Getting Ready for a Busy Dye Weekend!

I made a wonderful trip to United Notions/Moda yesterday and bought fabric to dye and other needed items to sell and for the Studio. Today, I'm washing all the PDF (yes, I wash Prepared for Dyeing Fabric) and sorting it into size sections. Most of the fabric will be for ice dyeing, but one bolt is designated for Shibori dyeing. And yes, the piles are labeled and I just pray, no one comes in and messes them up.

Oh, why do I wash Prepared for Dyeing Fabric? Because I know there are probably still starches and other things in the fabric, plus I don't like that crease down the middle. The crease doesn't come out with just a rinse and dry, it has to be washed out. 

Fun days ahead! What's on your weekend plan? 

Creatively,

Jules

Sunday Fun Day

So what are you doing on this Sunday Fun Day? Are you getting ready for the Super Bowl? Or is the Puppy Bowl more your speed? I turned on the dog shows for my little guy, but Oreo wasn't interested. So he is cuddled up on the bed with me while I work.

Personally, I've been out in the Dye Studio and put fabric and dyed vests into wash and put more on to dye. Now that this task is complete, I'm working on listening to some podcasts for marketing strategies.

So, tell me, what is on your schedule today?

Creatively,

Jules

Student Show and Tell

A few of my students from my class last Saturday sent me pictures of their completed pieces. How fun! They all did a great job and it is such a treat to receive texts and emails with pictures of their pieces.

Here is the eye candy!

 Pam Gantz did a great job on her gradient dye of Bright Green. She just did two stages of the gradient.

Pam also ice dyed this piece with Chinese Red. Ice dyeing doesn't always bring out the strongest of the color because it gets more watered down, but I think this is beautiful!

Pam used the product Color Magnet by Jacquard to get the tone on tone effect on these pieces. I haven't used this product. Pam watched an episode of The Quilt Show with Sue Bleiweiss and learned how the use the product. Great results! The dye color Pam used was Indigo. 











Pam also dyed cotton cording and made these cute mug rugs and bowl. She works fast because she emailed these pictures to me the day after the class. Pam said she begged dye from the other ladies when they were container dyeing and dropped it in a ziplock bag. She didn't let it mix too much so colors will absorb the way she dropped them in.

I'm going to try this now and use the cording for my Etsy orders when I wrap them up.

Patty Hofer created this iced dyed piece. The colors are excellent. It looks like something from the galaxy. It looks like she used Golden Yellow, Clear Yellow and Lilac.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this show and tell as much as I did. Don't forget to check out my Class and Workshop schedule for Dye classes and/or if you want to reserve time in the Open Dye Studio.

Creatively,

Jules

What a Fun Dye Class!

Yesterday was a fun day in the Dye Studio. The Etc. Art Quilt Group came and had a creative day.

Sorry to say, we were having so much fun that I forgot to get a class picture! These 8 ladies were a blast and I look forward to them coming back to play.

We ice dyed, parfait dyed and container/zip lock bag dyed. To not waste any dye, I grabbed a piece of Lemon Lime fabric that was not on the exciting side of things and we used it to wipe our dye spoons and the blades to the mixing bullets. Here are the Before, During and After pictures.

Boring Lemon Lime

While Being "Enhanced"

Sitting before being washed

Final Product - One Yard of Monet Fabric

I also grabbed an old undershirt from Jeff's drawer and used it to wipe the bullet cups from when we mixed dye for container dyeing. This is now my favorite shirt.

I have a few pieces that I set to ice dye during the class, but haven't had time to wash them out yet. That will be another blog post.

Several of my dye students have asked if I rent out the dye studio so they can come dye and not have instruction. What a grand idea! So, I have made a cost schedule and it is posted under the Class and Workshop tab on my website. Just click over and check it out! Contact me with the days/times you would like to book. You can book during the week or on the weekend. I have two sinks and plenty of room and ice!

Until next time, don't forget that the unplanned dyeing can sometimes be your favorite!

Creatively,

Jules

Getting Ready for Fall Classes

I've been busing working on the schedule for my Fall classes and making a few class samples. The classes that I have developed are listed on the Calendar of Classes and Workshops page. Just hit the tab and it will take you there.

My dye classes are fun! My first class I think I had way too much for my students to do, so I have broken it up into two classes, Container and Ice Dyeing and Shibori Dyeing. This way we have plenty of time and aren't rushed to get everything done. My first class was so much fun and everyone came away with great pieces.

 

 

So check out my page on classes and come join me! I promise it will be a day to dye for and I will keep you in stitches!

Creatively,
Jules

Dye Color Decisions

Decisions, Decisions...what's a girl to do. I need to get busy dyeing fabric so I'm not behind come the first of the year when the quilt shows are all gearing up. Last week I made a delightful trip to United Notions/Moda and bought 5 bolts of PFD.

Today, I'm sitting here with my list of dye colors and my color wheel. Trying to decide what new color combos would be pretty and pleasing to the eyes of my customers. 

So, help me out here ya'll, what color combos do you like?

Hail Damage Repairs = A Creative Process

Today starts the first of the major hail damage repairs being made. After this morning we will no longer look out onto our English Garden through broken glass. Saturday and Sunday, the old roof will be ripped off and the new one put on. Then we will schedule the gutters to be replaced. This entire process reminds me of quilting. We rip fabric, dye it, cut it up and create something new and beautiful. We rip out stitches to replace them with better ones. I think I could go on and on, but I think you get my drift.



Hmmmmm, today I’m ripping fabric so I can dye it! I ordered new dyes this week and still have plenty on hand, so the dyeing process will happen this weekend when my buddy, Kathy Mayhew, comes over to enjoy my air conditioned Dye Studio. With this Texas heat, you have to have an air conditioned garage to dye in, otherwise you would have to dye during the night time hours. We have been reaching temps of 110°, today is suppose to be 108° and we are suppose to get down to a cool 102° this weekend. I definitely think we will break the record of the continuous days running of 100°+ temps of 1980.

Kathy and I will have a booth at the Trinity Valley Quilt Guild Quilt Show (September 30, 2011 – October 2, 2011), so we are working hard to have a beautiful variety of Kathy’s surface design fabric and my hand dyed fabric. We will also have some completed art work and hand dyed notions. Saturday Kathy is going to continue creating her one of a kind surface design fabrics and I am going to work on creating fabrics for fat quarter bundles. I wasn’t sure about dyeing fabric for this type of product, but after I did these three bundles, I decided it was a good idea, they are darling and I think quilters will really go for them.



What do you think?

Don’t forget about the Hot Sale in my Etsy and ArtFire shops! 25% off! Beat the heat and stay inside and create!

More Snow!

Well, I didn't think we would get any snow this year in North Texas by the weatherman's report a few months ago, but Mother Nature has proved them wrong and we are having our second snow for the season. So, this morning I set up to dye fabric (with the help of Mr. Wonderful) in the garage. I'm so glad he is a HVAC dude and has a HVAC unit on "his side of the garage" (aka the workshop, when it gets built out). Heat was on while I was mixing dyes, yum! There are 4 yards, 4 fat quarters and a couple of fat quarters that I did surface dyeing on this past Saturday.



Now for the snow....... this is the drift outside our garage.



Jeff took the shovel and just piled on the snow on the fabric for me.



In this picture you can see my little roll cart in the background. It holds my dyes and dye utensils. It's great for rolling from "my side of the garage" over to workshop sink area (and the heater).



This is my huge fabric snow cone. Colors of Midnight Blue, Chartreuse, Golden Yellow, Hot Pink, Robin's Egg Blue, Turquoise, Fuchsia, Purple, and Light Red. Yes, I like lots of color!



This next picture shows a small container. It has a couple of pieces in it that I surface dyed on Saturday. I just wanted to dye them Robin's Egg Blue, so we will see how the snow dyed technique works with it.



So that is my work for the morning. This afternoon I am going to iron the fabrics I parfait dyed on Saturday. Show and Tell for those fabrics tomorrow!

Stay warm Ya'll!

It Feels Good to be Creative Again

It sure does feel good to feel creative again. I'm in the studio concentrating on fabric today. One of the discussion groups I am part of has been talking about containers that we dye in. Well, all the discussion really got me in the mood to dye fabric today. It is so cold outside that I didn't want to spend time in the garage mixing dyes and arranging fabric to dye. So I hauled the containers and dye upstairs to my studio and have several yards of fabric dyeing along with some tops that I have bought to dye. Two containers are parfait style and one is sort of a parfait, but it is just one blouse with two colors. I wanted a camp shirt that is brown and turquoise, since I wear my turquoise jewelry a lot. Hope it turns out the way I want, if not, oh well! That is one of the things I love about parfait dyeing, the results are always a surprise.



I decided to get the fabric dyeing and then start on my truck quilt. I just have a little bit of painting left to do on it and some surface techniques. I fused it all down the other day. I'm planning out the quilting too. Hopefully I will get the quilting sketched out this afternoon and then I'll be ready to go tomorrow morning after I run my errands and do come cooking and baking for a party on Saturday. I plan on quilting a barn and a windmill into the background.

Okay, have an artful day everyone!