Catching Up

I'm finally getting around to finishing up some quilts started over the summer.

This was started using a stencil and Walnut Ink, shown earlier in my blog. I added a curved frame, using reverse applique, and the border fabric was sun-printed using blades of grass and clover. Spelling out Basil and outlining blocks with beads added something extra.

This also was started using a stencil and Walnut Ink. I didn't like the effect it gave on the blue fabric, so decided to use the butterfly as an applique. The background is a hand-dye fabric where the dyes were swished around to mix with each other. This fabric was then reverse appliqued to yellow hand-dye fabric for the sun. The branch was fused and then appliqued.

Have more in the series that are a work in progress. Please come back to see them.

Hand-dyeing Class

Last Tuesday, I taught a class at my guild (Warwick Valley Quilters Guild, web site http://www.wvqg.com/ ) on hand-dyeing fabric. The process I taught was low water immersion, a simple beginners course. They did basic colors, then some tints and shades, and ended with a couple of tie-dyes. Below are some pictures of the students. Don't they look like they're having fun!

They will be bringing in the finished results this coming Tuesday at our meeting. Will have some pictures of their work then.

I had some dyes left over (couldn't waste the dyes) so the next day I did some dyeing.

I also painted some dyes onto soda ash soaked black on white fabrics. I just squirted dyes on the fabric and smooched it around with my hands.

I used a lot of black dye mixed with red, blue, green and violet. These I plan to discharge. They're actually much darker than the picture.

The weather has been so rainy........I don't know when I'll get to do this.