Musings on quilting, sewing, fabric and dyeing by Janet Smith ( www.textileart.com )

My ‘Total Eclipse’ project keeps getting interrupted by fabric and thread orders - I am NOT complaining!

I was concerned about the curved seams, so I just had to try one out and voilà!  Almost perfect!

No, I didn’t use ‘That Purple Thang’.  I fell back on my dress making skills and BASTED it!  Yeah, I know it takes more time, but I was able to whip this piece under that 1/4″ presser foot and be successful without batting an eye.

From talking to my customers and reading about techniques, there are many ways to reach the same goal. So, I’ll baste if I need to.  I’m comfortable with basting.  Comfortable makes me happy and happy will get this quilt done!  LOL!

There is one thing I learned about constructing this block - keep the sides aligned so the block comes out square.  It’s probably the most annoying thing about getting it right, but you will be happy with the result.

Posted under Quilting

When I visit Michael’s or Joann’s or Hobby Lobby, I see the dye they offer and always wondered how good it is. And, would it be useful for dyeing small quantities of fabric? So, I decided to do a totally unscientific test of two products - Tulip^® and Dylon^®.

Just for yucks, I hauled out the good stuff to include in my tests. From the top, the Pimatex I regularly use, rayon, raw silk, silk jacquard and silk/rayon devore velvet.

I marked each (approx.) 9″ X 11″ piece with a ‘D’ or a ‘T’ so I would know which dye I used.

I started with the Tulip^® tie dye kit. The kit contains 3 - 4 oz. bottles with dye and activator, a pair of gloves and rubber bands. The one I purchased had Lemon (Yellow), Fuchsia (Red) and Turquoise (Blue) dyes. Very easy to use. Fill the bottles to the line with water. Shake (watch the tops) to dissolve and you’re good to go for FORTY FIVE MINUTES - better hurry. LOL!

I wet and then swirled up the fabric pieces and added a rubber band to try to keep them in a nice neat circle (ah, right). The fabric rolls/buns/Danish were placed on one of my many contraptions - fiberglass screen secured to a kitty litter pan with colorful clothes pins. Works for me. The excess dye goes through the screen and doesn’t ‘pool’ under the piece. If you want muddy, murky colors, put the fabric on a solid flat surface and go to town.

I liberally squirted dye across the fabric, flipped and repeated. I am not so much concerned about the style. I want to see how good the color is.

While I am doing this, I’m thinking . . . $9.99 (less 25% off since it was just dumb luck when I went to Joann’s they were having a sale. I also got 50% off on some foam for another project! But, I digress.) . . . NINE NINETY NINE for a CUP AND A HALF OF DYE?  This kit is supposed to dye ‘up to 8 shirts’ - uh, huh.

Not the way I DYE!

I would get ONE shirt from the kit, maybe.

I had dye left over since there were just 5 itsy bitsy pieces. So I took 4 of the 5 (no velvet), dumped dye on them, scrunched them up and set them aside.

Now we wait - 6 to 8 hours.

Posted under Dyeing

Ta Da! Only 66 sections to go!

Once you get the hang of the section construction, it’s not bad. I am getting a work out! Way too much moving around which is not very efficient. I need to organize my space better to ‘work smarter, not harder’. :

Posted under Quilting

Yikes! Whose idea was this?!?! Oh, yeah. It was mine. I cut all of the pieces except the corner and side border blocks. Ended up using several ‘baggies’ so my work of cutting art wouldn’t get smooshed. Actually it was good for me that I had lines to follow and short distances to cut. It’s trying to keep a 24″ span straight without going wobbly that’s an issue.

Instead of pinning the template to the top piece of fabric, I used my pattern weights. Just pick them up and move around to cut.

I would add the following to the instructions to make cutting the correct fabric easier:

Posted under Quilting

Oh, boy.  I read through this pattern a while back.  It’s complicated, but sounded reasonable.  Now that I am actually doing it, it’s a different story.

What the instructions lack are a summary of the fabrics needed for each section.  An overview/table of which fabrics for which section would be helpful.  I will add them to my narrative.  Stay tuned, I’m getting ready to CUT and bag!

Posted under Quilting

I’ve made a wedding dress and a Christening gown

and even replaced broken zippers in jeans.

So why I am so inept at piecing?  Don’t answer that.  It’s a rhetorical question.  I think I know the answer.

I love dyeing fabric and I love quilts.  I am always blown away by my customers’ projects.  It never fails when I see one that it takes a while to realize, hey, that’s my fabric!  Such a joy!

Now it’s my turn to try and make a ‘real’ quilt.

Being one to welcome a challenge, I chose the following:

I have my fabric dyed and ready to cut:

I’ll be back in about a week with my ‘baggies’ of pieces.  This will be a hoot!

Posted under Quilting