DISCHARGE DYEING

For this little project, you will need:

Fabric
Bleach
Spray Bottle
1 bucket filled with water
1 bucket filled with 1 part vinegar to 3 parts water
foliage or mask of choice

WORK IN A WELL VENTILATED AREA OR OUTSIDE.

How much fun is this. Take a piece of fabric, (hey I didn't even iron it) lay it out on your work surface OUTSIDE (make sure it is covered with plastic - heavy plastic tablecloths are ideal) I used the outside glass table, find suitable plants/foliage and lay out as you wish. I found that the ferns I used lay flatter if placed face side down.

I tried a few things to get the ferns to lay flat, even took them in and ironed them would you believe....I also used temporary spray adhesive to keep everything in place. With some of the bigger fern fronds I cut the side leaves off the main stem and cut a few nicks into the heavy stem, this all helped to get everything to lay flat.

Then the fun part. Put some bleach into a spray bottle. I used a home brand bleach because it was there, but I think you may get faster and possibly different results with a better quality bleach. It is also about now that you might want to think about changing out of your good black jeans into something else!! (I now have orange specks - fortunately I also have a black textile paint pen). Spray bleach liberally over the entire piece - the process starts almost immediately.

A couple of minutes more....

When you have the look you want, remove the foliage and quickly dunk into the bucket of clean water, swish around and remove some of the bleach and then quickly transfer into the bucket with vinegar and water. The vinegar mix stops the bleaching process. Now place into the washing machine - I used a hot wash - and dry.

The finished pieces looked like this. (below)

These following two pieces I did last week. Different black fabric, different outcome. This was cheaper fabric and I think the colours are better. I just have to find a suitable project for them all.

Following the trends, cause everybody seems to use ginko leaves for this technique and I didn't have any ginko leaves, I found some outlines on google images and drew them on to freezer paper. I ironed them into position and then did the spray thing. The freezer paper lifted as it got wet and so the bleach kind of pooled around the edges, this makes the fabric almost have a luminous effect, because it is so much lighter. The second piece was just crumpled and bleach was both sprayed and splashed on.

This is a very quick process and whilst you don't have a true say about what you are going to get, the results are great. There are so many things you can use to mask the fabric, you are not limited to leaves! Draw shapes onto freezer paper, use stencils, make shapes out of plastic or heavy cardboard (those ones will probably only last one session), masking tape, tie the fabric and do tie dye. Have a go, preferably outdoors or in a very well ventilated area, and see what you can come up with. These were only my first attempts using what I had on hand, so try other fabric colours - hopefully the outcome will be a pleasant surprise!!

Back soon.

Sue

FLAT STANLEY UPDATE

Flat Stanley has arrived home safely, so here are a few final pictures from his trip.

Till next time...

Sue

BIRTHDAYS AND MYSTERY QUILTS

Well I survived another birthday - finally - "The Husband" got the message about the flowers. This has been an ongoing problem - for our anniversary last year I even sent him an email with pictures of ideal bunches of the correct flowers - he always sends what I call funeral bouquets - I sent pictures listed in two columns - funeral - anniversary/birthday. I don't know what florist he uses, but good grief Charlie Brown. Florists out there - give some of these blokes a hand would ya!! I made my cake (happy birthday to me), my sister and I have been reminiscing about passionfruit sponge, so as a result of power of suggestion that is what the cake turned out to be.

Whilst working on a quilt project, I happened to notice what I thought was a bird, but wasn't sure. On further investigation it was a bird, a lovely little Frogmouth. It posed nicely for me, although a couple of times it looked like it might swoop, because I was taking too many pictures, but it ended up staying for the entire day. I think the heat was getting to it.

I have just finished this quilt - loosely named "the Ginja Ninja". The back has been done using polar fleece instead of the traditional three layers. This makes a nice soft quilt, ideal for snuggling under.

The back came up really well.

It was a lot of fun designing the different stances and faces. These are done on the embroidery machine as applique.

AND NOW A LITTLE TUTORIAL

I like to have things over the lines when I make quilts and sometimes this can make for little lumpy bits when you applique. Here's what I did to get rid of the seam lines in this quilt, perhaps it may work for you too. There is no reason why hand quilters couldn't use the same principles.

Stitch the first outline of the design. You can either baste the quilt top onto stabilizer that is hooped, or you can hoop the quilt top, but do use stabilizer.

Next, trim the fabric, leaving at least a 1/4inch seam, inside the stitching outline. DO NOT CUT THROUGH THE STABILIZER.

Restart the design, this time appliquing as usual. Trim applique fabric back before doing the zigzag stitches.

Saturday last week saw me running a Mystery Quilt Day. Liz over at Teddlywinks http://www.teddlywinksdesigns.blogspot.com/ was an enthusiastic participant and has covered most of it on her blog, so I'll send you there. The day went really well. I had every intention of knocking another quilt together and spent Friday buying fabric so that I could sew whilst everyone else did. Needless to say I didn't even get the thing cut out!! It was a lot of fun, but Sunday was spent complaining about how tired I was and how sore my feet were! I condensed a few of the quilts onto one page.
OK, so we all know about Where's Wally.......what about Where's Norman?

Till next time....

Sue

Flat Stanley

A couple of weeks ago, "Flat Stanley" came to visit. His young friend Caroline in the USA, decided that he should come and visit in Australia. We have been to a couple of places of interest around Melbourne and I will post some of them when Stan goes back to Caroline, but just for fun, here are a few pictures of Stan, hanging around the kitchen, whilst I baked a cake for my cohorts at quilting. Making the sponge for the swiss roll.
Checking on its progress....
Rolling up the cake and then tap dancing on the finished lemon butter and cream swiss roll.

See you later....Sue

Purse Update

A couple of posts ago, I showed how to put a zip in a purse. The sample was quite large, so I decided to add some handles, then after cleaning up my sewing room, I found the rest of the lining fabric, and was able (with a bit of unsewing) to add an interior pocket.

Because I joined the handles as an afterthought, I added some suffolk puffs and buttons just to neaten things up.

Sue

Here's a tip...

Just a little trick to help with the art of joining fabric for sashings and borders, and making tape for binding your quilt (not bias).

Cut strips to desired width. Lay one on the ironing board/pressing surface, face up, the other face down.

Now make a 45 degree fold and press.
Flip back over and line up with the first strip.

Now place a piece of tape on the seam (masking tape is better than stickytape - my roll of masking tape keeps going missing - last seen being used by the cricketer in the house to turn a tennis ball into a cricket ball and also to repair the aforementioned cricketers boot - I don't ask anymore - just roll my eyes ).Flip open and stitch - ideally just a stitch width away from the fold, that way you won't trap the sticky in the seam.Trim fabric back to 1/4 inch seam, remove the tape and press open. Ready to go.If you are going to use for binding a quilt, just fold in half, press and then stitch in place.

I have been working on a quilt, to be taught at my local community house. It is aimed at the beginner but is a nice easy quilt for anyone to try. I kept it to basic black and white on the front, but the back is very bright indeed. It matches my kitchen perfectly, so will probably end up as a table cloth (don't freak - with a plastic cover of course).

And.... butter wouldn't melt in it's mouth - Norman is in disgrace - the phantom piddler strikes again. I thought I should make some inroads into cleaning my sewing room up, retrieved the vacuum cleaner (I don't use the ducted vacuum cleaner for my room - usually ends up with the plumber being called to unblock the pipes) anyway I digress.... started work, looked at a couple of lines on the carpet, thinks to myself - I'll get a damp cloth and remove them. Head downstairs, notice wet spot, stop to investigate - cat pee - go to where the vacuum cleaner was, large puddle of cat pee - I have sucessfully dragged this offending liquid with me upstairs across carpet (fortunately it is only drops because I was actually carrying the vacuum cleaner) and so begins the cleanup. Vacuum cleaner wheels are what left the first stain, clean those marks up, clean the vacuum - remove the wheels still stink after washing in the bucket - back to the laundry for them to soak in the tub in bleach - follow the trail across the carpet and down the stairs - a good hour later, order has been restored and of course the room still isn't finished. Norman and I aren't speaking.

Sue

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Well another year has screamed past, can't say I am not happy to see the back of it! Not much sewing has taken place in my neck of the woods. Santa coughed up a new lens for my camera so in between eating, which seems to be one of the major past times of Christmas, I have been taking pictures of anything that takes my fancy.

I made all the nieces a glitzy letter and a wallet and coin purse.

The turkey was carefully slathered in butter and given a protective coating of bacon before it hit the Weber. (Sorry I forgot to take a photo of the finished bird) There was enough to supply lunch and dinner on Boxing Day and sandwiches for the cricket for the men of the house the following day. After that we all lost interest and cut the rest up as care packages for the two felines to enjoy for a while yet.
The pudding turned out a treat cooked and then reheated in the crockpot. It was then topped with my mothers secret sauce. It contains a couple of generous dollops of brandy. Even those who don't do the pudding, do the sauce! I also made a trifle and a yule log.
There were way too many of these consumed...

As the males in house left me to my own devices to attend day two of the cricket, I spent a good deal of the day messing with the camera. How much fun can a girl have with a punnet of red currants and a bottle of lemonade.

I ended up with about 160 pictures, not including the ones that were really bad. I think I have fiddled with every button and setting, but I am still as confused at the end of the day. But I do so love the digital SLR camera's.

I have made some attempts at capturing some bugs up close. The bees were being very tolerant and the fly thing (I just take pictures and hope they don't end up in my hair never mind what the critters are called) almost seemed happy to pose - even the spider made an effort.


Then I moved on to the florals.

New Year's Eve was a very quiet night. The weather was pretty ordinary with wind, rain and thunder and lightening. In between the thunder and fireworks, many pets were under considerable stress - Harvey spent a fair proportion of the evening under the recliner - this is not the safest spot, and it took both my husband and son to retrieve him - one to tip the chair up and one to fish the cat out.

We did enjoy dinner of home made fish and chips. Well more like salmon steaks and homemade potato wedges.

I followed this up the next night with a version of Brick Chicken. The other half and I were watching an episode of Martha Stewart and got so inspired we gave it a go. It was very successful. As I don't have any bricks laying around I used my big heavy cast iron pot. It well and truly did the trick.
Hopefully now that Christmas is over with I can get back into sewing and embroidering to my hearts content. There has been a definite lack of enthusiasm on my behalf, my "room" needs a good going over, I have beads to pick up off the carpet after Norman sent a container flying, on one of his visits and my computer desk is swamped with pieces of paper filled with "inspirational" thingy's.


Hope you all have a great New Year. Bye for now - Sue