Thursday 8 April 2010

I'VE BEEN BUSY - PLAYING

Di loaned me a book, 'Dyeing in a Tray'.  Well this looked so easy !!!! I just had to give it a go. I found the fabric I bought from Whaley's, thanks for the tip Maggi, and chopped it into rough fat quarter sizes, I must admit I got carried away and cut the lot up. Oops! Oh well, I can get more....she says!  Anyway back to the playing. Well yes I know this is not in a tray per say, it is in beakers in a tray...wait till later, it is in a tray..honest.
The dyes mixed ready for use, had to stop for dinner....
In went the fabrics, looking good...
I can't remember exactly what I did, regarding the mix of the colours, sorry...
Oh yes, I forgot to tell you, Rebecca and I cut some dead Hydrangea heads off the plant in front garden, then she snipped the heads into the beakers of dye, I let her do as many as she wanted...
Pretty aren't they...
She did do a lot of them...
Oh, and another thing, I remembered seeing in the book, to place a piece of cloth under your work as a kind of  'drip cloth' - seems it works...
I had quite a lot of dye left in the pots so went and found a load of scrap white and cream fabrics, all shapes and sizes these were...
I scrunched and twisted them all and put into the trays this time, sorry forgot to take a picture of that, and this is the reslut of that batch, bit naff if you ask me...
Apart from the drip cloth, this is quite good...
Soooo, I made up a new batch of dyes, stronger mix this time, refolded all the fabic that I had done previously and put it into the trays, well margarine tub and easter egg tray - waste not want not!!  Then I got the pots of dyes and dribbled them in the sides and over the tops and well just whacked the lot in!!! Now these look the business don't they? We shall see...
I wonder what happened next?
To both these trays...
I will show you tomorrow.
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MEANTIME -
I went over to the PO today [again] and posted some more swap stuff off and a gift to someone. They asked me if I had shares in the PO and was I wanting to move in!!!! Cheek of it.  Anyway after that little jaunt I went to town and had a lovely shop, met Annette and Rebecca for a coffee and muffin - yumyum - there goes the diet - I had 5 bags of shopping. Wheeeee, what a shame I had to wait over 3/4hour for a bus home. I was hopping mad, then when the bus did come, two darn women decided they would just get on the bus. They hadn't been queueing like the rest of us. I gave them short shrift I can tell you, I know we all wanted to get on but fair do's, we queue in this country buster, so get to the back of it. I was cheered by the queue. Nightmare journey too the driver went s-o-o-o-o-o   s--l--o--w I could probably have walked alongside and held a chat with the people inside.
In town I called at Ash' stall on the market and bought some white cotton fabric for more dyeing -hahaha- also he let me have some chiffon very cheap, £1 a yard, he had two shades of yellow  and one bright pink. I had 2yds of the pink and one of one of the yellows. Oh yes I also got some plum crushed velvet, he said it was what everyone is buying to make cloaks with for the TWILIGHT mania that is going on. As Reb has just got that book - the first one - I got the remainder of the stuff for her, guess I shall have to make a cloak now!!!
I have been making stuff for Lisa of Cobblestone Cabin. I have just finished it all and that now has to be posted off to her, but here is a preview for you before it gets on her shop site. Bit of a scoop for you.
You may remember I had some CAT fabrics from here, this is what I made with it, I don't actually like this now it is done, but there you go, you win some you lose some, Lisa likes it so that's OK...
The next lot is made with BABY fabrics she gave me to do something with, the following is what I cam up with; a small PLAYMAT to take round with you when you go visiting with your new baby...
a BAG to put above in...
Blue for a Boy -BASKETS for talc and oils needed for the baby
Pink for a Girl -BASKETS for those frilly knickers we put them in!!!!
Oh yes we do...
Inside view of all the BASKETS
Hope Lisa likes them all
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I have also made the following- on my Embellisher machine, which I absolutely LOVE. With the help of Myfanwy's DVD's I am getting to grips with it quite nicely, so I decided I would this as a gift for someone as a thank you, I really enjoyed making this folks.

I stitched beads along the scrim as I wasn't too fussed about it's colour, it was one I had dyed earlier, not very well either...
I also stitched beads in groups at the lower edge, just because really...
The front.......................................................The back
and inside...
Oh yes, I also thread some beads onto wool and made then as a kind of tassel and divider for the book inside. Job done, hope ***** likes it.
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Then I made yet another Bookcover for a swap I am, this one is for Tessa, she had said she likes leaves, so here you go Tessa, leaves it is...
Front.............................................Back
inside - empty
inside - filled
Enjoy Tessa, made just for you buddy.
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This went in the post today for Kim, just to let you know!
All done for another day
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11 comments:

Unknown said...

you make me feel lazy........love the heart throw/blankie

Pat said...

I think you do more in a week than I do in 6 months!!! WOW.......is all I can say!!!

Cal said...

You are mighty productive! I really like the baby baskets and the purple/pink journal cover.

Angela said...

I can't wait till I retire :o)
Love the dyed fabric - might have to have a go at that in the summer - you got some gorgeous colours there...what kind of dyes did you use?
Love the story about the queue jumpers...good on you Jan :o))))

xxx

Jo Hopwood said...

You have been busy! Well done on achiving so much x

Jo

Anonymous said...

Wow, Jan, you've done an amazing amount! I love it all but particularly like the baby quilt and bag - the quilting is fabulous!

Looking forward to seeing the results of the dyeing!
H

Nuvofelt said...

Well, what can I say? The package was fabulous, and you'll have to read here to see how it made my day!

http://nuvofelt.blogspot.com/2010/04/there-are-some-days-when-its-all.html

Thank you Jan. :o)

Anonymous said...

Where do I start, you have so much great stuff going on here? Did you sod soak the fabrics that you were disappointed with or or was the soda ash already in the pots? The dye solution goes off pretty quickly when the soda ash is added so that may be why the results were pale - not wasted, just overdye. Greta hydrangea petals. I can't wait to see the second batch of fabrics, the fun part is ironing them dry and seeing the patterns emerge. Notebooks and baskets are fantastic - saw the embellished one on Myfanwy's blog.

Searchfamilies said...

Love the heart quilt really lovely as is all your work.
I would have given the lady at the bus the same as well lol
You certainly been a busy little bee
Hugs Janice

Leah said...

Wow Janet, everything looks lovely. I always enjoying coming to your blog to see what you are up to. I really like the book cover you made with your embellisher. It is amazing. Wonderful to look at. Can't wait to see what you are working on next. :)

Donna said...

Wow! That is a beautiful notebook! I love Myfanwy's creations. I'm a big fan. She said to drop by and I can see what a sweet gift this was. Beautiful work!