If it snows, dye fabric....

Flagstaff. Winter Storms. Snow Days. Time to do some snow and ice dyeing! We had about 18" of snow yesterday and today, so the fresh powder was perfect. And here's a mini lesson on snow dyeing! My deck had a nice layer of fresh powder to play with.

So here's a mini lesson on snow dyeing!

After soaking prewashed PFD fabric in soda ash for about 30-40 minutes, I wrung out the excess and then gently scrunched it into two batches.

The first was on a plastic screen clipped to a large plastic bin. This suspends the fabric and lets the dye drain into the bin. I covered the fabric with fresh snow, about 3-4" deep. Note to self: wear gloves to handle the snow. My hands were freezing!

Over that, I poured super concentrated Procion Dye. For this batch, I used turquoise, fuchsia, and golden yellow. I used 1 cup of prepared dye for each color. I should have made more!

Now comes the hard part... wait for the snow to melt. It's sort of like watching paint dry!

It took about 6 hrs for the snow to melt, in the house! Then I rinsed and washed it!

And here's what I got:

The turquoise really washed out.... the reds did well, the yellow was so-so. Note to self: use more dye. Tomorrow, I'll try a different blue and hope it doesn't fade. Turquoise needs warmth to activate so the snow kept it too cold. The piece in the upper left was plain white muslin, instead of PFD. The dye was not take as well.

The second batch was scrunched into a tub and placed outside in a snow bank until it was frozen almost solid. Then I used Fire Red and Bronze and let the fabric defrost in the house. And here's what came out:

I like these a lot better, except for the white spot in the lower right. At the end of the batching, I flipped two pieces over in the dye at the bottom of the tub, I think that's why they got more saturated. I'm tempted to cut these into rectangles for an art quilt.

I'm declaring success... altho limited. More dye liquid, and maybe let them sit even longer than just until the snow melts. Tomorrow... more fabric and more dyeing!

I made the paper...

My local guild has a biannual quilt show at the public library and this year for the first time, we got a local reporter to cover the event and a lecture we gave for the public. I was gobsmacked today to see a huge picture of me with some of my quilts on the front page of the Arts seciton. Click on the pix to see the whole thing! You can read the article here http://www.azdailysun.com/lifestyles/article_841815e0-6456-526a-b127-bb64b2f9e8b9.html

Storm Update - Is it Over YET?

Day 5, but who's counting? This storm series really started on Monday afternoon, and its still going.... I have no idea how much snow will be the offical total, but I'm betting close to 60"! Last night, it raining like crazy..horizontal for the most part. That was ok, because the snow rinsed off the trees and did decrease the drifts a bit. But the snow started again about 10 pm and by 1 am (I woke up and had to look)... the view from my window made me think of a cake covered in white fondant. Here's the deck this morning, the chunk on the railing fell off in the wind last night so this is a new crop. And now its taller than the railing, which is at least 36" high. The neighbor's house from the same place on the sidewalk as yesterday's pix. Below, my house is on the left, and yes, that is BLUE SKY peeking thru...

The sun is just starting to come out! So welcome!

My poor elm tree on the driveway....

The ice cave, AKA the path to the mailbox (no mail delivery for 2 days).... those drifts are taller than I am!

Maybe we'll see more sun tomorrow!

Storm of a Century? Hunkering down in Flagstaff!

Flagstaff AZ, January 2010: The predicitons have been dire. Up to 7 feet of snow in a week. Huh? Is this Alaska? Wisconsin? North Dakota? January 18, we got a few inches..... my deck is a great place to gauge the snow. Watch the wind chime.... January 19: A bit more. And this morning, January 21: Where is the wind chime? By the way, the gap between deck rail and roof line is over 24". The front of my house about noon today, after I shoveled the walk:

The drift at the end of the driveway, and no, that's not a child size snow shovel!

The neighbor's house

Trees behind the house:

And the other view of the back, yes, its still snowing!

Luckily, my condo area has snow removal. The guys have done a much better job this year than last. but I have no idea how they will keep up if the snow continues until Saturday AM! The city is pretty much shut down. But I have power, water, my sewing machine, lots of food, wine...... It's hunker down time.

Campus is closed, no work for us! Time to get going on those quilts and enjoy it. Well, sort of.....

The Great Kitchen Dye Caper

So at Quilt Camp this year, I won a tub of dye supplies (door prizes are good things)... and its been a while since I've had a day to really get into it. Last week, my friend Judy and I dyed some blue-green-yellow combos, so now that I have the bug, it was time to pop the top of tub and see what was inside. The tub was donated by Hands On Hand Dyes ( http://www.handsonhanddyes.com/) (Thanks, Cindy!) and is a great way to get the basics going. They offer 3 color ways, mine was "Garden" with rich primary, secondary and tertiary colors. All from 3 dye colors. So in the tub was all the stuff, the dye: the chemicals, the tubs, the fabric, oh, and instructions.

Since I don't have a dye studio at home (yet!), I cleared the kitchen, put painter's plastic on the wall and counter, plopped down an old beach towel (that could be sacrificed to dye goddess if need be), and went to work.. These are the dye "parfaits", each layered to get a light, medium, and dark fabric in each shade. The full strength dye is at the bottom, and "bleeds up" into the next fabric and the next, so the lighter shade is on top.

After I did the first set of dyes, I had some of each base color (blue, red, yellow) left over. So I grabbed an addtional half yard of prepared fabric and tossed it in a bucket, sort of folded pleated scrunched. And poured the left over dye over the fabric in sections. The dye will bleed and flow where it wants to, and that was the idea. Since this fabric was dry, I had no idea what I would get... After the dye played for a few minutes, I added the soda ash solution and it turned a horrible green color, so I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best. And I like it!

And finally, after several hours, crossed fingers, incantations to the dye goddess, a good dose of Synthrapol to set the colors, and a hot iron, I had 36 fat quarters in 12 families and 3 gradations... only 2 are so pale that I'm not sure where they came from, but the rest are YUMMY! And the pale ones can always be overdyed.

Now, what to do with them? The wheels are turning... and I'm off to dye more fabric this afternoon.

Dragons at the Door

One of my annual treats is to participate in Quilt Camp in the Pines (quiltcamp.com) held here in Flagstaff. We enjoy nationally recognized teachers and take classes that address a wide range of skill and interest levels. I was very excited to see Esterita Austin (http://esteritaaustin.com/) was one of the teachers... her classes were on depth and perspective, something that I've struggled with over time. "Dragons at the Door" was my quilt in the first class that I took from her. The handdyed fabric had perfect serendipitous images of dragons that just sort of landed at each side of the door. We also added paint to highlight some areas which added a lot. I like this one. My second class project was not nearly as successful. It's covered on my design wall, I'm not sure I'll finish it! I just don't like the colors she chose for me.... I might do the image again someday, but in colors that speak to me!

Called

Many years ago, in the early days of my internet experince, I met a nurse from Australia who was doing his graduate thesis on the same topic that I had pursued in my master's program. We began an email friendship that has lasted until this day. Darryl visited AZ in the mid 1990's, our first eyeball encounter. During that visit, we did all the northern AZ tourist things, including the Chapel of the Red Rocks in Sedona. It was at that chapel that Darryl began to feel the pull of the religious life. He tells the shory better than I do on his blog http://www.mendicantsoul.info/ - and is now known as Brother Nathan James, a Franciscan brother in the Society of St. Francis.

I have followed his path over these many years and when he told me that he would be taking his vows of Life Profession, the universe bonked me on the head and I knew what quilt I needed to make.

"Called" is the image of not only the Chapel in Sedona, but the statue of St. Francis that graces the courtyard and where Nathan first heard his call. Machine appliqued on a pieced background. Machine quilted. And cherished by my dear friend from Oz. He is currently visiting the east coast with Franciscans from around the world and was, to put it mildly, gobsmacked when it arrived to his hands this past week.

Namaste, Nathan. Sunrise, Sunset and Big Bug Hugs.