Jun 16 07
This and That
I have not posted in almost 2 weeks…this is the longest I’ve gone between posts in many, many months and I have no excuse. I have sewn more in the past week than in a long time, but I just haven’t felt that I had created anything that was “post-worthy.” Doesn’t this remind you of Elaine on “Seinfeld” when she was feeling there were no men in her life who were “sponge-worthy?!” Anyway, here are a few pics of some of what I’ve been up to:
This is a fabric card, I think it measured about 11 in x 9 1/2 in, that I made this morning. It went very quickly, just under 2 hours from start to finish. Here’s a close up of parts of it:
I have fallen hopelessly in love with that trilobal polyester variegated green thread that the background is quilted in. It’s made by YLI and I have gone through about 2/3 of that spool in just 4-5 months! Doing this card really made me appreciate batting. I am so struck by the flatness of this piece, the middle is Peltex and it really needs more texture than what I have done here.
I’ve also been doing some fabric dyeing. I had never dyed silk until last weekend and I thought I’d give it a try. I used 19 mummy silk charmuese, (19 “mummy?;” what the heck does that mean and who thought of this wacko unit of measurement?!) Anyway, as I understand it, mummy refers to the weight of the silk and I used 19 mummy because that was what Mrs. Mel recommended for a good fusing weight and she knows about this kind of stuff! I dyed the silk exactly the same way I dye my cotton fabric, using Procian MX dyes after soaking the fabric in a soda ash/water bath. Below are a few pics of dyed silk:
I don’t think the pictures reveal the greatest property of the silk and that’s the finish, which is highly reflective and shimmery. I can’t wait to try using some of this. Another dyed piece:
Other than this stuff, I have been working on about 7 other quilts, all in varying stages of completion. I am also working on the next DVD, which is all about vines and leaves and pretty fun stuff. I’ll post some more pictures once things are in a better state to share!
