Hey — how did it get to be Wednesday again already?
I’ve already shown off bits and pieces of what I’ve been working on this week. The pink quilt is ready to quilt — it wasn’t on any of my previous lists of things to do, so I probably ought to feel ashamed for neglecting everything else. I’m actually going to quilt it in the next few days, too, so it won’t even stay an unfinished top for very long. That’s pretty impressive for me!
The major work in progress today is the brand-new quilting machine that I’m breaking in for a customer. I’ll deliver it to her on Saturday. I quilted some table runners for my local quilt store owner on the new machine today. I figure that quilting the entire pink quilt on it will be a good work out — I can make sure it’ll run nice and smooth on Saturday!
I’m especially proud of my daily pieces. Here’s today’s. It pretty much turned out exactly how I’d imagined it in my head this morning in bed. I drew it out in my sketchbook, first, and colored that in with watercolors. Then I went to fabric:
I’m still not sure about the green ribbons. Those are just tied on and would be pretty easy to remove. It really looks cool with the other small pieces I’ve been making for the last few days. I have just enough of the blue fabric to make one more small piece tomorrow, then I’ll take a picture of all of them hanging together.
I ordered some Procion dyes today from Dharma Trading Company. I’m going to take the plunge and try dyeing some of my own fabric. The things I want to do right now don’t lend themselves to commercial fabric. I did order the book Color by Accident by Ann Johnston, but I’m also intending to take the advice of Melody Johnson who calls herself a "lazy dyer" — and has instructions on her blog for her methods. Melody’s work is gorgeous — I love, love, love the colors in her fabrics. She’s got some really neat pieces on her blog from her work over the last week — all 12 x 12 (approx). The piece I have pictured above is directly inspired by what I’ve been viewing at her site.
I also had a very unpleasant conversation on the phone today with someone at Sony about the battery charger I thought I had ordered last week. Apparently, even though I got an order number through my browser, the order was never actually placed. She kept making it sound like it was my fault for being an idiot, and I didn’t appreciate her attitude. Unfortunately, I didn’t help things because I got upset and raised my voice. Eventually I decided to just hang up. I tried again to reorder and this time it appears that things are going to be processed correctly and hopefully I’ll finally be using my good (expensive) camera again by this weekend.
So that’s my wrap up for this Wednesday. I didn’t really work on anything else this week that warrants a mention…..
I had no interest at all in dyeing fabric but my sewing buddy really wanted to. She got all of the stuff, took the classes, read the books (Ann Johnston primarily) and after the first day she had me totally hooked! We try to get together for one dye week a year. If I had the stuff at my house I’d be dyeing fabric all of the time! You’re going to love it – but it is messy and takes a lot of set up and clean up unless you have a dedicated place. Have fun with it! Love today’s art!
You will love dyeing fabric. I just jumped in and it’s so easy. THe biggest problem is cutting the fabric to use it. Each and every piece is too gorgeous to cut! On a recent trip I stopped in at Dharma Trading Company expecting a colorful place like their website. It was full of white. Lol. Of course they sell dyes and white fabric so why was I surprised. I got some wonderful fabric for dyeing there so it wasn’t a wasted visit.
I like the ribbons on that piece, adds movement. I’ve got to try dying some fabric, I ordered some dyes and paints but haven’t gotten the gumption to do anything yet.
Love the square buttons! I’ve still not ventured into dyeing, but boy, do I love what others are doing.