Dying With Mark Sherman

Yesterday I had the opportunity to learn fabric dying from Mark Sherman.   A few weeks ago, my friends talked me into signing up for this class.  I didn't really know if it was something I wanted to do because I kinda felt it wasn't really my thing.  But I fell to the peer pressure (I'm so weak) and signed up.  And I'm really glad I did.

 

This spiral design reminds me of the inside of a nautilus shell.

And it's probably favorite of the four.

 

 

This one reminds me of the photos you sometimes

see  of deep space...which I think is pretty cool.

 

 

I'm not sure how I feel about this one.  Its cool but it's missing something. 

I think it might be a good candidate for overdying...redying a second time using one color.

 

 

And finally, we were each allowed to dye a t-shirt brought from home.  I'm not a huge

fan of orange and yellow but I'm diggin' this t-shirt and might actually wear it.

 

 

 

All in all it was a fun class and I really like the results. 

 

What am I going to do with the fabric?  I don't know but I do know this. 

Me and grandkids are going to be doing some t-shirt dying during Christmas break. 

And my friends and I have already decided we want to do more!

 

Thank you Mark Sherman!

You ROCK!

 

In other news

I've been taking a break from making City Sampler blocks to prep more Lollypop Trees blocks to take to an upcoming quilt retreat.

 

Here are the two I had done previously.

 

 

 

And here are the four that I've worked on since last Friday.

 

Two years ago I bought this pattern and signed up for Island Quilter's Kaffe Club.  Now that my collection has grown, I'm finding it easier and more enjoyable selecting fabrics.  It still takes me almost a day to select and prep the pieces for hand appliqueing.  But I am still really enjoying it.

Finding the right backgrounds was a challenge though.  I had originally wanted to do all my blocks in the background used in the first two blocks but I didn't have enough.  I did a lot of searching online and found only one place that still had it.  When the fabric arrived it was white and not cream...ugh.  So after more searching I came up with two more background that I think work pretty good. 

I'm still on the hunt for one more and hopefully...fingers crossed...the background I ordered a few days ago will be the right one.

That's all I've been doing.  What about y'all?

P.S.  I need more green in my blocks...don't you think?

Did you guess correctly?

 

 

 

No one got even close to the correct number. 

I wish I had that few to finish. 

 

But the person who got closest and

is the winner of the giveaway is

 

Dianne

(no blog)

 

who guessed 65.

 

Please contact me with your mailing address

so that I can mail your prize to you.

 

Another 17 done...

 

 

Only 37 left to go!

46 down...

 

 

...and only 54 more to go.

Soooooo...what's new with you?

Me?  Been keepin' busy...just not busy bloggin'. 

In the month since my last post I've...

 

...finished my traditional Cathedral Windows table runner. 

In the end I decided to do the finishing by machine.

 

 

We also got the longarm up and running finally. 

And here's my practice piece after getting it set up. 

 

Longarm quilted Quilt #12

 

It's amazing how rusty I was after having now quilted for a few months...ack. 

There were more than a few OOPSIES...trust me.

Next up was this small Scrappy Trip quilt using a couple jelly rolls.  Because I didn't want to set mine like everyone else's, I chose to do a chevron pattern.  And I'm very happy with the results.  This makes the 13th quilt I've longarmed if you include my practice pieces...which I do.

 

Here's a shot of the back.

 

 

 

Next up was this...

 

 

This is a pattern I came up with to use a bundle of five 1 yard cuts that I had purchased. 

In the end I had a 1/2 yard left which is just enough for the binding.

 

 

Right now I'm working on a few things simultaneously...

one is a postage stamp quilt that I'm not quite ready to reveal. 

 

 

The past week or so I've been prepping EPP shapes to take on a quilt retreat in a

couple of weeks.  One is Pies & Tarts (not shown) and the other is this one.

 

 

Both patterns are from Patchwork With Busy Fingers. 

This hexagon block is destined to become a couch pillow when it's finished. 

Or would a wallhanging would be better?

 

 

I've also started a small embroidery piece to try out working on black fabric. 

To transfer the pattern I used a white Gelly Roll pen I found at Michael's.

 

 

So far so good.

 

 

And lastly, I officially started sewing blocks from Tula Pink's City Sampler book. 

 

 

Some local friends and I are each making a quilt using the book and right now we're all

just making blocks.  I think only one of us has her layout figured out.

 

I managed to make 22 blocks yesterday which only leaves 78 to go.

 

Here's my brights stash all sorted by color.  Having them sorted makes

picking fabrics for each block soooooo much easier.

 

 

Well that's all for now. 

 

Well except for this!

 

Till next time...

GIVEAWAY Time!!!

I know I'm UBER belated on this but here it goes.

 

To celebrate

 

500 Followers

and my

4 Year Blogiversary

 

I'm having a GIVEAWAY!  And here's what's up for grabs...

 

 

101 Fabulous Small Quilts

Olfa Splash Rotary Cutter

Seam-Fix Seam Ripper

 

 

For a chance to win all you have to do is post a comment

guessing how many quilt tops do I have waiting to be quilted. 

 

Here is a photo of them all...my secret shame...LOL.

When I ran out of room to hang them, they had to go into the

laundry basket below.   And now the basket is OVERFLOWING.

 

 

 

There are table runners, little quilts, wall quilts, lap quilts and bed quilts. 

The sizes range from 18"x24" up to king size quilts. 

 

 

So you have what it takes to guess the right number?

 

You have until Wednesday, August 7th, to make you guess.

 

Good luck!