Art museum and dye books

We had a huge crowd last evening - much bigger than they expected. The weather was cooler so that brought the people out. Everyone loved the cookies. There were three left.

I managed to finally get the books I wanted to get made up for the dye session on Sunday. It has directions for dyeing that I have collected over the years. I hope I made enough copies.

I have this afternoon and evening to get some more examples dyed and clean up for Sunday's dye session. Saturday I am helping with the band at a surprise birthday party they were hired to play at. It is going to be a busy weekend!

Have a great one!

Fabric gift and cookies

I received a package yesterday from my brother. He stopped at a shop in NYC - AKN Fabrics, Inc. - and sent me three 6 yard pieces of fabric. He said the shop was small, no windows, but the fabric was stacked to the ceiling!

I always make cookies for the last Downtown @ Dusk. Since tonight is the last night I spent my evening making these French Butter Cookies. I made a double batch, but I am not sure it will be enough. Well, when they are gone, they're gone!

Dyed fabric stash and fabric soaking

I decided to straighten out the dyed fabric I already had. I was looking for some pieces that I could overdye and experiment with. For someone who doesn't use hand dyed fabric much anymore, I have quite a bit of it. I am thinking about selling the majority of it by the pound. Here is most of the fabric laid out on my big table sorted by color.

I found a few pieces that will work for some techniques I want to do for the group coming on Sunday. So this morning I got a big bucket and made a soda ash solution for the fabric to soak in. This way the fabric will be ready for me to dye by the time I get home from work. The solution is a little green due to some of the previously dyed fabric that is in the bucket under that white fabric. The greenish color will not change the color of the soaking fabric.

Dyeing results

Here is the result of Sunday's dyeing. It is what I call a one color 8 way graduated dye. The color I used was tobacco brown. I bought this dye from Pro Chem & Dye years ago.

Because I did not spend much time stirring the fabric in the dye solution, I ended up with variations. Here is what the darkest piece looks like. I like the unevenness of the dyeing and the marks left behind.

Last night I did a two color 8 way graduated dye. I used Fuchsia and mixing blue. Here are two of the measuring cylinders I use. They work great for measuring very small amounts of dye when I do more precise dyeing methods. I got these two glass cylinders years ago when I worked at a chemical plant from their no longer used equipment pile. The one is a 10 ml cylinder and the other is a 50 ml cylinder. Once I need to measure over 50 ml of dye, I use a glass measuring cup. You can buy plastic ones fairly cheap. The ones I have seen on-line are semi-opaque. I like the 10 ml one for measuring very small amounts of dye rather than using the 50 ml cylinder. I feel I get a more precise measurement.

Here are my gallon jugs with the dye measured out in each of them.

And here is the result. Every dyepot had the same amount of fuchsia in it. The variable was the amount of mixing blue I put in each pot. You can do this with any color combination. I need to play around with this more.

I am not sure what I am going to do tonight dye wise. Come back tomorrow and be surprised! Let me know if you have any questions - e-mail me. I would be glad to share the details and measurements as I am putting together some informational sheets for my group for Sunday.

So much to do

I didn't get any fabric dyeing done on Saturday - now I am really behind on getting my stuff ready for my dye class on the 18th. After spending most of the day in Dover visiting I had to make another stop on the way back and I didn't get back to the house until 9 p.m. After being in and out of the heat all day I was beat.

Sunday I spent time cleaning the kitchen, packaging up the chicken I bought to put in the freezer (I did throw some in a marinate for later on), and doing some laundry. I finally got up enough energy to start some dyeing. I want to make examples of different techniques. I started out with the basic low immersion 8 way graduated. I had been keeping the plastic Dole juice bottles and it worked great for mixing the dye. The mouth is wide enough for putting the teaspoons of powdered dye into the bottle and after adding the 800 ml of water there is plenty of room for shaking the mixture.

After I got the dye containers all set up and the fabric soaking I went outside to mow. I used these gallon water jugs to dye the fat quarter pieces.

It was at least 75 out and that is still too hot for me. I had to mow the back for sure - it was a hayfield! The grass in the back was still a bit damp so I will have to go and finish the slope with a weed eater. I have a lot on the schedule this week so I will just have to keep pounding away at the things to do list.

Busy, busy, busy

Yesterday my glasses broke. I thought that they wouldn't ever break because they were made out of that titanium stuff. Well, the nose piece just snapped and I was at work without glasses. My vision is bad! I take very good care of my glasses because I am helpless without them.

I did have my prescription sunglasses so I went to the house at lunch to find my old glasses. The prescription is very close to my broken glasses so seeing would not be an issue. The big difference is the weight. These glass weight three or four times more than my new glasses. The new nose piece is on order, so I will just have to find the time to head to Dover to get the glasses fixed.

We were busy last night at the museum. Thank goodness we were inside and the band was outside under the canopy. I forgot to take pictures, but the place was packed! I brought three quilts and a photo album to show Bobby and Amy from Old Carolina bar-b-que. Bobby wanted to see the quilts I made for Bob Jovi. He really wants a baseball themed quilt with some Chief Wahoo fabric incorporated into the quilt. I have some Chief Wahoo and some baseball fabric in my stash so I will send him some picture. If we do the deal, I will have to look around for a few more pieces of baseball/Cleveland Indians fabric to add to what I already have. Oh, and I did get back the pair of shoes I left there last Thursday. I had changed into tennis shoes and left my dress shoes under the table.

This weekend will be all about getting ready for the dye class next Sunday. I have lots to do!

Have a great weekend!

Crazy busy

Between work, family, and trying to get ready for the dyeing session/class at my house on the 18th I have been crazy busy! I am gathering up all the stuff I need to dye samples this weekend. I also am planning to put together some booklets for the ladies.

I did receive this book in the mail. I got a great deal on it on e-bay - it looks like it had never been read. The book jacket showed some handling, but the inside was pristine! I haven't had time to look at it yet.

Then last evening I finally found a magazine I had been looking for. I needed it for a presentation.

Yesterday my car hit the 100,000 mile mark. I have a 2002 Eclipse. It still runs great and I plan on keeping it for a long time.

Tonight I volunteer at the museum again. Thank goodness next Thursday is the last week for the Downtown and Dusk series for this year. I don't know if we will be inside or outside tonight. It rained hard yesterday

so it is very humid today. We are suppose to get more rain due to a cold front coming thru so maybe that will help with the humidity. Maybe they keep us outside under the canopy and the band is on the inside. It is always a surprise to see how we are set up.