SOUTHBOUND SOJOURN (PART 1)

Tomorrow we hit the road for our annual trek (this year by car) to our winter home in Mexico. We’ll arrive in about a week after passing through northern California, Nevada, and Arizona before hitting the border. In another fifteen hours in our little, overloaded car, we’ll arrive in Mazatlan.

My husband does most of the driving so I’m left to twiddle my thumbs and witness the scenes and scenery that we pass. Since I don’t “twiddle” very well, I’ve been thinking about what I can do to fill the time.

 Journal quilting, of course!

 Last week a bird on a road sign caught my attention, so I am going to TRY!!!! to put together a daily “bird on a sign” to document the journey. I’ve prepared a dozen background “sandwiches”, gathered a bag of scraps, and assembled all the necessary threads and needles in my sewing basket.  If I can just get a sign shape and bird on each cloth, then I can finish with stitching and bleaching when I land. My fingers are crossed with hopes that I can pull this off. After all, I call myself a “gypsy quilter” so I figure it’s about time to put my money where my mouth is.

My first piece reflects our transition home here in Jacksonville, Oregon. It’s within a beautiful landscape within the Rogue River valley, dotted with pear orchards and vineyards, and gorgeous colors this time of the year. I tried to choose colors that reflect the autumn scene.

Stay tuned to see the outcome of this little project.

DARK LIGHT, 1,2,3!

Here is a great crossover dye recipe that Cynthia showed us. I love the results and will be trying more of these. Thanks to Christine for writing down these directions.

(pagoda red with moss green)

2 Color Gradation with 5 Jars

Set out five empty jars labeled left to right: DARK LIGHT 1 2 3
Put a piece of wet fabric in each jar.

Color #1
If using fat quarters, use 1 tablespoon of a single dye concentrate in a yogurt cup filled with water for medium color. Adjust amount for lighter or darker results. 

Pour half of the first dye mixture into a second yogurt cup.  Pour the second yogurt cup into the "DARK" jar.

Refill the original remaining half filled yogurt cup with water. 

Pour half of this more diluted mixture into the second yogurt cup.  Pour the second yogurt cup into jar 1.

Refill the original remaining half-filled yogurt cup with water. 

Pour half of this more diluted mixture into the second yogurt cup.  Pour the second yogurt cup into jar 2.

Refill the original remaining half-filled yogurt cup with water.

Pour half of this even more diluted mixture into the 2nd yogurt cup. Pour the second yogurt cup into jar 3. 

Pour the remaining diluted mixture (1/2 c.) in the first yogurt cup into the "LIGHT" jar.

(chinese red with better black)

Color #2
Put 1 tablespoon (or the amount you have chosen for the desired intensity of color) of the next color of dye concentrate into a yogurt cup and fill with water.  Reverse the process above:

Pour half of the dye into a second yogurt cup.  Pour the second yogurt cup of dye into the "DARK" jar.
Refill the first yogurt cup with water.  Pour half into the second yogurt cup.  Pour the second yogurt cup into jar 3.

Refill the first yogurt cup with water.  Pour half into the second yogurt cup.  Pour the second yogurt cup into jar 2.

Refill the first yogurt cup with water.  Pour half into the second yogurt cup.  Pour the second yogurt cup into jar 1.

Pour the remaining diluted mixture (1/2 c) in the first yogurt cup into the "LIGHT" jar. 
Add a half cup of soda ash to each jar. Stir or shake. Await the beautiful results!

MORE ICE DYEING

Earlier this summer I tried my hand at ice dyeing. My friend Pam was the one who mentioned it to me, so I looked it up and saw a brief description, which included using soda ashed fabric, ice, with powdered dye sprinkled on top. I decided to try something different and actually make ice out of liquid dye and also out of soda ash and put them together with soda ashed fabric in different combinations to see what effects could be achieved. Here is the link to see these results: http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7501629057264755564#editor/target=post;postID=1044262122563520983

Recently I've seen a few amazing samples of ice dyes in which the powdered dye method was used so I decided to try this. In both cases I dyed meter sized pieces rather than fat quarters. For my brown-toned piece, I mixed powdered dye (deep orange and black, with pinches of chinese red, lemon yellow and navy) into a tiny jar, stirred up these granules and then proceeded to sprinkle over the ice cubes which covered the fabric.

In the green toned piece(which turned out more bluish), I sprinkled the powder separately; first lemon yellow, then a touch of golden yellow, on to turquoise, cerulean, navy, and finally black.

Lovely aren't they? Tomorrow I will visit fellow dyers and ask for some critiquing and also input on their experiences with ice dyes. More to follow...
UPDATE: After a gro9up discussion, we decided a few more variables needed to be checked out: 1)rate of melt (I left mine outside in the cold and there was still a lot of ice left in the morning), or 2)using shaved ice rather than cubes.
Some of the dyes have more color granules that split out. Cynthia has a set of samples where she sprinkled different powders on wet fabric and you can see the ones with more colors. Turquoise, lemon yellow and fuschia are pure colors so won't display a variety of color. Blacks will. This is certainly something to try with my powders...