Lois, how wonderful your hearts and stars baby quilt and what a great reason to include hearts and stars into your quilts--hope you don't mind if I adopt your idea. Such a lovely quilt! And your bags and picnic baskets… such eye candy, I really, really love what you did with them!

Simplicity, these days, talks to me in a big way. Carrie, I love how such a simple concept as carrying your border fabric through the blocks in a diagonal line adds so much to a nine-patch baby quilt. Thank you!

Same with yours, Marianne… pulling in some solids to create a pattern in an otherwise lively fabric really draws the eye into the design of each block. I love the pumpkin seed quilting on the sewing machine cover. So perfect!

Love your fish, Wendy, would love to see you make frogs too! Lotti, welcome back to the Forum and I totally enjoy seeing your beautiful photos again as well as all of the fun quilts you have made!

Rita, great colors in your wedding block--really look forward to seeing how it all comes together!

Stunning wedding quilt, Jdeluka! The colors are out-of-this world beautiful!

Rosemary, the purples and blues in your quilt that act as a border of sorts really pulls together beautifully all the scrappy colors and brings the eye back to the center to enjoy the Asian fabrics. I think you did the right thing to cut them up and make a quilt--you can tell your hubby that for me! Your Maxiature quilt is a real masterpiece! So glad it is going to FoQ!

Geneva, your bargello piece, what a treat and I am in love with the border design… reminds me of stylized lanterns for August Moon Festival.

Heather, you've been busy with fun stuff! Spoon and fork table runner (would have never thought of doing that but love it!!!!) and placemats. You have such a way with color, makes me smile to see your work. It happens every time you post!

Luann, thanks for starting up this section of the Forum--it has been fun going through all the entries and seeing all the photos, including your notebook cover, which is lovely! Your hand dyed fabrics are to die for, so gorgeous! If I lived closer, I'd be begging you for a weekend to help me overcome my fear of dyeing!

I've been absent for a while, but have totally enjoyed catching up by seeing the photos of your work that I've missed in this thread. Hope I did not miss anyone but will now go back through and read the entries (I've skimmed over all of them, all 16 pages) and will enjoy this thread some more!

genevacarroll wrote:
Geneva,
Coming soon to an Etsy shop, unless they all get sold before I can list them!! LOL

Luann

LuAnn your fabrics and laces are wonderful. I want some!

I'm looking forward to seeing what you make with them.

geneva

.Learning-As-I-Go wrote:
Heather,
There are lots of online classes about it. Paula Burch website has volumes of info.
If you want to be able to duplicate what you've done, I would highly recommend Candy Glendenning's class. Not cheap, but lifetime access and extremely thorough. Lots of videos and PDFs if you want to have things in writing.
If you are into serendipity, which is where I started, lots of books available at the local library. If you are interested I will get you a copy of the article that first inspired me to try it out. It's from Fall 1995 American Quilter. Anyone else interested just let me know. You will just have to ignore my notes, as they don't make a lot of sense to anyone but me!!LOL



Serendipity methods measure the dye powder by teaspoon or tablespoon. Duplicating method, Candy Glendenning, use a scale and it is done by weight. The results can be very different! Yet very interesting.

May God bless each of you with a day with a pleasant surprise,
Luann

Luann, those are *gorgeous!!*

I think dyeing is going to be in my future, soon. Must learn about it quite a bit first and then......oh boy. What fun!

Yum Luann. You have a lot of patience with those long soaks but get results. Whereas I just want to see the end results and use quickest method.

I'm going to try painting lace in next few days ready for a class.

Kathy, your toddler quilt project doesn't look simple at atll - not at all - but i love it
Mmmmmh, Rosemary, I think we saw those Pralines (or very similar ones) in the "Chocolate" exhibition at the first Int. Quilt Show in Ireland a few years ago - they're even yummier in person.
Oh Luann, soooooooooooo fab, totally love them all. and NO calories

Ta da!!



Judith,
That seems to be happening to me every so often. I really wonder if we are getting results because of the chemicals that are added to our water. I usually rinse the soda ash and some of the dye out with warmish water. Then I put like colors into an ice water soak for an hour or two. Then I rinse with pretty warm water and they go into a hot water soak for a longer period of time. Overnight if I can stay patient. Then it's into the washing machine with a hot water wash, and two cold rinse cycles. I try to watch and get a color catcher sheet into that last rinse so I can see if I need to put them through the washing machine cycle again. Usually I am good to dry and press after all of this. VIP I put a dash of dawn in ice soak, hot water soak, and I use dawn dish soap in place of synthropol in the washing machine's wash cycle.
In the courses I've taken from Candy Glendenning I learned about volume of dye to weight of fabric. That has helped a lot. But that info doesn't work if ice dyeing because you use dye powders not dye stock solutions.
Something I learned on this dye day was strong navy will completely cover some reds and don't empty any excess dye stock until you have finished putting all dye and fabric combos together. I had one piece of fabric label to get a portion of medium blue in the center area, and I missed putting it in. That piece turned out very nice, just not what I planned for.
Gotta love serendipity if you're a dyer!
May God bless your days with enough serendipity to keep them interesting,
Luann

Luann, Your dyes look great.

I have been dyeing also the past week, and am having trouble. I can't seem to rinse out the excess dye. I have washed with Synthrapol in cold water, and hot water, and rinsed again and again. I don't know what I am doing wrong.
Husband is getting irritated with all the water I have am using.

Judith

Rosemary, Wow! That little quilt is amazing!!!. It is beautifully designed. For such a little thing, it makes a strong graphic statement. It will capture everyone's attention at the quilt show. They will all want to study it up close. Just beautiful.

Judith

Rosemary,
I thought they were real until I read the caption under the picture!! Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase, ' eye candy '

Please pass me one with caramel in the middle,,,LOL
LUANN

Doesn't look simple to me but yes it's manageable units. Project has impact.

lotti wrote: The TV series is wonderful - high production standards, gorgeous scenery, detailed sets, exquisite costuming, excellent acting by all. Follows the first book, but with some interesting deviations. Since I just started reading the books a few months ago and there are eight of them, I don't have to wait - just plowing through them. I can see why you stopped after the fifth, it can be a bit tedious, but I'm fascinated reading about the American Colonial pre-Revolutionary War years. I've always liked historical novels. There should be only one more in to finish it off (will have to wait a few years for that ) . Anyway, I've got two and a half more books to read - about 5300 pages down and 2300 to go.... I should be so obsessive about quilting!

I've decided to work on a fairly simple project, a baby or toddler quilt for my guild's donation pile. I'm going to do a pattern I've wanted to try for awhile. Sew two circles together, turn right side out, then sew the circles together. I'm using flannel, so I can either include batting or leave it out to make a light weight blanket. Here is what the pattern looks like when you join the circles: cdn3.volusion.com/ucpbq.rpzko/v/vspfiles/photos/QHBS-1001-2T.jpg I'll post my progress, to keep me going on the project and my commitment to quilt a bit every day.

Kathy

Found some great chocolates to share here