Birthdays all around!

Happy birthday to Bubba Jr, @ltdermdvm's Golden who's turning 14 today! Sammy sends birthday greetings and had a piece of birthday Milkbone in his honor. (It's blurry because although he posed for me he was a bit impatient to get at that treat! Princess Doggie's hindquarters in the background show her wagging tail as she quickly downed her birthday Milkbone. She's highly suspicious of cameras as a rule--no posing for her.)

Meanwhile, it's Craftsy's birthday too! They're having a big sale this weekend, through Sunday, May 11th, ad midnight Mountain Time. The banner on the right sidebar will take you to the sale, or you can just click here. Selected classes are up to 50% off. Yeah, I'll probably be checking it out myself, sigh. (Usual transparency statement: using Craftsy links on this page helps support this blog and podcast. Thanks!)

And, what am I doing for Mother's Day? Also a birthday of sorts--after all, it's a couple of births that got me the name "mother," right? Well, the day itself is still a bit under construction. I'm waiting for the first-born to let us know what hours he's working so we can plan around him. Meanwhile, yesterday the second-born came home from college for the summer, and she brought her bad cold with her. She ignored my pleas to pack those cold germs in a box and leave them there. I'm just hoping that cold doesn't turn out to be her Mother's Day gift to me.

I'm still recovering from a couple of back-to-back busy weeks with work, but I'm awake enough today to be decently productive. I got groceries this morning. Woo. Better than I did last weekend!

I also got this in the works.

Indeed, it's about 70-something degrees outside and our lilacs are a few days away from blooming, and yet I'm still ice-dyeing. I can't help myself. This batch is using some color combos I've not done before, and the one in the center is my new Antique Gold dye, so I'm anxious to see how that plays with the ice--as well as how it works with the Old Rose dye I combined it with. The one in front is Fushchia, Grape, and Boysenberry, and the one in back is Teal, Intense Blue, and a little Black (629, I think, but might be 628, not sure which one I grabbed off the shelf). I've got some fat quarters in each as well as some clothing items. Should be a fun rinse-out in the morning!

Groceries. Check. Ice-dye prepped. Check. Chicken breasts in marinade for grilling tonight. Check. Shower. Check. Lunch. Check.

Hmmm. I think it's time for some Scrapitude binding!

Ice-Dyed Neutrals Report

I only had a little time for fabric arts this week, so I stuck a couple more half yards in an ice-dye bath with the neutrals again. I just love seeing how these colors break and mix and meld.

To begin with, though, this is the first time I've had snow dyes and ice dyes side-by-side (especially using the same dyes) so I can see the difference in results. They're both very nice, so it just depends on what you're looking for.

Here is my original snow-dye from last week (this may be a better picture than the one used for the original post because I was trying to conserve space due to the volume of photos!):

Snow-dye with nuetrals

Other than the fold lines--sorry--you can see that the design and colors are more muted, more "swooshy" than crystalline. And because of the way I had manipulated the fabric and put the dye on, it ended up with a very nice gradation (not intentional, but a wonderful surprise!) The effect reminds me of photos from nebula in space and such.

And here are the two ice-dyeds using the same colors this week:

Ice-dye neutrals version 1

Ice-dyed neutrals version 2

The first one I just sort of scrunched and mooshed up before putting the ice on; the second one I did a little more of a pleat, though not a strong one, and then circled it around a bit to get it to fit under the ice. That creates that sort of...ummm...spinal effect, if that's not too creepy a description.

The four colors used: Stormy Grey (MX 6160), Old Rose (MX 5220), Ecru (MX 5223), and Camel (MX 5181). (Names are Prochem.)

I have a friend who's already expressed interest in buying one of these though I'm waiting to confirm. I just have to figure out some details!

By the way, Craftsy is having a Spring Flash Sale this weekend--selected classes up to 50% off through midnight Mountain Time Sunday! (Using this link helps to support this podcast and blog--thanks!)

Weekend Progress

As my last couple of days before I go back to work tomorrow, I didn't really push myself to be super-productive. My summer has been productive enough, thank you very much, where work is concerned--I needed some sloth time to get my brain unfried. That being said, I did make significant progress on a quilt that's to be a graduation gift. Since I'd be surprised if any of the people concerned read this blog, I'll go ahead and post a picture of it... 

Top complete. The picture stinks because I can't get far enough back from my design wall, and it's very dark in that corner. (The lighting issue is something I'm hoping to have fixed in the next few weeks.) But you get the gist. I'll do a better picture when it's finished.

It's a stack n' slash done with fat quarters from an old Jason Yenter/In the Beginning fabric line. I've had the fat quarters for awhile, and when I found out the grad-in-question's favorite color is purple, it seemed a perfect fit. I'd originally planned to do something a little fancier but when push came to shove, I just wasn't home enough to get anything done. Hence, the grad party being next week and me just getting off the starting block and doing yet another stack n' slash.  This is throw size--great for curling up in during late night study sessions.

I'd hoped to get started on quilting it today until I realized I have no appropriate fabrics for backing. I'll have to make a quick run out tomorrow to find something.  

Meanwhile, today was Betty Homemaker day. I currently have this rising in the kitchen, getting ready to do grilled pizza tonight. 

I roasted the few little beets we got from our CSA this week (it's been a tough year for produce hereabouts), and I have pancetta, sausage, pepperoni, spinach, red and green bell peppers, onions, Parmesan. mozzarella, and goat cheeses, so we can get as creative as we want. My husband and son are both gone today, unfortunately, but my nephew is coming over and he and my daughter really get into playing with their pizza combos.

Finally, I'm taking another shot at ice-dyeing. I'm still not convinced this is something I'll want to do all that much. We'll see if the results blow me away this time--they didn't last time. It's a fair amount of mess (more so than standard dyeing) and uses about three times as much dye powder, if not more, so you really have to be committed to it as a style to want to do it often. 

Here's everything ready to go in a far corner of my back yard, so when I dump it out the CSI-style stains it leaves in the grass will at least be hidden in the woods and underbrush. (No ma'am, nothing happened here, ma'am!) 

If you've never done it before, here's the drill. Fabric is soaked in soda ash-water mixture for awhile first--15 mins minimum, but mine was in for well over an hour as I got other stuff done--then twisted, rolled, or put into whatever manipulation you want onto racks in a bin. I mostly do the scrunchy thing because I like that effect, but the long column one is pleated loosely. You can also put fabrics under the racks to catch the run-off, for different effects. You'll see in the first bin I did that, but not in the second. The third bin (not pictured) has fabrics above and below the rack as well.

Then you pile the ice on. 

This got tricky for me because I don't really have any flat spots in my yard so my bins are slanted enough that the ice didn't want to stay nicely piled on top. I propped up one end of the foam board with a stick to even it out some, but I still have edges of fabric with no ice on it. That'll just mean those spots may not get dyed much. I'll live with it.  (I did finish piling more ice on after I took this picture but I still have white space on the edges--we'll see what happens.)

By the way, yes, that's a spot of green you see on that fabric under the ice in the lower left. I noticed some nice leaves in the underbrush so laid them as flat as I could on the fabric to see whether they will act as a resist. I doubt it'll work that well since it's not completely flat, but it might be a hint of a leaf image. Always worth trying! 

Now, start working as fast as possible so the ice doesn't melt before you can get the dye on!

Teal and purple mix. I work in teal and purple a lot because they're the signature colors of my organization and I'm always thinking about possible items for fundraisers. This is a test to see how this works: If I like it, I'm probably going to try doing some beach-y garments for next summer's fundraiser. I'm also experimenting with the teal and purple in general, since they're both blends and may break in really interesting ways. ("Breaking" is when compound dyes break into their component colors during the dye process. Ice dyeing often causes compound dyes to break, adding to the effect.)

"Intense Blue" and Sunny Yellow. That's my favorite blue dye so far although I was a bit sparing with it because there's some sort of shortage of one of the component ingredients so it's suddenly quite expensive and in limited supply. I hope I used enough to get a decent saturation. In any case, I should get some nice green blends from this combination.  

And here's turquoise and fuschia.  Just 'cause. I love working with both these colors because, again, they're compound colors and often break in cool ways. And here's to a wonderful purple showing up here and there.

And everything's covered and bedded down for the night. Pretty sure I inadvertently trapped some buggies in there. Sorry, guys. I've got the plastic weighted down in case winds pick up but there's nothing predicted. That, of course, is meaningless. I don't call our house "Windy Hill" for nuttin'.

To wrap this post up, I'll just leave you with a few lovely pictures...