Finding Color with Rust

I've been having a lot of fun dyeing fabric. This particular experiment all started with a blog post I saw on Quilting Arts. The post described that you can use rust to not only add a rich orange tone to fabric, but also unique prints.

My Father in law turned out to have an awesome stash of rusty bits to start with and I'm loving the results!

Take your rusty bits and a piece of fabric that is ready to dye (pre-washed so all the starches are out).  Lay the fabric and rusty stuff on a metal surface like a cookie sheet and spray it all with a 50-50 mix of water and vinegar.  Then cover the whole thing with a plastic bag and set in a warm spot.

This is a peak at the fabric after a few hours of cooking.

Once you are happy with the color, put the fabric in 4 gallons of water mixed with 1/4 cup of salt to cure the color.  I left in there for a few hours, then rinsed out my fabric really well, used a bit of laundry soap on it and hung it to air dry.  And here is the result!

It's so interesting and exciting.  My brain is leaping and jumping with ways to use this!

And so naturally I had to start up another batch.  Can't let all that good rust go to waste.

Have you tried dyeing fabric with rust?

Falling for Fall

 Hello, Fall!  My, oh my, have we been enjoying you... let me count the ways!

::  Got to spend some one-on-one time with Katie... even if it was taking her to the vet.
::  We've been staring at the trees, marvelling at the colors, and laughing at the falling leaves.

::  We have been enjoying naps and snuggling on the couch.  Especially when there is a fire is in the fireplace.
::  We have been totally enjoying every minute of football.  It almost doesn't even matter who is playing, as long as it's a good match up.  Bonus points if it's a Giants game and we Giants fans can live the game play by play.  It's not a quiet thing.

::  We have been enchanted by the deep blues of a clear fall day or the clever patterns of the clouds.
::  We have napped in other places.  The four legged babes are dropping off quick from all the time moving outdoors.

::  We've groomed trails for hiking.  Thing are a little tidier and blocked paths are more ready to recieve visitors.
::  I've sewn in preparation for the Pat Pauly art quilting class I am taking tomorrow.  More on that soon!

::  I've continued my hand sewing adventure on the healing cloth that I started earlier.
::  We stopped to play in the sand (at the lake beach).  It was a great reminder to slow down and enjoy the sunshine.

::  The pups were bathed.  It was a long time coming, but Ms. Sammy helped things along by rolling in and attaching poo to her head.  Smelly business.  They are so soft and fluffy now.  It won't last, but it was a nice reminder that they clean up alright!
::  I have packed a ton of my favorite fabrics for the art quilting workshop I mentioned above (the one with Pat Pauly).  It's called Slash and Burn.  I'm nervous... but it's that good kind of nervous.  The kind when you know something special is about to happen!  It's all about improv creating.  I promise I will share more on the experience.

...and as always, if you'd like to see more of what's Happy in the moment... I'm instagramming up a storm; @cwiltex gets you there!

Softly into the Night

There is a neat contest going on over at Stitched in Color where you pick a mosaic of 12 fabrics from Fresh Modern Fabric to represent the theme of "Softly Against Black." 

And... two lucky winners are going to get their bundles.  Pretty incredible, right?

Please dash over to this post to get the details in case you want to play along. 

When I heard the theme, Softly Against Black," and mulled it over in my head a picture of a wolf howling at a soft yellow moon in the dark of night, with a light snow falling filled my head. 

Here are the colors I choose to represent my imagination.  The gray and silvers are for the wolfs fur, the blues might be the fading night sky or the blue eyes of the wolf, the yellows are for the pale moon rising high above the wolf's head, and the pop of orange and black for contrast.  I also noticed that I kept to a theme of circles in some of the prints.  Must be that moon stuck in my imagination. 

Fun, right?  You can make up to three mosaics... and I'm totally tempted to try another one. 

Sometimes planning a project and picking the fabrics is my favorite part.  Happy sewing!

Edited to add:

I knew I wouldn't be able to resist just one more mosaic. 

This one embodies a silly tale of animals going to storm the castle through the early morning light.  I warned you it was silly, but I also love the combination of grays and blues.  And the pops of pink and red really push this bundle to the limits.  Just think of the fun you could have with this!

Creative Tuesday: Simply Darling (#64)

This weeks Creative Tuesday challenge was to create something that represents Simply Cute or Simply Darling.  Being a southern bell at heart I couldn't resist going with darling.

And I'm sure you see where this is headed.  I mean are puppies darling, right?

I say yes.

So, I picked a picture of Sammy (the one year old golden) and tried a to me new technique of painting on fabric.  I'm smitten with how the paint spreads and mixes and excited about what I have planned next for this piece.

In case your wondering the paint is called PROfab transparent which I sourced from Pro Chemical & Dye.  And I am painting on white cotton that is prepared for dye (PFD).

In the next phase of this work, I will be making a quilt sandwich (adding batting and backing) and then trying my hand at some thread painting to add texture and dimension.  I'm thinking that this will be the piece I enter in Lily Pad Quilting's Pets On Quilts in August.

Yes, you will have to wait a whole month (give or take) to see this evolve.  Apologies in advance, but I promise it will be worth the wait. 

And I can already tell that I am going to want to make one of these for Katie.  And I'm already toying around with the idea of going bigger.  Like way, bigger.  monster. created.  Awesome!

And.. in case you'd like to join in the fun on this creative meme... you have a whole extra week to get your doodle on for Simply Cute or Simply Darling.  Read more and hope you join us!

Wishing you puppy licks and sunshine!

CT 61: Celebrations & Fabric Painting

It's been a long time since I participated in Creative Tuesday (CT), but I want to get back to sketching and doodling and when I saw this week's theme I couldn't resist.  Who doesn't like Celebrations!

I was a little stumped on what to draw, so I had fun imagining what it would look like if Katie and Sammy threw a little party and got dressed up for the occasion.  Party hats, confetti, and leis really set the mood and I'm sure they would have a rockin' time as long as they didn't eat the hats!

These are two pages from my doodle journal... (that black line in the middle is the crease from the middle of the book).  I do seem to enjoy drawing up quotes... and this one was so fitting.  I think I'd even like to give it another go... I have a few ideas on what I'd change.  You can find out more about this weekly challenge (don't be shy) and see what the other artists put together here.

Over the weekend I also met up with my art quilting group and I got to paint fabric for the first time!  We used Setacolor paints and even with the overcast and rainy weather... we had a blast!

Here you can see some materials to get us started.  The yellow fabric is set up with wooden circles for sun printing, I made up 'feathers' and brown cloth... so much fun!

Here are the results!  The big picture shows a beach/ocean/sunset scene that we painted on one cloth.  Really can't wait to thread paint that one... and am already itching to paint a bigger one.

Then, starting on the bottom left you can see a blue piece that might be used as sky, the results of the pink and purple feathers, a mishmash piece with a really cool blend in the middle, the result of the blue and green fabric that you can see balled up above, and the last one are the brown antique looking fabrics - LOVE!!

Once the paint is dry, you are supposed to wait 48 hours until you heat set the colors -- soooo long to wait!  But, I can finally iron these tonight and start daydreaming about how I might use them.  I also have to say that I'm very happy that the paint didn't change the hand of the fabric nearly at all.  What a fun experiment! 

I'm sharing this for Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story and other weekly parties in the in case someone else might be on the fence about giving this a go.  I say go for it!!  And of course I'm happy to answer questions if you have them.

...deep breath in, and slowly let it out... now we're ready to face the day!

Sammy Sacks {New Life for Torn Dog Toys}

I bet we all know a dog that 'kills' stuffy toys.  Well, apparently Sammy is one of those dogs.  I talked to our trainer about it and as it turns out 'gutting' or pulling out the stuffing and/or squeakers is a very instinctual behavior that is stronger in some dogs.  Katie didn't really ever go through this.  In fact, she even still has some of her puppy toys from five years ago.  So, I feel really unprepared for this whole experience with Sammy.

This is a typical scene in the house.  I'll spare you the pictures where the stuffing is everywhere and she's still pulling material out or ripping the fabric.  Dogs!  Does this count as eating for Tasty Tuesday over at Sugar the Golden Retriever?  Sammy sure thinks it does.

Being the dedicated dog momma I am, I would pick up the fluff, stuff it back into the toy, and sew the opening closed again.  I've done this so many times.  But over the last two weeks it's gotten to the point that I would 'fix' a toy and Sammy would have it ripped apart in a matter of minutes.  Argg!  She has even evolved to finding the sewn closure and specifically ripping that spot open.  She knows it's a weakness in the toy.  Argg again! 

So, what to do?  I had made a huge 'dead' toy pile on the dining room table and needed to either throw them out or reinvent them.  I don't like the idea of throwing them out -- feels like a lot of wasted money. 

So, here's what I did.  I went through the dead toy pile and pulled out a working squeaker.  Put it into the torn squirrel you see pictured and sewed him back together.

I took some left over home decorating weight fabric and cut a piece to accommodate the size of the toy.  Go ahead and put the right sides together and sew a double seam around three sides of the square.

And since I'm using fabric is a fun way, I'll be sharing this at Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story.  Maybe it will help other dog mommas!

Now, turn the sack right side out.  And admire the cute elephants.  Notice I'm using brown colored fabric.  That should mask some of the dirt, slobber, fur since it will be living in a dogs mouth.

Yup, you guessed it.  The toy is now put in through the remaining open side of the sack.  I said a few words for Mr. Squirrel.  He's been a favorite toy of both dogs for some time now and I'm sad to see him go, but this should be a safer resting place.

Tuck the opening flaps inward, pin, and sew another double seam all the way around the sack.

Did I get a finish photo, nope.  Forgot.  Sammy nearly pulled the 'toy' out of my hands when I finished.  Did I get a photo with Sammy running around with her 'Sammy Sack' -- nope.  I was laughing way way too hard.  She's a clown. 

So far, this reinvention of soft toys has been a huge success!  Sammy and Katie both love trying to figure out what's inside and have no problem squeaking it.  They have used it as a tug toy between them rather roughly.  And I think I even saw Sammy laying down with it; she's probably scheming how to get to the 'guts'.  But, here we are on day four and the sack has survived!  That's victory around here!

I think more Sammy Sacks are in our future since we have a lot more soft toys to save.  And I think I might even use old jeans for the next ones since that fabric should be able to take the abuse.  Plus, it's reusing times two; once for the dead toy and once for the dead jeans!  I'll try and check in later in the week with the status of the toy and with a playing picture.

Do you know a dog that could use a Sammy Sack?

Wednesday WIP: A Few Almost Done's

The summer-like weather pulled me outside for the most part and you can see how we spent that time tearing down a wall.  I still somehow managed to put time into The Lake and it's just about ready for binding!!

 

--THANK YOU!!--

I'm feeling like such a lucky duck after winning a $30 gift certificate to Fat Quarter Shop from Bethany over at Sweet Bee Buzzings!!  Thank you Bethany for letting me indulge on a bunch of fabric!!  It was such a treat to pick out ones I liked without a specific project in mind!  And the fabrics came lightening fast... it's always a pleasure to shop at Fat Quarter!  And as I promised... here is what I picked out:

{from the top down}
1/2 yard of Wood Lawn Batiks in Antique Beige Shibori ... I'm thinking it's the perfect binding for The Lake
1/2 yard of Desert Springs Batiks in Cool Blue Watercolor Texture
.875 of Cocoa Bery Brown Bonehead (skulls!!!)
1 yard of Prince Charming Aqua Dandelion
1 yard of Scandinavian Christmas Cream Tiny Toadstools

--GETTING BINDING--

{At Sunrise}: Confetti Quilt - I still haven't sewn down the back of this binding...

 

 

{The Lake}: Landscape Quilt - I made a ton of progress on this piece and in fact... I think it's nearly ready for binding!! 

--PAUSED--

• Laughing Leaves with Frieda Anderson
• Spinning Starlets {English Paper Piecing}
• {Your're My Sunshine}: Bottled Rainbows {ticker tape quilt-along}

This Week's Work in Progress (WiP) Stats:

Last WiP Wednesday Total: 5
New Projects: 0

Finished Projects: 0

Total WiP's: 5 (same as last week)

10 Snaps from a Lazy Blogger

I could say I've been really busy the' last few days or I could say I've just been plain 'ole lazy.  Both are true. 

And as I'm sitting at my desk with the sun shining in all I want to do is turn on a movie and rev my sewing machine into action.  So, here are quick ten snaps from the last few days!!

 

 

Wishing you a wonderful weekend!!