INSPIRATION....Kaffe Fassett

I'm dreading the next two days of work, so I'm soothing myself by sewing up some great bags. Tomorrow taxes (property) are due so we will be swamped. And since they will be late on Wednesday, and I have to tell them they now owe 10+% penalty and interest AND have to go to the County to pay it (they have had their bills for 5+ months!), I never know quite what their response will be...tears....anger...outright hostility....acceptance....excuses...etc.....it makes for quite a stressful day. So I sew :)



The quilting is my least favorite thing to do so it is somewhat generic...but it works for the bag.

I love these two Kaffe Fassett fabrics (dot is Michael Miller)...the colors are even richer than on my screen. And the pattern is now a favorite. It is the same pattern of the previous two I showed.

INSPIRATION....Heather Bailey

I had been sewing together some random pieces of Heather Bailey's new "Nicey Jane" fabric that I had bought at the Quilt Shop in Danbury last month. So when I had the urge to make a new bag last night I had some of the work already done....love when that happens!



I did alot of machine quilting on the outside and the lining...all of which has pellon fusible fleece ironed to the fabric to give nice loft. And it has lots of roomy pockets inside.





This bag is for the auction held at our beach on Labor Day weekend....we need more playground equipment!

Carol Taylor Class

A few weeks ago I took a fabulous 5-day class from Carol Taylor up in the Hudson Valley (great place to take a class)...and the piece above is my finished wall-hanging.



We learned myriad techniques and made many samples to be incorporated into a piece. Some students did as many as 4 pieces.

We started with a focus fabric and built from there. Carol is a great teacher....intense and fun.

My focus fabric is the piece bottom left....it is one of the drop-cloth fabrics from my Jane Dunnewold class.

Kaffe Column Quilt!

My latest Kaffe quilt just arrived from the quilter...Eileen at Designing Quilts...another great job Eileen.



This quilt caught my eye immediately in the Kaffe Museum Quilts book...had to make it.

Now I need to bind it and lay it over my couch....yum!

Speed round!

Between the iffy weather and the fact that Terry was going to be working in the yard after golf, I had to quickly get a bunch of fabric done. The pile on the right is what was done yesterday.

I laid more of them out straight to speed up the drying...that worked well.

I also wanted to try and fold a bunch into a small square...I folded them first then laid them in the tray and pressed on them...turned them over and did the same...checked the inside that they were getting saturated...then set them on the table and hoped they dried. But the sun disappeared after a short while. They still came out great.

This is four of the folded pieces...nice! Now...what to do with all this new dyed fabric....hmmm.

Adding a little black dye to the mix!

So, after dyeing with straight colors on Friday, I decided to tray-dye again but with some black dye added to the tray in different amounts as I saw fit (all a guess!) And this is the finished fabric.






I set up another table and laid these pleated-up pieces out straight so they would dry faster in the hot sun.

When I ran out of room I just used the containers again

The pile on the left is Friday's work with the straight colors....on the right with the black added. I may add even more black to the next ones...or dilute the colors for a lighter bunch. Let's see if the sun comes out today....for tomorrow is stormy.

More Dyeing

These lovelies were dyed in a tray that I used to use for marbling, made by my brother who was a sheet metal worker. Thanks John!

I put some sun yellow dye in the tray...

And then some fire red...you can swish it around, tip the tray to mix or just leave it alone. Then I lay a piece of fabric (this is a fat-quarter tray) over the dye and move it, pat it, whatever I need to do to totally soak the piece.

Then I accordion it up and twist it so it will fit in my containers....

They sit out in the sun for a few hours and then I throw them all into a cold wash with synthrapol and then 3 or 4 hot washes...till the water runs clear. The result is the fabric in the first picture.

I put at least a few colors in each time, so there is nice color-play in the finished pieces. Mushing it up accordion-style makes for nice striations with the colors.

This is the finished (maybe) piece of stamped fabric that I showed in the last post.

I screened gold metallic over the larger designs...what a difference! I love it like this but I'm thinking it needs at least one more touch. Hmmm.