Field Trips in Fiber

July 06, 2008

Quilting ADD (and stash report)

Let's get the stash report out of the way first. You already know that I bought fabric- it was 7 yards. I still don't have anything going out but I will as soon as Mom finishes the binding on my QFAH quilt. Then there will be another shortly behind it.

The current tally:

This week IN: 7
This week OUT: 0
YTD IN: 170.5 yards
YTD out: 156.5 yards
NET OUT: 39 yards (Goal 100 yards)

Today I have been dealing with my hangover from my dyeing experiment. I've had a headache all day and haven't been able to concentrate on any one thing. So I've flitted from project to project.

I spent the most time quilting Wanda's QOV. This is a very pretty quilt with sort of an Asian look. I decided to do an all over fern design using a King Tut thread. I only have a pass and a half to finish. I may get it done tonight - if not, tomorrow. I want to have this one and one other ready to give to Mom this weekend for binding. The next one (one of mine) will not have such heavy quilting but I think the dense quilting texture looks great on this quilt.

Here's my design wall. The red, white and blue blocks are the reversible blocks. I finished 8 more of them yesterday. The reverse side is done in Christmas fabric. What's that yellow thing? Why that's yet another quilt I started this weekend! LOL! This is a block for a baby quilt for one of my work friends. I adore this monkey fabric. Of course I planned a quilt that requires a ton of fussy cutting but it's going to be really cute. Fortunately there are only 13 of these blocks. I hope to get one done every day for the next 12 days. The baby is due August 31.

I am also planning to do Judy's new Block of the Month quilt so I'm starting to plan the color palette. I am thinking that I might try to dye all of the fabrics for this one. I want to make it to hang in my bedroom in place of this quilt. I love this quilt - it was the 6th quilt that I made and it's been hanging in our bedroom for over 10 years. I'm ready for a change!

I feel like I was channeling Judy today because I also made zucchini bread dough for 3 loaves to freeze. I'm trying everything I can to use all of the zucchini in the garden! Frozen bread dough works great.

Posted on July 06, 2008 at 07:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

More on Retayne

I should have checked Paula Burch's web site before I did my testing yesterday. Here's her post on Retayne.

Paula Burch on Retayne

She basically says it isn't necessary for Fiber Reactive Dyes but there's another important bit of information there as well. I am highly chemically sensitive and have been having asthma issues all afternoon and evening. According to this post, Retayne contains formaldehyde! Small amounts, but if you are very chemically sensitive it would matter. I do wear a respirator when I mix dyed and when I use fabric paints (because they contain VOCs) but I don't need it when dyeing. I had been wondering what was going on with me all afternoon. I haven't had asthma like this in a long time. Today the asthma is a little better but I have a bad headache. These are all normal chemical reactions for me. It's really fun when I have to learn my lessons over and over again! LOL! No need for concern, I'm fine, just sort of hung over.

I now also know why the excess dyed attached to the fabrics - Retayne positively charges the fabric so that more of the negatively charged dye sticks to the fabric. I just learned about cationic properties in my chemistry class! Imagine that - something actually stuck in my brain from that class!

I think Retayne is about to be eliminated from my home. I had an interesting email exchange with a friend this morning and now I think I will also test the Synthrapol and see if that is doing anything for me. I do rinse my dyed fabrics and shirts until the water is clear so it may be that I don't need to use Synthrapol either. We'll see!

Isn't science interesting?

By the way, if you are into fabric dyeing and haven't read every word on Paula Burch's web site, you need to! She has extensive information on all types of dyeing and she knows all of the chemistry that takes place during the dyeing processes.

Posted on July 06, 2008 at 01:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

July 05, 2008

Hold the Retayne

Today was fabric dyeing day again! I had 2 objectives. I wanted to test using Retayne in the rinse water. It was recommended by a fellow fabric dyer on another list. I also wanted to tie dye some shirts for my brother's girlfriend, Wanda. Let's start with the test.

The recommendation was to put Retayne in the rinse water and to still do the final wash with Synthrapol. I get great results just rinsing several times in plain water but I'll try anything! I mixed up a blended red, a muddy blue and a golden yellow. In each color I dyed 2 fat quarters of a white PFD and 2 of natural muslin. In the photo the muslin is on the right. The Retayne did nothing to help hold more color and it had a bad overall effect. When I rinse my fabrics I rinse each piece under running water a bit and then put all of the fabrics, regardless of color, in a rinse bath of very hot water. I have never had color migrate from one fabric to another - until I rinsed with Retayne. The darker color migrated to the lighter color. I'm not sure if you can se it in the photo but the yellow Retayne-rinsed piece is very grayed. Very disappointing but that's what testing is for!

Of course, all would have been just fine if I had stopped there. For some insane reason I decided to use the Retayne with all of the dyeing that I did today. Let this be the final proof for you. Can you see how dingy these shirts look? The white and yellow picked up the blues and purples from other things I dyed. They are horrible. I did these for Wanda but she's not getting them. She will get better ones next weekend! These will serve as a lesson. Dye and t-shirts are cheap!

I did have two successes! I over dyed one of Chris' old dress shirts in purple and navy and I dyed a red t-shirt of mine that had become stained. I like both of them!

So learn from me today.....

Test Responsibly!

Posted on July 05, 2008 at 09:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (13) | TrackBack (0)

July 04, 2008

The weekend list

We love the 4th of July around here! We are grateful every day to have been born in this great country. We don't celebrate in a big way. It's always a quiet day and we always grill burgers and one of our neighbors always puts on a great fireworks show! We had the added bonus of Mom visiting this year. She and her spoiled dogleft this afternoon so it was time to get back to normal. Chris is packing for a week long rip to Vermont so I will be sewing all weekend! Mom left with 2 QOV quilts. She volunteered to pu the binding on the QOV quilts after I quilt them. She brought me 2 more tops. I hope I have 2 more quilted be the time I see her again in 2 weeks. That will leave 2 to quilt for a total of SIX! 2 made by Wanda, 2 by me and 2 by Mom.

Time to review the list for last week:

~~FINISH Alana's box~~ - Done!
Load and quilt Wanda's second QOV quilt - started
Load my second QOV quilt - not done
Freemotion quilting sample for the DSM (secret project #1) - started
Write up instructions for secret project #2 - started
Make another set of placemats - not done, that was a pipe dream!
~~Drop of sewing machine for repair and visit with~~ ~~Mary~~! - DONE!

The week started off with great progress but then I had a bad allergic reaction at work Wednesday. That ruined about 24 hours. All is fine now! Mom and I went to Newport News Thursday and met Mary and her Mom. The primary purpose of the trip was to take our sewing machines in for repair. I called the place a week and a half ago to tell them I was coming. The person I talked to neglected to mention that the repair guy was going to be AWAY FOR A MONTH!!! We decided to leave the machines anyway. At least they will be the first that are worked on when he returns. So I had to rethink my list for the next month.

I set up my Janome Gem Gold and remembered that I had a reversible quilt UFO that I used when I was teaching a reversible quilting class at Quilting Adventures. I decided that the next 4 weeks would be a good time to finish it. It's patriotic on one side and Christmas on the other. I think this can be donated to Alycia for her QOV quilts. So, I'm adding that to the list. This is the print out of my layout - it's both sides of 1 quilt.

In process at the moment I have Wanda's QOV on the frame being quilted, the reversible QOV and secret project #1. I'll share a photo of Wanda's quilt later this weekend.

Here's the list for the coming week:

Finish quilting Wanda's QOV
Load my next QOV (I have 2 new ones from Mom too)
Work on the Reversible QOV
Saturday dyeing day - shirts for Chris
Secret project #1 instructions and samples
Secret project #2 instructions
Quiltland Chronicles challenge - Helen issued a challenge to use some fabrics picked by someone else in a project. I sent Chris into my sewing room and here's what he came up with. These will surely be easier to work with than what Helen got from her husband!