Where To Begin?

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Be sure to say Hi and enter the giveaway! Draw will be made on Feb 15. 

So much going on. Too busy to blog. Where do I begin? 
(These would make perfect hashtags for most of us, I suspect!)

This week's exercises included making contour drawings of fruit using thread instead of lead. No marking, just looking and drawing with the sewing machine. 

This was more comfortable than I'd expected - not too much different than drawing with a pencil, except there's no erasing.

FreshofftheFrame.com

There were also exercises to do with straight and curvy lines and the nine design forms (vertical, horizontal, symmetrical, asymmetrical, diagonal, circular, radiating, bordered, grid) featured in the text.

FreshofftheFrame.com


Snow Dyeing

At our January guild meeting, Sarah provided dye packets, fabric, and instructions for snow dyeing. The idea was for each of us to try it at home and bring the results to the next meeting.

Fabric is scrunched/crumpled in the colander under the snow. Dye powder is sprinkled on top.

Two days before our February meeting (ha!) I remembered our mission. I called my Mom to join me (we were to share a dye packet), and we made our "creative mess" together.

While we were at it, I wanted to try some leftover dye I'd mixed a couple of months ago. I'd read that it wouldn't work, but I wanted to see for myself, so . . .


It's a parfait!
Bucket to catch melting snow, mesh to elevate the fabric, fabric "scrumpled" on top of the mesh, snow topped off with dye.

More snow! I poured on the turquoise, brown, and yellow dyes. The worst that would happen was - - - nothing! The fabric would survive to dye another day. (sorry! I couldn't resist!)

One of many rinses/soaks.

Most of the brown and all of the yellow washed away during the rinse process, but enough turquoise stayed to make it worthwhile.


Snow dyed fabrics - I'd stitched black thread in the corners of my fabrics to identify them after they mixed with Mom's in the wash.
I think the blue fabric will make a wonderful, soft-looking sky. I'm happy I took the chance!


Quilty Goodness, Fresh off the Frame!



Tracy's beautiful batik.


Linda's Linen Lines.


Kailei's playful patchwork.

How does Ellen do it??? 

Group selfies are harder than they look!

Not everyone looks their best here (oops - creepy stalker husband alert!), but we had a good laugh trying to make it happen. My poor son is on the bottom of the pile. Ha! 

Since I happen to look FABULOUSLY YOUTHFUL here (it was kinda darkish), and since it was MY 50th BIRTHDAY, I'm posting the picture. Muaahahahaha!
My 50th birthday picture - that's me on the far right, below my "creepy stalker" hubby!
This picture also features my Mom (in green), my daughter and her children, one of my sons, and his girlfriend - you might recognize her from our recent circle-quilt cutting session. She had the ears!

I also squeezed in housekeeping, grocery shopping, three walks with my Mom, plus three more gym workouts this week. Whoop whoop!

Linking up with:
Needle and Thread Thursday @ My Quilt Infatuation 
Free Motion Mavericks @ Lizzie Lenard Vintage Sewing
Whoop Whoop Friday @ Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Show off Saturday @ Sew Can She

Try, Learn, Grow!
Carole
Comments are welcome and will be answered by email where possible. Thanks for visiting!

Comments

  1. wow busy busy-I have yet to try snow dyeing-but then we haven't had any snow so far this winter, thank you for the reminder--your fabric turned out very pretty Happy 50th!

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  2. Great photo - happy birthday! I love the swirl quilting and your sketch stitching is fantastic!

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  3. I can't draw worth beans - so sewing a drawing is downright amazing!

    I liked the snow dying.

    Happy Birthday!

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  4. Happy Birthday!! You DO look fabulously youthful (as does your mom :-)
    Great job on the drawing with thread ~ I wonder if your results would have been so nice if you hadn't been doing the other exercises? I'll have to show that to my 7 yr old - she told me yesterday that she may want to 'color with thread' when she is older. (I know - I should let her have at it now, but I am so selfish with sewing time....)
    ~Tracy

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  5. Beautiful post and topics. I just became a follower.

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  6. Happy Birthday!!! Snow dying....now that looked like fun!!

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  7. I love the idea of drawing with the sewing machine instead of a pencil. What terrific inspiration, and your fruit thread drawing is fabulous. I also love the snow-dyed turquoise, one of my favorite colors, and one of my favorite methods of dyeing. Happy, happy birthday; we share this day!!!

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  8. You really are busy! Congratulations on a milestone birthday - the photo looks like you had a fun time with family celebrating! Your thread contour of the fruit looks great. Do you think it helped a lot to sketch them by hand a lot first? The snow dying looks like a successful experiment and it will be neat to see you use those fabrics in future projects.

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  9. You have done so much. Your drawing with thread looks really amazing. And a happy birthday!

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  10. Thanks for the compliment about my header photo. Those fabrics I dyed several years ago with procion dyes and did the deepest saturation of color that I could. I also reused some of the dye containers and made a softer shade of those colors. Amazingly how different that second batch turned out compared to the initial dye batch.

    Love your thread play and watching your quest on becoming a judge all the while stretching your capabilities. Kudos to you.

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  11. Happy Birthday! That photo is such a lovely one of you, but yes, slightly creepy husband! Your thread drawing looks amazing, I think I would find that very hard without drawing it on first. And I love the snow dyeing idea, I've never heard of that before, if we ever get enough snow we'll have to try it. Presumably any cold water dye would work?

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  12. Fabulous job drawing with free motion quilting. Most impressive.

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  13. Happy Birthday!
    I've never heard of snow dyeing before, the blue fabric looks beautiful.

    ukcitycrafter@live.co.uk

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  14. Happy Birthday!!
    I'd love to try snow dyeing but we haven't had any yet!!

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  15. Happy Birthday Carole!

    Your free motion fruit is nothing short of wonderful. I must have a go one day... As for snow dyeing, just mud here, so perhaps I should wait until I defrost the fridge.

    Thank you for linking up with Free Motion Mavericks!

    Love, Muv

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  16. Happy Birthday!! OK, I'm late to the party. . . what else is new?? LOL My fi fi fi fi. . . I still can't say it. . . is next month!

    So much in this post! The quilts are beautiful, the snow dying - very cool and your thread drawing of the fruit looks pretty darn good!! Wendy, the woman I met at Cindy's class has invited me up to her house for a dying party!! She lives in northern AZ so they actually get a winter. I'll be heading up there this summer for a dying party and cooler temps! I can't wait. Your posts are so intriguing to me, I must try this!

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  17. I'm little late but Happy Bday! All those excercises you doing are so interesting. Plus it's always pleasure to look at your quilting :)

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  18. Your thread sketching is fantastic! Your interpretation of still life onto fabric is wonderful. Thank you for sharing.

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