Dyed T's and socks

Stan with t-shirt and socks I dyed

Monte's partner in geology called wanting more socks. He loves my hand-dyed bamboo socks and wears them all the time. He will go down in geology history for many things, including his typical attire: Wild T-shirts with lizards, iguanas, dinosaurs, etc plus my hand-dyed ones. I did a serpentinite print from a photo on the front of a shirt and sponged on dye around it (on this shirt the print faded as he's washed it a ton, the next one I did differently). And when not in the field, he still wears shorts, even in winter and then sandals. So my socks are well exposed for all to see.

So this week when pulling out socks for both him and Monte (all my family asks for more socks), I saw that I had a t-shirt his size and decided to do one for my Grandson. Monte had also labeled a pair of his pants to be dyed black and a pull over shirt brown.

Accordian pleated and lots of clothespins

Here's Stan's shirt. I folded it accordian style from an off center at the breast then clothespinned every inch. I scrunched it into a plastic basin, along with socks and the toddler T. The dye I poured over was a mixture of 1/2 black, 1/4 cobalt blue, and 1/4 deep yellow.

Toddler T and socks

I'm sure he'll love the T and will tell me some rock tale the shirt tells.

I made curtains for my grandson's bedroom. I knew I wanted to dye the material. After looking through all my textile books for an idea, I settled on over-dyeing them for richness and depth - the book Tray Dyeing provided the inspiration. The material is an unbleached muslin. The lining includes a blackout material, then there's a sheer behind them.

Dyeing in a tray with bottom pleated and upper scrunched, then dye poured in.

Overdyed with fuschia and chartreuse

Overdyed with black

Since I did these last summer, I'm not remembering ... I vaguely think they ended up too black, so I'd have retied and bleached them. I know I did this on aprons I dyed a couple Christmas's ago. Rather than immersion dyeing of the final black, I should do the low-water way, like the tray dyeing ... Still learning.

I do have more plans ... Making separate animals that can somehow be attached to the curtains - maybe just pinning, so removable over time. Like now the room will be shared with a little sister, our first grand-daughter. Initially, I'm thinking elephants, lions and monkeys. Maybe some birds and even flowers.

Nuno Felted Scarves

Some day I'll show tutorial steps in nuno felting. I'm still working the art and perfecting it, if there is such a thing. These are some of what I've done ...

Nuno Felted Scarf on cotton gauze

Nuno Felted Scarf on cotton gauze

Machine Thread Painted Landscape

with a flash

I'm finding I love sewing machine "painting"! And too, doing it on soluble fabric. I did this landscape picture as my final project for my color-design class.

Painted Lady butterfly machine stitched on soluble fabric

Over a month ago I did the butterflies. I placed the soluble fabric on butterfly pictures in a book and traced them, trying to circle most of the larger color changing areas. I traced several and then put in an embroidery hoop - without this it would totally draw in, as you're stitching so heavily. Since the butterflies (and too, the separate flowers in the picture) were to be free-form as a lace, I used colored sewing machine thread in the bobbin. When I'm mass stitching a piece and the back won't be showing, I use a very thin thread, like a #50-60, in the bobbin - and it's kinda white, actually more clear.

When stitching on soluble fabric, the main need is to have a base of crossing threads to support the shape when no fabric is there. Most of the time I'll leave the same bobbin color and just keep changing the top thread color. As long as there's the base threads, you can have gaps in your stitching. When done, simply run water over the project to dissolve the stabilizer. If you want to do more handstitching and/or add beads, it's easiest to do it while still on the soluble fabric. Usually, I pin the structure first onto a styrofoam backing and then run the water over it to dissolve the stabilizer. Then let it dry. Depending on how much you rinse it, the stabilizer leaves a stiffening residue, if you so desire - which I did for this piece.

I did an acrylic paint wash on the coarse-weave fabric. First I'd ironed on a circle of freezer paper as a paint resist for the sun. When done and dried I found I preferred the back of the material - a bit more vague. There is a thin batting behind the piece. Originally I did the trees before adding the batting, then stitched a bit more over them in the final stitching with the batting, as well as some sky stitching.

background flowers free-form machine stitched over print on lutrador

The front detailed flower panel was done separately. Rather than an image transfer like I usually do, I printed on lutrador - a new to the craft world material, like a spun, not woven, interfacing. I printed a flower picture from my computer of an area of my yard. I then ironed the printed lutrador with wonder-under to a piece of the same background material. Being smaller, it's easier to maneuver for free-form stitching. And too, I don't have to worry about how much the heavy stitching is going to draw in. Actually, with the weight of the lutrador and wonder-under it hardly drew in, and was nice to work with, without having to be in an embroidery hoop. Here's where I didn't worry about the bobbin color, just leaving the thin thread. Of course, as you can see, the top thread was changed a lot. I just keep shifting from place to place, flower to flower, and eventually cut the stretched across threads. I love variegated threads! Once done, this piece was stitched onto the backing. I free-form stitched the edging so it wasn't just a straight-stitched seam - how non-nature that would have been!

without a flash

Monte's going to make an earthy wood frame for this. And we're pondering a unique matting - if we want one. I want to do a small version of this with one butterfly for Monte's mother. She's intrigued, and descriptions over the phone, including photos, don't do it justice. Art definitely need be met in person!

Valentine Crafting Tea Party

I had a Tea Party open house. I set up craft stations all over my house. I'd sent out an Evite to a variety of people: some of them very old friends and some new. I think everyone attending knew someone, but people were conversing with lots of new people. I knew everyone! (Oh wait, no, someone brought a friend whom I did not know.)

Me in the tie-dye apron and friends

Valentine paper crafting station

The dining table was set up with the Valentine making paper station. Near it was a small table brought in from the guest room and set up with acrylic paints, glue, glitter, and sequins. Wool and homemade soap were in the greenhouse, off the dining room, for making felt covered soap. The guest room was set up as the needle felting station. The laundry room had a crayon melting craft possibility and a little crock of melted glycerin soap for a One-use-soap craft.

Felting over homemade soap station

Needlefelting craft station

Erika at the One-Use-Soap craft station

Sarah cut out the hearts and squares from my pullman loaves

I'd made the pullman loaf pan bread and all the tea sandwich makings, veggies and dips, the day before, but the morning of the tea I was making scones ... so they'd be fresh. So I didn't have my sandwiches assembled before the guests arrived. As a result, the kitchen and it's table became another craft station with my guests making the various tea sandwiches. I think they enjoyed this!

I had an electric pot with hot water and tea bag varieties, and then of course a wide variety of tea cups Monte and me got at second-hand stores. I just couldn't see people using disposable cups for a tea party! I posted a lot of the food recipes at my karey's kitchen blog (see sidebar).

Second-hand store tea cup finds

I didn't make desserts. Some people brought them. Dawson's girlfriend Splarah made beautiful cupcakes that were almost too pretty to eat!

Splarah's homemade cupcakes!

I'm going to post individual tutorials about some of the craft stations.

On the window sill by the front door I had Valentine gift bags for people to take their goodies home in. People are still telling me "thank you", and how good a time they had. I've decided this valentine crafting tea party will be a tradition.

Gift bags for taking home craft goodies

Transparency

My last class challenge was transparency. Of coarse we think of see-throughness - and that's what I did. Alot of the gals in my class are art quilters - they have a harder time with this challenge. Think about it ... most cloth is opaque. So they have to think in terms of "illusion of transparency", or implied see-throughness. When I googled that phrase there was a little more possibilities given in what we were presented with.

Heather Thomas, my instructor, said to first choose the "child" fabric, then pick out the two "parents". Transparency is achieved when two colors (parents) are seemingly overlapped on top of each other to make a 'child' - like a quilted scene of overlapping balloons was one she showed.

Organza and tulle bottles without a flash

Organza and tulle bottles with a flash

Bottles and Butterflies were forever in my mind the whole month. I did thread paint four butterflies on soluble stabilizer and added some beads, but will probably use them in this month's challenge. I did do my bottles using tulle and organza. I used a tacky soluble stabilizer for them - the materials were not wanting to stay in place, and then I could stitch them together, dissolved away the stabilizer in water, and pinned it to dry. I'd washed a background material with fabric paint, but decided they looked best on black. So wonder-undered a black tulle over black craft felt (helped the craft felt look richer). Then I pinned on my bottles and stitched through all the layers doing a bit more thread painting for the light glare on the bottles.

I was enjoying playing with the organza and tulle so wonder-undered a lot of the colors, so to trace 'mountains' and 'moons' and iron them onto black cotton fabric. Should have used Steam-a-seam, as it would adhere better to the meshed materials. Once I completed the massing of the piece, I looked at the black pile of material left on the floor from when my son and friends were here sewing, and realized that all the blacks were not the same. I found I didn't have much left of the black I started with, so did two boarders, one narrow. I straight stitch quilted thru the layers around each 'moon over the mountain' rectangle. Then couched a variegated shimmery yarn on the outside edge of the narrow boarder. I'm going to face it rather than bind the edges. Still wondering about quilting it more tho.

Moon Over Mountain without a flash

Moon Over Mountain with a flash

Kumihimo Braiding

Kumihimo "Marudai" braiding device

Kumihimo is Japanese braid-making. Kumi means 'coming together', and himo is 'string, cord, rope, or braid'. I first learned to do this braiding on a square cardboard years ago. I knew of the beautiful wooden stand and weighted thread spools, and was about to try making my own, when I found a used one with 8 spools. I love it. I love, and USE all my tools!

There are many braid varieties made from 4, 8, 12, and 16 bobbins. I always do the eight and the same cord progression pattern all the time - no thinking, just a peaceful motion. Since I'm using varied colors, just trying to coordinate with what I'm making it for, it creates it's own pattern. I've made Kumihimo braids for most of my hanging felted pictures - those, using my handspun and dyed yarns.

This braiding is with crochet cotton thread, and it makes a narrower braid than with the yarn. I'm weaving this for the grandson's cloth alphabet books I made. Looking at it, Monte wants me to make him shoelaces!!

The bobbins are weighted and then a central counterweight is needed, attached to the braided cord. They typically put weights in a little silk bag. My counterweight is what I started with - a baby food jar filled with sand. I should make a cute bag!

When I begin and whenever I've got to move the counterweight back up close to the top, I put a chopstick thru some of the strings under the top hole. I used to wrap a rubberband around the threaded bobbins, but now I'm getting used to the twisted thread loop making it's own stopping point (so it doesn't just drop, roll, and unwind - which it will do if you don't have the string to the back as in illustration #1 above).

The felted picture is one of my earliest pieces, before I was doing needle-felting. It's wet-felted with embroidered details. I've made several of these pictures, not with embroidery tho, but needlefelted details, and sold them. The Kumihimo braid is for hanging the piece from a dowel on the back incased in a sleeve. I also attached the braid around the picture - an added twist, separating it from the felted frame.

Wet felted and embroidered - with Kumihimo Braiding

Gandhi using a Spinning Wheel in India - Gandhi video footage

I'm posting this because as a spinner, I knew Gandhi spun, and worked at getting a lot of people to spin. It's a way for people to earn an income. But it's also a very peaceful tactile activity to do.

We just went to the National Western Stock Show; here in Denver every January. I used to demonstrate spinning, and sometimes weaving, at it a lot. I've demonstrated spinning at many other places too. I should demonstrate again - a great way to get more yarn! I've knit two sweaters and a shawl from my handspun and dyed sheep wool.

Gandhi is spinning cotton. It's a very short fiber. At a weaving guild sale years ago I bought a large box of cotton. I've been scared to spin it, but now, having read about a new book coming out by Rita Buchanan - Spinning Cotton - I'm going to challenge myself to give spinning cotton a try this year. More than a try, but tackle it till I get it!

A shawl I knit from my handspun wool

December Color/Design Challenge

"TEMPERATURE" was the next classes' challenge. Heather Thomas said, "we want to feel either hot or cold when we view your piece!" Visual temperature is controlled by color. The color wheel can be divided in two halves, one warm and one cold. The cold colors tend to recede behind warm colors. Red-violet, red, yellow-green, and green are temperature neutral colors, tending to behave like their neighbors. Adding black to colors warms them. Adding white actually cools colors down. Colors have moods.

I initially printed some of Dawson's photos and photo-image-transferred a white deer with it snowing. I heavily thread painted it and it puckered. My teacher of the class, Heather, said, "when I'm going to stitch the hell out of something, I print two, cut out the heavily stitched image and attach it to the background." I still need to do that and finish it. I want to frame it and give it to Dawson.

What I did was look thru all my stash of material and lots of unfinished stuff. I chose a weaving project I did, feeling it cold. I'd previously knit and felted a black bag I didn't like cuz lint and stuff showed too much. So I attached my woven piece to the purse. I also looked thru my stash of trims and ribbons, hoping for something to embellish the purse. I found some daisy trim that could have come from my Grandmother. Over the years I've collected lots of trims and buttons from yard sales. Sometimes at a second-hand store I'll buy a shirt for it's buttons if they're cool. Then I found some coordinating material for lining and making some buttons. I wanted a brighter lining material as I've found it's hard to find things in a dark bag!

Felted purse with attached hand-weaving, trim, and homemade buttons

Luminescence - Shiva Paintsticks; & Needle-felted Ornaments

My November's color/design class challenge was luminescence.

I've been buying shirts and jackets at Goodwill with the plan to over-dye them, creating whole new creations (I've done this since high school, on into having babies, and now for whole family). One shirt was bright yellow with stripes, so I thought it might be good for this project. I originally did a lot of basting along all the centers of each stripe strip, pulling the stitching tight. Well the over-dyeing didn't turn out as I was wanting - should have used a waxed string for a better resist. I over-dyed it some some more.

I've been wanting to use the Shiva paint sticks ... I have some pieces of textured wallpaper I saved. That was the under texture for rubbing a black Shiva stick over. Then I used another flowered texture made for using with the paint sticks rubbing an iridescent gold over - that created the luminescence! I used the paint sticks stenciling leaf designs on the back yoke and down the button placket.

I'd also gone to Hobby Lobby looking specifically for luminescent possibilities. I wanted to make Christmas ornaments using styrofoam balls and needle-felting wool on. I came home with ribbons, embroidery floss and sequins.

I'm going to make more, trying different sizes. These are the largest I'd make. Monte wouldn't mind a tree full of these!