More of my Hand-dyed fabrics!

Hi All!

Ok - these are the last three photos of the hand-dyed fabric! UNTIL my bee meets again in December and I have more to show you!

The first is of a piece of "rust" parfait! No joke! I shoved a piece of white fabic (1/4 yd) in a clear plastic glass and squirted in some dye that I had mixed into a rust! This is what I got.... I don't think I'll do it again - or maybe it needs to be "over dyed" at our next meeting! Ding - now there's an idea! See - too much white!

Now this is a little "iffy"! It's a 6-step gradation of bue and red! You start with 6 baggies - white fabric in each bag. You add blue to #1 and red to #6 - easy enough. In #2 you add 5 parts blue and 1 part red - OK. Bag #3 you add 4 parts blue and 2 parts red - got it! Bag #4 you add 4 parts red and 2 parts red - got that too! Bag #5 you add 5 parts red and 1 part blue. Done! Well - those are generalizations - but you get the idea. It was our first "shot" at this "adventure" - and it's OK - but a little "iffy"!! lol Here goes!

Last but not least - these are the fabrics I got from the "left over" dyes! No recipe here - just add a squirt of this and that to the baggies! What fun! One thing about dyeing - don't PLAN on a really specific color - for sure you'll go crazy or be very disappointed! Just be thrilled with what you get! Yummy!

Well, friends, it's a little late for TRUFFLES - but what the heck! Most of you won't read this until morning - and it's never too early or too late for a truffle!

TTFN - Elaine

Hand-Dyed Fabrics - delicious!!

Hi All!

Well - it only took me two hours to get the pictures uploaded, etc - but I am determined to do this everyday so it will be AUTOMATIC before long! Give me strength!! To think that I used "word" BEFORE there was even a manual! No joke! I worked at Argonne National Lab and someone (an engineer) got hold of this "new" word processor program and brought it to me! Lucky me! Absolutely no manual or instructions! That was in 1979 - so, I'm not new to computers but this photo stuff is making me NUTS! lol Maybe I'll have Mr. Truffle write me a new program! Now there's a thought! But how do I explain what I want/need and not end up with a guided missle system!! lol

Anyhoooo - here are some photos of the fabrics my 2Dye4 Bee has worked on! We each used fat quarters or fat eights and just dyed away! We've only met twice and already have YARDS of fabric to add to our stashes! lol

The first time we met we did 6-step gradations (the pink and green). We also made pieces of this and that (those will be in another post so I have something to talk about! lol) and, considering that they were from leftover paint - they, too, turned out beautifully!

The 28-color pyramid is the result of our second meeting! Aren't they DELICIOUS?

The blue and yellow diagonal stripe pieces below are the result of folding a piece of fabric on the bias accordian-style, rolling it up and dipping one end in yellow and one end in blue! Where the two "met" I got a little strip of green! Surprise! One piece is bright because I used the dye full-strength. I still had a little dye left and one more piece of fabric so I added water and did the procedure again! Got the same result - just a few shades lighter! Now what to do with the fabric?! I doubt that I'll be making myself a little triangular "tube" top! Maybe back in the early 70's - those days are long gone!

Well - Mr. Truffle is back in his lair - so now I think I'll go sew for an hour or sew! I have more bee projects calling out to me! OH - more ideas for blogs! Forget the sewing, it's........

.......Time for a truffle, feet up, cup of tea, and work on a cross-word puzzle! See ya!

Quilts of Valor Sew-In

I DID IT - I GOT THE PHOTOS IN!! LOOK OUT WORLD!!



Whew - you can't imagine how nervous I am to be working with entering photos on my blog page! All by myself! Mr. Truffle (I don't think he'd appreciate being called Mr. Queen!) - is downstairs in his computer lair! I'm not so sure he'd be a lot of help with BLOG stuff - he's a retired rocket scientist/nuclear physicist - and I don't think this is in his genre! lol

This morning I spent about three hours helping with the Quilts of Valor. Actually I sorted fabric, pressed squares, and cut more squares! I didn't schlep my machine today because I could only stay a few hours. This group is unbelieveable - they are making 80 quilts for all the men and women who will be serving in the Mid-East from the Aurora, IL National Guard Unit. In the past I worked on quilts for QOV but they were for those who have been wounded and are recovering. I'm happy to help out - whatever the cause!

It was supposed to pour today - and, as usual, we had bright, beautiful sunshine! Go figure! Do these weatherpeople get paid? I remember as a kid they got the forecast correct without all the computer doplar....! Call it Mother Nature - what we get is what we get! Now I don't mean we've had lots of bright, beautiful sunshine here - that's not the usual for the past several weeks! The farmers are really suffering because they can't get the corn and/or beans out of the fields. The corn needs to be at about 15% and it's at 40% (humidity in the kernels) - that's farm talk I hear from our friends! Looks like they may have to wait until spring to harvest. Not good.

The photos are of the super-giving organizer and a worker bee! Thank you ladies! Job well done!

Well - time for a truffle! Maybe tomorrow I'll take some photos of the hand-dyed fabric I've been working on with my 2Dye4 Bee! I have to be careful when I tell people we're working on a project in "my dyeing bee"! They get a little nervous! lol

Japanese wall hanging - gorgeous!!

Hi All!

Good friend Jane of janesfabrics is here helping me with learning to insert photos on my blog! Good luck! I chose the wall hanging made by my friend Linda as my first photo! Linda and I worked on selecting fabrics from my scraps for the kimonos and then she purchased the background, sashing, and borders from a quilt shop in Stoughton, WI. I just finished the quilting so her daughter-in-law (who was born in Japan) can FINALLY hang the "work of art" in her bedroom - which is dark purple! Isn't this beautiful! I'm sure Diana will LOVE it!

This close-up shows the detail of the 3-dimensional obi sash and collar which is hand appliqued! The pattern was from a quilt book about origami. Linda has reason to be very proud of the final result! Gorgeous!

Now, go eat a truffle while you rake leaves!