Saturday, August 25, 2012

What to do what to do????

Our grandson is with us for a week and a half.  (7 yr old)

Today is cloudy and cooler than normal.

Maybe some crafts?

Maybe skating?  tried to do that yesterday but rink was closed.

We'll figure it out.

My projects are on hold until after Labor Day.


Sew see you later

Bette

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Dyeing continued day 2

This scarf was mostly done on Sunday.  Here you see it with all the wax removed.
I felt it needed some detail as the trees lost some definition as the soy wax
didn't resist as well as I would have liked.

I was reading one of my silk painting books about things that can be added to
the silk fabric to keep it from bleeding when painting it.  There were several things I could use,
the easiest being hair spray.  Imagine that hairspray!!!

Here is a close up.  I used a fine point sharpie marker.
It now needs to be washed again to get the hairspray out.
On Sunday I had begun this scarf by dyeing the edges yellow.
Today I added the wax.  This time I used all paraffin wax.

I mixed up a medium blue with a touch of Turquoise.
 I put the entire scarf in the dye bath and let it sit for almost two hours.

Here it is after rinsing it out until the water was clear.
I need to remove the wax next (another day).
This is what I used to melt my wax.  I keep water in the electric fry pan so that there is
less chance of the wax getting too hot and catching on fire.  The can on the top is a mix of paraffin and soy wax,  same with the one on the right, at the bottom is pure soy wax, and the one on the left is pure paraffin.

The scarf is stretched on a frame.  Putting the wax on the silk.

I was having so much fun batiking I had to start another scarf.
This time I waxed the white scarf with leaves and stems, to be colored later.

I decided to change my color scheme.

     
After rinsing out the scarf.  When dry it will be ready for the second layer of wax.
Ahh yes another day.

Sew see you later,
Bette







Tuesday, August 14, 2012

A little Dyeing

     Last Sunday it was such a beautiful day outside.  Warm low humidity and sunny.  After church I thought what a perfect day to spend in the garage dyeing fabric.  I had put some ideas down on paper a few months ago.  I was going to work on the long thin silk scarves.  However, when I looked in my stash, all I had left were square ones.  OK so lets punt.  I don't have pictures of the final results yet as they are not ready.  I'll get back to finishing them tomorrow.

I folded the scarf into quarters and put a rubber band on the lower part
hopefully to keep it from wicking up the color to the center


Mixing up the green procion dye, I feel like a chemist here.

After mixing it, I put a piece of pantyhose over another cup and pour the mixed dye
through it to screen out any bits of unmixed color.

I put the lower part into the green dye and let it sit.

The dye did wick up past the rubber band, but not too far.

After drying the scarf, I stretched it on one of my frames,  here you can see half of the batiking
with wax.  I used a mix of soy wax and paraffin.  

Here it is all waxed and the lower half back in a darker green the upper half in a medium blue


The green didn't come out as dark as I wanted  so I mixed up a darker batch and stuck it in.
This time I left it in the dye for two and a half hours.


This is the beginning of my second scarf.  I didn't get the rubber band as tight
 and the yellow is wicking further up.  That's what I love about dyeing fabric
the way I do it, it is not always predictable.  Yes I do have plastic covering my work surface.  I learned
that when the dye gets onto the wood, if it gets wet it can transfer to the new piece of fabric.  Boo!!
So with the plastic, I keep rags nearby and wipe up drips and spills right away to keep my work surface clean.




Sew See You Later!
Bette

Sunday, August 12, 2012

August still sewing

Well,  I took a break from sewing on the quilt.  I felt I needed something I could actually finish in a reasonable amount of time.

My very good friend,  who is temporarily living in England right now,  found this fabric with my name on it... spelled the way I spell it!  Imagine that!

So I got it out and a pattern that I thought would work and away I went.  As of now it is finished except some hand work on it.


I narrowed the width of the sleeve

These are a fabulous idea, again given to me by my friend in England
they are pattern weights and work terrific!

Even though this is a knit I reinforced the shoulder neck corner and added clear elastic to the shoulders
and the under arm seam in the sleeves to prevent them from growing.

Serging the main seams.

Done except the hems.  Looking at the front.

Looking at the back.


Sew See You Later!
Bette

Friday, August 3, 2012

AUGUST????? YES!


THIS SUMMER SURE IS SLIPPING BY WAY TOO FAST!

I've finally gotten back to sewing.  At the end of May I took a class in the Japanese Fan quilt (pattern and method by Judy Neidemeyer).  This week I finally got back to it.  In the picture above the three blocks on the top  are what I did in class.  I started 5 fan blocks in class so they could teach me how to "strip piece" them.  They aren't really strip pieced but you do the same step for a bunch of blocks,  then go to the next step so it does save some time.

Paper piecing 

After stitching, iron the new piece out

Placing a piece of card stock on the next line to be stitched 

Fold the pattern back

Put my add-a-quarter ruler on it and trim the excess seam allowance off.  Just a note this add-a-quarter ruler is invaluable!  I  LOVE   it!!!


Add the next piece in the block and it begins all over again.


I now have 20 fan parts of the block completed, need 10 more.  The upper "solid" part is not sewn yet  I want to wait until all 30 fans are done and then if I want to make any changes I can do that before they are put together.


More later, hopefully not too much later.

Bette