Dyeing to Stitch DVD Winner!

Congratulations to Gina of Clay and Fiber - she is our lucky winner of Candy Glendening's DVD, Dyeing to Stitch!

If you didn't win, you can check out these blogs for other opportunities:

·         Friday, 11/11 –  Victoria Gertenbach of The Silly BooDilly­

·         Monday, 11/14 – Susan Brubaker Knapp of Blue Moon River

·         Wednesday, 11/16 –  Kathy Mack of Pink Chalk Studio

·         Friday, 11/18 – Melody Johnson of Fibermania

·         Monday, 11/21 – Amy Ellis of Amy’s Creative Side

·         Wednesday, 11/23 – Diane Doran of Ooh! Pretty Colors

·         Friday, 11/25 –  Vicki Welsh of  Field Trips in Fiber

·         Monday, 11/28/11 – Brenda Gael Smith of Serendipity and the Art of the Quilt

·         Wednesday, 11/30 – Amy Webb of Amy Lou Who Sews

·         Friday, 12/2 – Robin Ferrier of Simply Robin

·         Tuesday, 12/6 – Natalia Bonner of Piece N Quilt

·         Thursday, 12/8  – Beth and the gang from Sew Mama Sew

Snow Dyes - Rounds 1 & 2

I've done three rounds of snow dyeing so far (with *plenty* of snow left to work with). Here are some results from rounds one and two. All of the pictures can be made bigger by clicking on them.

Snow Dyed, then snowverdyed ;)

Bottom fabric was dyed in the drip pan below other fabrics, so technically it was low water immersion dyed

Center fabric was snow dyed twice - once with chocolate brown, then again with grape
The bottom piece was another "drip catcher"

I confess that for my work I prefer little to no white space on a piece of hand dyed fabric. This has led me to usually dye with fabric that has been soaked in soda ash solution then dried before dyeing, or use a drip dyeing method like Robbi Eklow explains in her book Free Expression. For the snow dyed pieces I either redyed ones that came out with more white space than I wanted, or squirted a little extra dye on areas that I could see were really pale. I have a couple of more pieces I'll post a little later.

I finished up an article for the May issue of Machine Quilting Unlimited this week. It's about designing your own quilting motifs, and it was fun to think of lots of ways you can go about that.

I'm also super excited that once again this year I'll have a quilt in Martingale's calendar of IQA award winning quilts. It will be interesting to see what month they decide to use for Last Dance.

FFAC Tote Tuesday

I'm delighted to be taking part in FFAC Tote Tuesday.

I've donated two half yard pieces of hand dyed fabric to the tote being put together by Vicki Anderson of Machine Quilting Unlimited. Here are some photos of the fabric


These last two photos show the range of colors on the width of the fabrics.


There will be lots of other machine quilting related goodies in this tote, including a one year subscription to Machine Quilting Unlimited!

What is Tote Tuesday?
ToteTuesday, a Fiberart For A Cause fundraiser for the American Cancer
Society, will open Tuesday, February 2 and continue through March.

ToteTuesday will feature themed totes filled with unique, beautiful, and
inspiring items from the worlds of art quilting, fiber arts, knitting,
beading, mixed media and surface design.

You can expect totes offering original artwork, autographed books, hand-dyed
fabrics, gorgeous yarns, beads, handmade journals, fun and useful
materials/tools for mixed-media and surface design, online classes, DVDs,
and much, much more.

A list of the more than 20 themed totes now in progress is here:

http://www.virginiaspiegel.com/blog/archives/4265

100% of the proceeds will be donated directly to the American Cancer Society
through Fiberart For A Cause. Fiberart For A Cause has already donated over
$190,000 to the ACS:

http://www.virginiaspiegel.com/NewFiles/ACSFundraiser.html

Please mark your calendar for Tuesday, February 2 and be prepared to be
amazed!

Summer Fun

Thank you so much to everyone for their nice comments on my quilt! I still haven't gotten around to making a better photograph - here's what I've been up to.

Dyeing fabric

Lately when I've dyed fabric it's been for a very specific purpose. My last few dyeing sessions I've instead taken a more serendipitous approach, and it's been quite enjoyable. In the top photo the middle fabric (with the most colors) has already been made into the most fun pajama pants I've ever had. Added bonus: when we go to the beach in a few weeks it'll give my siblings something to make fun of (as if they needed any help).

Mostly though I've been trying to keep up with the boys. Here they're about to "investigate" a large ant colony on the rock in our front yard.

And here they are racing towards a pavilion at Brookside Gardens after a tour of the butterfly garden.

My nephew's birthday is in June, and there's always a pool party to celebrate. There were 12 children at the party, and things had started to wind down a little - until Uncle Bobby showed up.

I hope you all have a safe and happy 4th!