Correcting An Irregular Over Dye Project

Well I didn't dye this piece to begin with but I have and occasionally do dye work. in this case, I bought this over dyed 100% cotton upholstery fabric that I wish to turn into a quilted gift table runner piece.... BUT... after I got it home, I found the over dye was most irregular in one corner so what to do? First for perspective,,, the original background for this piece was a soft blue and pale yellow. You see a bit of the yellow here and there. Here's one section of the already dyed fabric.

Well I 'm a bit mad at myself for not photographing the irregular area BEFORE I started this fix effort.... but here is the back side of the irregular area where some rather strong blue still resides.

There were choices on how to fix:
a. over dye again ( a bit challenging unless you dye all the time and can predict the value outcome. Also a big setup/cleanup project)
b. Overdye with inks.... I could do it in a method similar to item c. ...... It's just that ink all and all for big backgrounds is a little more costly than item c below.
c. 'Paint' the heavily water-misted background with a slightly watered mixture of matching transparent paint ( ala Pebeo Setacolor transparent). So that's what I did.... followed by drying/ heat setting using a dry iron on a cotton setting. Heat setting makes it permanent. Whoala!! Done in minutes!!!!

It's now ready to be prepped for quilting.

Great Turkey Day

The food was great, family likewise!!! My 6 year old great niece wrote her first play for her immediate family to perform. How wonderful.

Well it was her first play.... I needed an autograph! A pie plate seemed a fine place for an autograph.

Well we're at my "all man" nephews house where his wife (not pictured) had given him an apron. Like the ruffles? The ONLY reason he would put this on for me for a photo is that I am his aunt who cooked the turkey, stuffing, and gravy and he felt a bit beholden. He's not too happy huh? Posing with him, my niece.. the one with the turkey hat. I've always kidded at Thanksgiving.... " Have a turkey, don't be one." I guess my niece never got the message. :-) The names have been omitted here to protect the guilty! :-) Such a great family ... Lucky me!

Bye Bye Birdie!

Oh heck.... last year at this time I posted a "before" photo of a very angry looking live turkey. This years post is what I HOPE my turkey looks like tomorrow. My family comes from Oklahoma farm stock so Thanksgiving is all about comfort food. This ofcouse includes a good cornbread dressing with lots of sage, creamed corn, etc etc. My hubby will make pies. How lucky am I?! Have a great day all.

The ' Top of the Talk" is DONE!

A complete pieced top is always satisfying . The gal that gets this should be pretty happy lest we give it to her to quilt for herself. That would be BAD!! Hopefully we will get it quilted and bound before the middle of next month when the recipient moves away. I'm pleased with the result.

Planning the finish on "Let's Talk"

While I don't do alot of traditional quilts, when I do as in this group gift for a friend project, I seldom follow the pattern exactly. The original pattern for this quilt included plain fabric strips joining the otherwise fun blocks. Since the blocks already had a feeling of fun and whimsy, I wanted to keep that feeling going..... I made 16 half square triangled 2 1/2" pinwheel blocks as cornertones of sashing.... then auditioned fabrics for sashing strips...
The recipient loves greens, golds, and browns.... thus the gold and greens in the audition. The gold background looked a bit warm for this otherwise light and fresh project.... so I settled on a white and green sashing to keep it fresh looking.
So.. I go to sew all day.. Yeah! Tucked away in my warm and cozy mountain sewing room, I got busy! I was not alone, however!
A quilter's best friend was nearby with evidence contained in my scraps waste can .

Life and chocolate are GOOD!

Fall meets Winter

Last night, I slept all night. Sheer bliss following the previous night of pounding rain that woke us regularly. The same rain forecast was expected for last evening and I was thrilled when I awoke so rested. The reason it seems the rain turned to snow and we can officially say goodbye to the beautiful fall leaves, Boo Hoo!!!

While I watched snow fall, an occasional leaf left a tree to land atop snow covered ground.

Even my car got slushy...

Only my hubby's tires preceeded me as I drove off the mountain to worship service. What a marvelous artist is our creator

Throwing out my machine cleaning excuse!!!

While I've always been faithful about keeping fuzz buildup out of my machine, I've been less faithful about removing the entire bobbin assembly , cleaning and oiling the rails. My excuse... I regularly have trouble getting everything put back in the right .. i.e. how to set the things back where they started. Enough said. DUH. In this digital age of cameras.... I now take a snapshot before I begin, and its easy to know if I have it right. Double DUH!!!!

Here's my most recent before photo . YEP... time to clean!