Is it Friday already?!?!?!

I can't believe that it is Friday already!! I was so busy Wednesday that I never got to the post I wanted to do that day.......so......let's pretend it's Wednesday!!
And if it's the second Wednesday of the month, then that means it's a "Wooly Wednesday". That's right.... and it was a "wooly" good day as I taught a couple of projects for "wooly" spring things. :-)
I took a couple of photos so you could see the "wooly" fun in action...... That's Sandy on the left making a little woolfelt spring chicks penny rug.

And this is her daughter, Courtney, who is making a little penny rug with a bunny on it. It's really hard to tell that they are mother and daughter, isn't it? Courtney's due to be a mom in just a couple of weeks so she may not be able to make it to "Wooly Wednesday" next month. Maybe we will have to go visit her and the new baby!

I also shared a pattern for an egg pin and then did a demo with these towels so I could share some tips on cutting, placement, etc. The tulip on the right is woolfelt and the one on the left is wool. Janice at Firefly got in a great selection of towels so I bought a few to use for samples and a gift or two. :-) I will take these along to the retreat so that when I need a break from machine sewing, I'll have something to hand-stitch and relax me. I get really tense when I machine stitch. I am super-relaxed when I am doing handwork, so a mix of the two works best.

This week went by too fast and tomorrow, we lose an hour! I don't think I have an hour I want to lose. The only good part of that whole Daylight Savings Time change is that I love getting that extra hour in the Fall!!

There's a "Quilt-in" going on in my Yahoo block of the month group so I should get back over there and see what everyone is stitching on. If you want to join us, you just need to click on the Angel button on my sidebar and you can join in the fun.

I had some more fun to share that took place at Firefly after the "wooly" class was over and I'll tell you all about it come Monday. Until then......have a great weekend!

Sandi

Finished wool colors...........

Here are the finished wooly fabrics after they've been dried in the dryer and then ironed. Not everyone irons their wool or woolfelt as some like the "fluffier" look. I like to iron it. That's just my personal preference. Either way is fine. :-) In the photo below, you will see six pieces.......the top two are the wool/woolfelt pieces. The beige wool blend is on the left and ended up looking kind of like a color I would call "seafoam". Remember that I started with Bahama Blue by Dylon on all of these. The wool with the weave in it is in the center and my favorite pieces are the heavier wool cuts on the right. I had fun doing this and now I need to put them into a project.
Actually, I had so much fun dyeing the blue pieces that I decided to take some pink and rose woolfelt and have a little fun............

In the photo above, you can see the original pink woolfelt on the bottom, in the background. The rose colored woolfelt is in the top in the background. I decided to mix some Tulip Red by Dylon and dropped a length of pink and the rose in the red dye bath. The pink/red piece on the right is one of the results. The other two pieces got some added dye when I decided to also dip them in some Bahama Blue. I mixed only enough Bahama Blue to about an inch and a half of dye bath. Then I carefully set the pink/red "scrunched" ball (see thisPost for making the balls) and the rose/red "scrunched" ball into that dye bath but I did not stir it around. Instead, I simply let the "scrunched" ball set in the dye bath and soak up the blue color. I rinsed them all well and dryed them in the dryer. Color blends like those above are great for cutting flower petals, bird feathers, etc. or just for fun for a handbag or hat.

So there you have it..........lots of wooly fabric fun and so easy to do! Yes, it's a little bit messy but it really is alot of fun. I tried my first dyeing projects over 40 years ago. And yes, that dates me, but my mother dyed sheets, rugs, and all sorts of stuff and so my sister and I did it, too. I even used Rit dye for a Girl Scout project when we gathered dried milk-weed pods, grasses and basically "weeds" to color for fall arrangements. We did that one in buckets in the driveway. Give dyeing a try just once and see what pretty color you might get with a bit of cotton or wool fabric!!

A quick note and then it's time to turn in.........thanks for the responses to my decision to delete the tunes from my blog. I wasn't aware of the "dial-up" issue so it will be much better for many readers that won't have to wait for the music to load. I didn't lose the tunes myself, as I now have them as a "pop-out player" on my favorites list. :-)

I thought about posting a couple of snow pictures and then decided that some of you have seen plenty of it, so I will forego that for this post. Have a good day!!

Sandi

Dyeing wooly stuff!

I promised to share info on dyeing wooly stuff in my next post. Sorry it took me so long to get to my "next post". I posted about dyeing wool last summer and you will find that post here.
I've had requests that I do it again and am doing it in more detail this time. Here goes........



Assemble your supplies.............I used Dylon fabric dye which can be found at Michael's, JoAnn's, etc. You will need table salt, a tablespoon, and rubber gloves.You may also use liquid dyes and Rit dye works well, too.

Next, gather your fabrics. From left to right in the photo above.........

100% Wool Woolfelt, white woolfelt blend, then the next three are 100% wool pieces.....an ivory cashmere wool, a thinner wool with a weave, ivory wool from Italy (purchased from the Amana Woolen Mills) and the last is a beige wool blend fabric.

I bag my fabrics before washing. Several years ago, I lucked into a great find at the Dollar Tree store............divided mesh laundry bags. I bought four for myself and twenty more to give as gifts in our favor bags at retreat that year (2003). They work great for washing fat quarters and small bundles of fabric. No more tangled fabric in the washing machine!!

You just need to a "quick wash" and I use only a tiny bit of detergent. You want your fabric damp when dyeing. And here it is.......washed and ready to dye!

Next step is to prepare your dye bath. Because I am dyeing small amounts I don't follow the package directions. Instead, I fill my bucket with about a cup of warm water and add a tablespoon or two of the powdered dye and then a tablespoon of salt. I'm not sure what the purpose of the salt is but it says to use it on the package, so I did. :-)

Fill another pan or bucket with more warm water and add the dye mix, stir well.


Do not drop your stir stick in the dye bath like I did. LOL!

With the dye ready, you can wad your fabrics up in to balls, secure them with rubber bands................and then

drop them carefully into the dye bath. It says on the package to use a stainless steel sink for your dyeing projects. I have a white laundry room sink, so I lined it with heavy duty foil to catch my overspray and then cleaned the sink really well as soon as I was finished.

Stir the balls of fabric around and then leave them for about 45 minutes. You can stir them every fifteen minutes.

I have even left them to sit overnight as I am not looking to obtain any particular color. I'm just looking to dye wool so I have lots of fun shades for wooly projects.


When you are finished dyeing the fabrics, remove the rubber bands carefully and rinse fabrics well. You can see that the color is a bit "mottled" and that was the effect that I wanted.

In the photo below, you can see the varied colors that I achieved and it all started with Bahama Blue. Tomorrow, I'll post a photo of the wool when it is dry, pressed and ready to use.

Dyeing is messy but it's fun to see the colors you can achieve with just a few supplies. The best part is getting colors that you discover will be just perfect for a particular wooly project you might be working on!!

Snow is falling steadily outside. Looks really pretty, but I think we might have had enough. I find myself fighting a cold or something, just a "wee bit under the weather". LOL! Or else maybe it's caused by the weather! I think I need some sunshine and I don't see any on the horizon for quite some time.

Lights out for tonight.

Sandi

The Great Wall of Wooly Stuff!

I have been very busy for several days and here is the result of my "busyness" .............

It's my "Great Wall of Wooly Stuff". Finally, all of my woolfelt, then wool from quilt shops and then my recycled wool from skirts and jackets, etc. is all organized. I can actually find a color or texture without digging through a pile of fabric! I love it and it makes me smile just to see the order of it all! Along the top of the shelving units (clearance closet shelving found at Menard's that was a perfect fit for the U-shaped end of my sewing room!!) I've displayed pincushion's I've made, collected and received as gifts or in exchanges.

Then there's the "Christmas Corner" where I keep a little bit of "Christmas all year long". All those colorful rolls of wool are the various pieces that I painted last summer when my grandson Jacob came to visit. Everything is neat and orderly so I can see what I am looking for and I promise I will keep it that way!!!

Speaking of promises.......I promised myself that I would finish a few certain projects this next year. I discovered the OPAM challenge and realized it was a great way to get me motivated to finish some projects. And here is the first one I will finish. You may have seen this one before as I did a post about it last fall. I actually planned to finish it last fall and I did finish all the handquilting but there it sat in my pile of "to be finished". All it needs is the binding and buttons in the center of the flowers. This will be my "finish" for January. The pattern is a Thimbleberries tablerunner from long ago. I have another Thimbleberries project, a quilt that I started in about 1998 and that's going to go on the list to finish, too. I have to post my list on my sidebar so I'll be adding that soon.

That's all for tonight.

Sandi

Have you any Wool?

If you don't then all you have to do is stop at Bittersweet in Winnebago, MN. It's a little shop that sits on Main Street/Hwy. 169 South and you will find flowers, fabric, and wool. What more could you want? When I returned from visiting my mother in Iowa a few weeks ago, I had just enough time to stop at the shop and still make it home in time to pick up Kaiser from the Vet/kennel. It was a quick stop but I found a charm pack so that I can make another table runner like the one that you can see in my TeaAndStitches blog. When I made the first one, it was an experiment. I want to do it again and I'll make it a tutorial that I can offer to all of you. :-) Anyway, if you are traveling in southern Minnesota, don't miss this little shop or a couple other nice little places that you find in Winnebago.

This shop is not the only shop by the name of Bittersweet that I enjoy visiting. Right here in Henderson, you'll find Bittersweet Coffee and Gifts and tomorrow, I'll be dropping off a different quilt that they'll be displaying in the back dining area. Take a peek here and you can see the first quilt that I shared. I'll take a photo of the one that's there now and of the new one that will go up and share them tomorrow evening.

I keep forgetting to post a picture of a gift that I received from one of my Wooly Buddies members but not tonight.......finally, I remembered!! Wooly Buddy Kaye sent me this cute little wooly sheep wall-hanging and I just want to say "Thank You, Kaye!!!" He looks great hanging in my sewing room!

Now, I was going to take some pictures of quilts on the line but the wind was blowing soooooooo hard here in Minnesota that it was impossible to hang any quilts on the line. Instead, I spent the day cleaning the closet and sorting quilty stuff in my pink bedroom. So, how windy was it? Well, it's trash day and my husband put out the trash and recycling and I looked out to see the recycling blowing down the street. I tried to run out and gather it up and got frustrated because I was supposed to be at the clinic for a 9:30 appointment. I left him to gather it all up. He repositioned the containers and nothing blew away until the garbage man came by with his truck and the containers were empty. I look out and the garbage can, yes, our large garbage can is blowing down the street. So, out I go to retrieve the thing and as I'm wheeling it home, I nearly get blown over and have to hang on to the mailbox to stay standing. My neighbor Jerry saw this so he would vouch for my tall tale! :-) Way too windy and way too hot for this time of year in Minnesota. Finally the winds died down tonight and a chance of rain is moving in and I hope it comes because .......................

And that's what a good rain does. I made this little quilt a few years ago. It's from a booklet called "Forget-Me-Nots" from Country Threads with designs by Tammy Johnson. It's just done in fusible applique in some favorite fabrics and also hangs in my sewing room. Well, usuallly it does, but I just loaned it to my friend Pandora for a June quilting event that she will be hosting. More on that soon. More catching up photos and stuff coming tomorrow night. You'll finally get to see a "Firefly". Hmmm........wonder what that could mean?

Have a really good day!!

Sandi