Easter week

I haven't really done much sewing this last week - and considering I've been on leave you might think I was rather disappointed with that. But I've had a really nice week. And that's in spite of the weather. It's gone from one extreme (as you can see from Flo in the snow at 6.30 on Good Friday) to glorious sunshine. I've pottered about at home and tided up and thrown lots out, started my book alteration project for my class with Bren, been to the Bramble Patch ( see to our class exhibition) and gone to the gym to lots of classes. And we even managed to get lots of those jobs done that you never seem to get round too - like taking the books to the charity shop.

Did any of you go to the Bramble Patch exhibition? I went with a friend from our quilting group - she was very impressed with the variety of the work and I thought the Bramble Patch did a great job displaying all of the work.

Next Sunday I'm off to Trentham - to see what our quilts look like - I think as a group we've entered about 7. Please let me know if you;re going on the Sunday. It's a good show - not too large and plenty of places (across the car park) to have lunch.

I hope you've all had a good week.

Dyeing results...

As promised here are the results of my dyeing class at the Bramble Patch. I felt very unprepared for the class - entirely my own fault as I'd been away with work quite frequently between classes. However - considering how unprepared I was I'm really pleased with the results. I', also looking forward to over dyeing them in the next class and screen printing too (you know how I love screen printing).

I've also had my letter from Malvern to confirm 'The Water Tower' is entered for the exhibition. I've no idea how it will compare with other entries - so we'll just have to wait and see in May.

So here are my results... (lots of photos)

Microwave dyed - calico. Just placed in the bag.

Microwave dyed calico - folded and placed in the bag.

Microwave dyed manufactured white cotton - and no it's not a dish cloth...

Microwave dyed manufactured white cotton - folded.

Tray dyed - scrunched cotton.

Tray dyed - silk noile.

Microwave dyed - silk dupion.

Microwave dyed - silk noile. This was folded and placed in the bag.

Tray dyed calico- the Chelsea bun style of dying.

Tray dyed calico- folded in the tray.

Poly bag dyed - pinched in the centre and placed in the bag - a more subtle result than the other methods.

Poly bag dyed - white manufactured cotton - close up below.

Poly bag dyed - calico folded into strips and then rolled.

My conclusions about the different methods and fabrics are:

• Silk fabrics take the dyes really well.
• Calico (a good quality) works well.
• Poly bag dying produces subtle results.
• Microwave dyeing is quick and produces intense colours
• Tray dyeing allows you to control the dye placement and allows you to dye larger pieces of fabric.

I'd love to hear if any of you have tried dyeing fabrics and if you feel my conclusion are the same as yours.

Hope you've all had a great Easter.

Dyeing to tell you all about...

What a great day we all had yesterday at The Bramble Patch in Brenda's class.

So - here we are - lots of photos.

The first one is tray dying - with the calico twisted like a Chelsea bun.

And here is my poly bag dyeing - this is still sitting around. I'm going to leave it for a week.

And this tray had a variety of items, calico, scrunched cotton and silk cocoons. Most of the fabric was folded.

At least, for part of the morning, it was dry enough to dry outside. As usual we all got very different results.

The microwave dyeing was fantastic. Very quick and bright. On the left the silk dupion was scrunched up and then a thread wrapped around it. The silk noile was folded and stitched. The colours are just great.

Here are some of the tray dyeing bits, wrung out and waiting to go home to dry.

These are another set of microwave dyed fabric. I used some manufactured fabric here - white with a white image on them so the dye would take differently.
I've still got to iron these and finish off the poly bag dyeing - so the next post I promise will include more photos of the finished fabric.

Easter Exhibition

Hi. As you can all see I've added an item to the right hand side of my blog. It the exhibition our Saturday class at The Bramble Patch. It would be great if any of you could pop along and see our work. For those who can't I'll take photos and post them after the event. There is a small entry fee (I think it's £2.00) which goes to charity.
I'll be posting again after my class on Saturday.

BQL March bag challenge

Guess what I've been doing this weekend?