The Results!

To continue from yesterday, we batched our fabrics overnight - outside where daytime temperatures were in the 90s and not much lower for nighttime. Were we surprised to find ice crystals on top the next morning when opening the bucket.

The bucket was used to layer the fabrics which went deeper but to have ice the next day was such a surprise.

Kate does a lot of landscape, seascape quilts and uses blues and greens often. She chose a beautiful palette for her fabric.  The middle piece (on top) was the fabric she put under the rack to catch the drippings - no ice was used.  We all loved it and were pleasantly surprised with the results.

Kates "clean-up" rag was on the end - right and that too turned out great - so smart to use a big piece as a clean-up.

These were mine, wish I had written down the colors but know I worked with plums and purples and blue - not my favorite palette but thought they would melt well together.  The far right was the 4th piece we laid on top and I added some green.

These were Mary's and she was adventurous to try fabrics other than white and cotton. I loved the one on the left but she decided to fill in the negative space and over-dye it in the next batch.

The piece on the right is a wool which Mary loves to work with and it's easy to bead. The one in the middle is a yellow print that Mary wound up over-dyeing with great results.

This is the results of our confetti pot where we used a pail and each of us had a layer....I was the middle and the colors very intense The right was the bottom and the left is light and also a wool or wool blend so that might have some bearing on why it's lighter than the others.  But it's subtle and I can see some beautiful bead work on top which I'm sure is going to happen.

It amazes me how different they all are, using the same color dye.

That night we ironed the fabric - and what a difference it makes.  I took more pictures when I got home and could put them on my design wall.

I love the crystal like effect that comes with this technique...will be doing this again.

Our evening treat was to go down by the ocean and walk along the beach...

What a way to end the day...

Perfect day, great results, lots of laughs and bubbly.

Stay tuned for more on our Shibori adventure...

Ice Dyeing at the Beach

I just got back from a wonderful get-away for some ice dyeing at Folly Beach. 

After we unpacked the car which could not fit another thing, we set up stations....one for the dyes

one for other extras

and our big table to hold our pans for dyeing.  I had some old marbling trays - AKA cat pans which seem to be a perfect size for so many things. We wet and scrunched our fabric to lay on top of a rack, ready for the ice.

We found many good tutorials online for doing this technique. One suggested we use crushed ice as it stays on top of the fabric without slipping off.  Kate happened to have this old but still working like a charm ice crusher.  It looked mighty familiar to me so I'm thinking I had one of those way back when.

After laying both crushed and whole ice cubes on top of our fabric....

we sprinkled with dye powder.  A small tea strainer seemed to work well, keeping the dyes from clumping and accumulating in one area. It was hard to know how much dye to use.

As the ice melted, the dye touched the fabric and reacted.  Since melting happened at different rates, there were some great effects.

Before covering, we added another piece of fabric on top...just to see what would happen.

Kate's was propped up on a higher wire allowing her to add a piece of fabric in the bottom to catch the drippings.

We thought it may have muddy results, but because the ice melted and dripped with the dye at different rates, it turned out beautiful.

We covered them with plastic and laid in the sun to batch.

We also did a bucket for confetti ice dyeing, each of use contributing a piece to each layer.  We stayed with the same 3 colors except to add a small amount of a 4th color on the top.

It was absolutely beautiful at Folly Beach - this is the view we had while working.

Doesn't get any better.

While taking a break, we tooled around in this fun little golf cart...

and ran into some other interesting passengers.
More to come.

A Walk Down Memory Lane

On our recent trip to New York, one of the things we were determined to revisit was the place where we had our wedding reception.  Back then, it was a restaurant and wasn't sure if it would still be open; it was and is now just catering except for every wednesday in July and August when they open to the public for a buffet.

 We made reservations and were looking forward to having dinner but even more so, a trip down memory lane. Except for the sign, everything had changed, totally renovated.

 I remember it was on the water and had a pretty gazebo.

 The gardens were beautiful....

 and of course we had our picture taken in the gazebo.

 The buffet was an all you can eat - LOBSTER. It was Incredible....can you believe this? Piles and piles kept appearing all night.

 We took a walk down near the pier. I remember way back when, they had a boat that took the newly married couple away. I don't think we did that although at the time, it sounded like great fun.  Now I can't imagine climbing into a boat in heels and a gown.
Til next time...

PTA Continued

As always with our gatherings, we have wonderful show and tell time, leaving us very inspired and eager to get back to our studios. 

 Mary B was our unofficial queen for the day as we haven't seen her in a while and were so happy to have her with us. Mary had donated some blocks she had won in a block of the month.

 We assembled them, added borders, binding and quilting and then....gave it back to her finished. I think she was surprised.

Lynne showed us her latest piece using rusted fabric, all panels a little different. She gave it a cohesiveness by adding dye throughout.

 It's quite wonderful and a beautiful effect.

 Mary S brought 4 beautiful pieces. Mary makes her own felt as well as dyeing it and then if that wasn't enough, beads it like there's no tomorrow.

 This piece was also sunprinted which I loved with the subtle areas that were resisted out using coins and sticky squares.

 Janice made this quilt just for fun, this for me, not being a piecer looks mighty complicated.

 Dort brought 2 of her beautiful fish quilts.  I love the eyelash yarn couched on the surface to look like seaweed.

 And Gen - master knitter brought a vest she made for her husband Ralph.

 and these wonderful socks that belong in a museum.  I'm also not a knitter so these amaze me and if I had a pair, don't think I could wear them, think I would want to have them framed!

 Barbara showed us her newest work in progress - all silk.  The black is a shantung with that great nubby texture. She plans to hand quilt it which in and of itself is an accomplishment but on black...wow!
Til next time.

PTA - Fields of Fabric

I'm back from New York, exhausted but full of great memories...more on that later.  The first day home was filled with laundry, bills and other mundane chores.  The next day - Thursday,  was my reward with a monthly meeting of PTA. We met at the home of Barbara S, shared our latest works, news, ate lunch and had a yummy lemon cake for dessert made by our hostess. Barbara has a friend who has a friend kind of thing that gave her lots of outdated books of decorator fabric. 

We were told to bring our scissors and a very large bag to bring our samples home in. So let the cutting begin.

I need more fabric like I need a toothache but who can resist.  It was great fun, very social and very addictive.

Barbara showed us a piece she made using all silk samples - lovely in person.

Gen also shared a piece she made. The small squares in the center still have the heavy paper on back.  It's such a simple but elegant piece and a beautiful use of neutrals.

More to follow.....

Leftovers

I recently posted this quilt - "River's Edge"on my blog; - most of the fabric was made using the deconstructive screen printing technique. 

 I really liked the fabric and had little bits and pieces left over. It's a difficult fabric to use with other fabrics so I decided to make some smaller pieces.

 This piece was made for the Galleribba online gallery for small wall art. Quilts have to be 12" or less on all sides. "River Rocks" has only 3 pieces but I was happy to use them up.  The "rocks" in the one piece keep the ongoing theme.

And after all was said and done, there were still more leftovers so I made this very small piece - 8" x 10" and matted it making it an 11 x 14. I have a small series of works done in this format.

I have a few threads left....wonder what I can do with those  (-:

I'm leaving for New York tomorrow for my husband's high school reunion. We will also get to Ground Zero and a visit with my 2 best buddies from 5th grade...great fun.

Until next time.

Smash Cake

 Well I do like to focus on quilt and sewing related things, but once in a while I just have to stray.

 We had our granddaughter with us a couple of weeks ago while my daughter was still on summer break and we had the most fun.  While in my studio which is large, has lots of drawers, cabinets, boxes and things for any small child to get into, the first thing she went for was my fabric.  My heart be still...Am I being delusional or is there a chance she might love fabric and quilting?!  A grandmother can hope.

The next week, we were back in Atlanta for Audrey's first birthday.  Apparently this is the time a one year old tastes their first "sweets" and gets a "smash cake" - their very own cake to....you guessed it...Smash. This is all new to me.

Audrey loved it but honestly was more interested in the spoon that she used, trying to figure it out. I envy how uninhibited children are. I get the willies just looking at all that icing on her.
Til next time....