300 Days of Dyeing - Day 3

Well, I made it to day three.  Let's see if I can come up with something for Day 4 before it's over.

Day 3's experiment turned out quite nice, I think.  It is a fat quarter of 100% Cotton print, suggested use: quilting. For those of you not into quilting, a fat quarter is a quarter of a yard of fabric in which the yard was cut or torn in half in one direction and then the halves were cut or torn in half in the other direction.  Instead of having a quarter of yard that measures 9" X 44" (that's one quarter length X the typical width of quilting cotton), you have a rectangle that is 18" X 22".  This is a good size for quilters who need just a small amount of a particular color or pattern. Some quilters will use a lot of different fat quarters to make a quilt with a 'scrappy' personality.

Anyway. This is what I started with:

And this is what I finished with:

The white printed hearts did not take the dye, just as I suspected.  (Did you notice that they were photographed right side up this time? Woohoo! ) The shading is irregular.  It almost seems that the brown dye 'split'.  Most dyes are made up of mixtures of primary color dyes.  Depending on many factors (insert lots of chemistry here), the dye may split or break and the results are unpredictable.  I rather like the variation in this and changing from one shade to another. This could be very useful in an applique application. The changing shades could give dimension and life to quilt or mixed media art ware instead of a flat monotone image.

I've been on the computer a lot today.  I'm still trying to learn as much as I can about the business side of an art oriented business.  There is a vast amount of information out on the internet, but only a small part of it is directly applicable to me.  Some is more general in nature and some information can be skewed to apply to me.  So I'm slowly sifting through it, trying to find the gems among the stones.

One gem I've already found is "The Creative Empire."  If you have your own creative business or you are contemplating beginning one, I highly recommend The Creative Empire as a place to connect with other similar to you and who are willing to share ideas and information. It's a great group of small business owners who are there to motivate and support one another.


Now, I think I'm going to throw another piece of cotton fabric in the dye pot (or baggie) and see what comes out tomorrow. Y'all take care and enjoy!

Early Bird Christmas Crafting

I joined the Early Bird Christmas Crafting Challenge a little late.  The challenge for the month of June was 'Mini Gifts.' Since I had already made a couple of mini gifts (multiples of each), I wasn't too worried about June. I have at least 10 of  the hand knitting face cloths and hand made soap bars ready for wrapping - or whatever I decide to do to prepare them for gift giving. I'm thinking a small muslin bag made with my hand dyed fabric would be nice.  Maybe I can come up with something 'Christmas-y' before time to ship them off.

I'm using my "Organized Christmas" notebook that I made a couple of years ago and never used.  I started updating the calendars and added some lined paper for keeping up with my Christmas Crafting.  But now it's July and I had better get busy!

The July challenge is 'Home Decor Gifts'.  For this first gift, I'm killing two birds (but not the Early Bird!) with one stone.  I'm creating a home decor gift - a square baby-sized quilt that can be used for a baby, a table topper, or a wall hanging.  I'll decide later who the recipient will be. {I want to give it to my friend who is planning another baby, but since she's not pregnant yet, I can't officially say it's going to her.} But I'm using my hand dyed muslin and will have a sample of work for photographing, promotion, and marketing. 

Here is the table I cut the pieces on today.  I moved the table in front of my computer so I could watch movies on Netflix while I cut the pieces.

Tonight I'm working on another home decor project.  This one was originally planned for me, but may go to someone else.  It is a knitted afghan. This past winter, I used my shawl for blanket rather than wearing it as a shawl.  I decided to 'frog' it and use the yarn (worsted weight) for an afghan.  I found more yarn to go with it and have been happily working on a mitered squares, patch work afghan.  I'll keep working on this till its big enough - either when I run out of yarn or get tired of working on it.  I've found more colors and some hand spun to use with it, and I love the direction it's going.

I'll try to have photos soon of other projects that I've completed and others I have planned along with progress photos of the quilt and the afghan. Till then, take care and enjoy!