Ladies Night

There hasn’t been a whole lot of sewing going on around here but I have been able to squeak out one little project.

I bought a fat quarter of Cotton and Steels “Ladies Night Metallic” from their black and white collection. I was a bit surprised at how small the ladies faces were when the fabric arrived but it is hard to determine scale when shopping online.

I had some fussy cutting in mind for the material and settled on the Prettified Pincushion project in Ayumi Takahashi’s book “Patchwork Please”.

I used “Clover” from the same fabric collection for the side panels. The fabric in between the wedges and on the bottom are both from my local fabric shop.

I enjoyed making this pincushion and will probably keep on the lookout for more fussy cutting opportunities !  The little fabric covered button was a first for me and a little spot of glue on the metal cover really helped hold the fabric in place while I fumbled around getting the backing on.

Thanks for having a look.

I’m linking up with Lorna over at Sew Fresh Quilts for Let’s Bee Social.

 

 

 

 

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Kitty, Kitty.

A friend of a friend gave me some cats recently. They were barn cats that were given to her by a family that was moving away in hopes that she could find good homes for them. Apparently her acreage has become the muster point for all kinds of animals that, for one reason or another, need new homes. The managery includes dogs, cats, rabbits, chickens ducks, llamas, an ostritch, donkeys, sheep… I forget what else.

Both of the cats were very shy at first but have now warmed up to us and have become a helpful part of the farm. They are very good at keeping the mouse population in check.

They really didn’t want to have their pictures taken. They just wanted to play.

I wanted to call them both Kitty so that when I was looking for them I could just call out; “Hereeee, Kitty, Kitty !” and there wouldn’t be any confusion.

Anyways, I wanted to make a little something for the friend of the friend …

so I made her this kitty potholder. It measures about 8.5″ and I hope she likes it !

The block is from Amy Friend’s lovely book, “Intentional Piecing”

The fabrics are scraps left over from this quilt and this one  so I am linking up with Leanne and Nicky for Scraptastic Tuesday ( even though it’s Wednesday)

Thanks for having a look – hope your week is going well.

 

 

Dabbling with Dyes

Recently I’ve been doing some dying with fiber reactive dyes.

The  picture above and the next few below all started with tone on tone fabric from the local fabric shop. I tried a small sample and found that the underlying fabric picked up the dye whereas the printed tone over it did not. If I’ve included a white or light fabric in the picture that is showing what the fabric looked like before the dye bath.

The white dots on the orange-ish fabric are from an experiment with soy wax. There must be different grades of soy wax and this particular wax did not resist as well as it should for use with cold batch dyes.

The next two pictures are printed fabrics from my stash that I over dyed to see what would happen:

Most of the dye samples were quite small but I still wanted to make something with them and so made a couple of pin cushions.

dyed triangles pin cushion

bottom side of above pin cushion

dyed geese and chambray pin cushion

Neither of these pin cushions photographed very well but I’m sure you get the idea.

Then I went on to do some water colour type of painting on some plain cotton. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with these samples. Maybe frame them with a solid fabric and work them into a pouch.

Just in case you are wondering… I have dabbled with dyes on and off for a very long time. When processed properly the fiber reactive dyes are brilliant and permanent and work very well on all natural fibers. They don’t fade, even after repeated washings. They are economical, safe, and easy to use. In my opinion; much better than dylon or rit dyes.

Thanks for having a look.

Enjoy your weekend.

I’m linking up with Fort Worth Fabric Studio for Fabric Frenzy Friday !