It Snowed, So I Snow-dyed

Last Monday morning I woke to snow-----so instead of working on a quilt (anything not to work on that quilt) I did some snow-dyeing. There wasn't that much snow and it was melting fast. I soda soaked a couple of yards of fabric, mixed dyes and scraped snow off the driveway. I used a combo of red/violet and yellow/orange. The second piece I used blue/violet and yellow/green. I set these to the side to melt and do their thing. When I looked outside the snow had stopped and was quickly melting (faster than it was on my fabric). Tuesday after my guild meeting I rinsed the fabrics.

My dh came out to the garage and advised me that it was to snow again Wednesday, so instead of washing my fabrics I let them air dry and got more fabric ready for the snow.

I woke Wednesday to more snow than Monday so I decided to dye 4 more pieces.

Orange and green

Orange and blue/green

Orange and blue/violet

Red/orange and yellow/green

I had a little dye left over (can't let it go to waste) so I did a 3 layer parfait.

Left side is Layer 1 - orange, middle is Layer 2 - fushia with a little blue, right side is Layer 3 - blue. These are dark saturated colors.

I enjoyed my 2 days of snow-dyeing, but lets face it -------

I'M SICK OF WINTER!!!!

Now back to the quilt.

Leftovers

I started making a quilt using hand dyed fabrics and pictures of my neighbor's Weeping Cherry tree. My original idea wasn't working out, so I put it to the side and using the extra pictures, crazy quilt blocks, and sections of blocks, I started experimenting on a much smaller scale.

I used 4 crazy patch blocks, quilted them to background fabric and batting, with just enough quilting to keep them in place. I then painted gesso over the whole piece, let it dry, then stamped black dots and green leaves. I used smooch paint to make curved lines. I made some brush strokes with Perfect Pearls, but didn't care for that and finally used fusible thread and gold foil. I trimmed the edges and couched wool roving to the edges for binding.

Not bad for an experiment with mixed media.

I moved on to scraps I saved from piecing the original quilt, sewed them together, used one of the organza pictures backed with fabric and sewed it on top, then stamped weeping cherry tree around the sides. I took a variety of pink scraps and fused them onto the piece. I quilted using a decorative curly stitch and fused a binding on. I secured it with the same curly stitch.

I had more leftover fabric pictures. I took a winter picture and cut curving lines across on a diagonal. I fused these onto a medium pink fabric then cut in the opposite direction, then fused onto a light pink fabric and cut 1/2" around each piece. These pieces were reassembled and fused onto dark green fabric. I zigzag stitched around all the pieces then added pink scraps to look like petals falling. I quilted a meander design throughout. The edges were faced to the back. I like the look of the picture being shattered. The flower petals should have been rounded and not so angular, but overall I liked the result.

My experiment quilts were turning out better than the original.

Lastly, I made a postcard from an organza picture and strips of fabrics. I sewed the organza onto the background strips, stamped fall on the side, backed the quilt with cardstock and muslin, then stitched around the edge.

These were all small quilts. The experimenting freed me to explore techniques I've been wanting to try, taught me some lessons and let me have fun.

Now, you're probably wondering about the quilt I originally started. Will blog about that later.