like it better in the large hexagons.

More tomorrow showing you some fabric I dyed in a recent class. 

 

A little update

I haven't had much time to slow stitch on my hexagon projects lately.  I've been in crazy fast work mode to get things ready for the Quilters Guild of Dallas' quilt show in march, Quilt Celebration 2017.

I finished piecing a quilt that started as a unfinished baby quilt top in 2000.  I didn't have time to finish the quilt before the baby shower for my first grandchild, so I took the top as one of the gifts.  I showed it to her momma, then took it home to finish it.  Apparently, I cleaned up things in my sewing room shortly after that (which is always a gamble!), because I found the unfinished crib top in a fabric storage box a few years ago!  I had wondered why I never saw my granddaughter using the quilt over the years.  Well, it's because I never finished it!  I took the top to show my granddaughter the next time I visited.  She said she still wanted it, that it was her quilt after all!  This really surprised me because the top was made of hot pink and cheddar yellow fabric.  She is not remotely fond of pink and I don't think she likes yellow much either!  So, I started purchasing fabrics that I hoped would add to the top to enlarge it, while making it more to her liking.  I sewed on it some the next time I went to a quilt retreat, but I still didn't finish it.  In November, I realized that the quilt would fit the show chair's theme for the show, which is "It's a Charmed Life".  All quilts in this category have to be made from one shape.  It could be hexagons (which I couldn't finish in time), triangles, squares, etc.  My granddaughter's quilt was all squares, so I set out to finish it for her 16th birthday this year and for the quilt show.  It took quite a few hours to realize that most of the new fabric I bought just did not work well with the original top.  Fortunately, I did have enough of some more pinks to finish it.  The front of the quilt is in the top photo.

Then I used all the fabrics I had cut to try to work with the front, but couldn't, for the back.  She basically gets a two sided quilt.  I would have loved to hand quilt it, but couldn't get it done in time, so I took it to be professionally machine quilted.  My machine quilting is still in the horrible stage.  I hope to get it back in the next week or so. The back of the quilt is the second photo. 

Then I worked on a mini for the live miniature quilt auction that will happen at the quilt show.  I was piecing pot holders from scraps for Christmas gifts when I came across the center piece of batik fabric.  I loved it!  It reminded me of outer space and the theme song for the Big Bang Theory started running through my head.  So I continued to play and piece from my scraps until I came up with this.  It's about 15 inches by 15 inches.  That pretty much brings us up to date on all of my recent quilting.  More soon.  And Happy New Year!

Miniature Hexagon Quilt update Nov. 11, 2016

I didn't update last weekend because I was attending the Houston Quilt Festival.  It was lots of fun!  I got to spend time with my sister-in-law Kim and see hundreds of fabulous quilts!  The exhibits were amazing!  On the way home, I took a little detour and went to the Texas Quilt Museum in La Grange.  This was the first year for me to attend the museum, so I've missed many exhibits.  I feel fortunate to have made it to see each of the exhibits this year.  I love the museum, so I plan to make sure I see each exhibit in the future.  Love, love, love that we have such a wonderful place here in the state!  And to make it even more special, there is a great little quilt shop right next door!  Unfortunately, I can't remember the name of the shop at the moment, but the carry beautiful yarn for our knitting friends too.  Definitely worth checking out.

With all of my travel and starting to get the house ready for Thanksgiving company, I haven't sewn a lot on my blocks.  I have basted quite a bit and was able to set out a small top to see what the quilt might just look like.  I've concentrated on the miniature Kaffe Fassett top so that I can finish it in time for the auction at the quilt show in March. 

Here is the photo I took this morning.  Only two of the flowers are sewn together, so there's no telling which ones will actually make it into the quilt.  Hope you enjoy it and I'll update next weekend.

Hexagon Update October 29, 2016

I've managed to sew a lot this week.  At least for me, that is.  I'm enjoying this so much that I've started a second Kaffe Fassett Grandmother's Flower Garden!  The one I've been showing up until now is being pieced on 1 1/2" hexagon papers.  I started a smaller one on 1" papers.  If I can get it finished in time, the small one will be a miniature that I donate to the Quilter's Guild of Dallas Quilt Celebration live miniature quilt auction.  The auction is always on the Saturday of the show, which happens to be on March 11, 2017 for this particular show. 

I also had a great outing this week!  I got to hear Kaffe Fassett speak in Lewisville on Monday.  It was lots of fun and extremely interesting.  If you are a quilter and get the chance to hear him speak, do it!  You won't be sorry.  I only wish I'd been able to attend the workshop he had while in the area. 

Here are my flowers completed this week:

I'm going to write another post with the smaller ones and a comparison photo.  ***For some reason, Blogger separated the two posts and  put the second one down the list as if it were written a week or so ago.  If you want to read it without searching, click this link.  I hope I eventually figure out all the ins and outs of blogger.  Sheesh, this is confusing!  Hope you enjoy these blocks!

Flower blocks for the week of Oct. 16 - 22, 2016

 

I've been busy cleaning and applying for jobs this week, so I haven't had as much time for sewing.  The floral block was completed on Oct. 16.  I finished the black and white block during the third Presidential debate on the 19th.  I thought it was quite apropos since the difference in Trump and Clinton is pretty black and white.  My hands are not hurting as much, so hopefully that will continue to improve and I'll be able to get more flowers pieced.  I'll update next week with my new flower blocks.