Quilt Top Resulting From Indigo Dye Party

Remember the Indigo Dye Party, in June?  Well, several participants made 9 1/2 inch square blocks for a quilt top.  It is coming along very well.  A and I decided it needs a couple borders; they will be added next week.

Near the end of July, this is what is on the design wall.  A came over on Wednesday and we got them sewed to each other.  Now for the borders.  It is going to be a quilt for a friend.

What is on the Design Wall in July?

July is just flying by.  I have two more quilt layouts that will be needing my design wall, so I have been hustling to finally get this pentagon project off the wall and to my long-arm quilter.  Initially, I thought I would just quilt it on my domestic machine, but what they hey!  I needed some more of that solid pink, and I was certain that I got it at Virginia's.  So, I was needing to go out there anyway.

These are the blocks from the 2024-2025 group challenge with the Piecemakers of Idaho.  I passed out a small pentagon with instructions to add strips of fabric going around the pentagon, in the colors that are present in the small pentagon.  I said it was the "focus fabric".  So, twelve people turned their blocks back in, and I had decided I would accept whatever they did and make the quilt top.  Twelve blocks were made by other people, in my quilt group, the rest were made by me.  The focus fabric was just a fat quarter, so I ran out of the central fabric and had to punt with the last three blocks.  I made it work since it is a free-for-all already.  I think "free-for-all" is a good name for this quilt.

I whipped up a couple of borders and got the back made and off to Virginia's!

Here Comes The Sun

While we were enjoying a leisurely week at Lake Walcott State Park, I pulled out the sewing machine and worked on my latest art quilt project.  I prepared the backing and batting before we left on our adventure, and I cut some chunks of fabrics I thought would work.  This way I kept the amount of fabric to a minimum.  I decided I would have to use whatever I took with me, so there would be no excuse to buy more fabric at my favorite quilt shop.  My favorite quilt shop is The Gathering Place in Rupert.

I was outside, under the huge Cottonwood tree, pressing my sun rays, when the gal from the next RV came over to visit.  She had noticed I was pressing fabric and came to chat about quilting.  She was from Twin Falls and also a quilter.  It is amazing how we can go here and there and not even know that some of the strangers around us are also quilters, birders, or what-have-you.  I did get my project about one-third quilted before we headed home, so there was not that much left after we got back.  This is not my first landscape, however, I have not done one in about twelve years.  I really like this one, because we sure need something cheery in our lives at this moment in U.S. History.

Indigo Dye Party!

My "Ladies Club" celebrated our long friendship, today, with an indigo dye party!  It was at E's house and the weather was perfect for the first day of summer.  Most of us were smart or lucky enough to have worn or brought a jacket or sweater.  It was sunny, but a tad breezy.  There are always a couple days like this in June, and we were lucky to have it fall on our dye party day, so it was not scorching hot for us gals.  C3 (E's grandson) showed off his knowledge of chickens and he introduced us to several, which we were fortunate to pet their heads and enjoy the vision of their lovely feathers. 

Of course, everyone brought white fabric except me.  I brought some of Virginia's detestable fabric and I shared with A and R, so mine is not the only ones without white.  If you click on the photo, it will enlarge so you can see the details, including but not limited to the amazing dye jobs on the not-white fabrics.

Here is some of the pieces sitting in the settle-down juice, before the final rinse.  (the terminology escapes me)

This is about my favorite one.  I pressed all my pieces after I got home, and I hung this one on my quilt studio wall.  Everyone made such lovely pieces!

I Have Quilted Alot of Things . . .

I have quilted a lot of things, but I never would have guessed I would quilt my own shoes.  I have!  S invited me to a class, at The Quilt Crossing, last weekend.  I finished those bad girls up today.  I used Tulla Pink fabric for the uppers, and more yellow fabric with colorful buttons for the tongues.  I put bias binding on, in HOT pink.  S had ordered a sweet box of multicolored eyelets, so we did not have to use bronze or silver on our amazingly colorful one-of-a-kind shoes.  I used several different colors of eyelets to bling up my shoes.  

I topped them off with artful Monet shoestrings, I purchased last Saturday, at an art consortium store in where the A&W Market used to be in the 1960s-70s.  I am not dating myself.  I thought they may be too long, but they are just right!  

Nothing says "amazing shoes" like bright yellow and hot pink with cats and buttons!

Thursday, I Dyed!

Virginia gave me three bolts of fabric she detested.  I gave one bolt to the Tuesday Quilters, who make donation quilts exclusively.  As each one came in, last Tuesday, they touched the fabric and said, "Oh, this is really pretty."  One woman's pretty is another woman's detestable.  They were thankful for the lovely detestable fabric.

Surging, surging, surging . . .

On Thursday, I cut the remaining two bolts into one-yard pieces and surged the raw edges.  Half of them, I washed, dried, pressed and folded.  The other half, I sprayed my bleach water on each piece before placing them in the wash.  They came out with a little less of the pinkish in them.  Photo above:  left is original fabric color; right is after a little bleach spray and wash.  

I held back a couple yards so I could experiment with over-dying.  Photo above:  left is the original color; right is after I dyed it with Rit Sunshine Orange dye.  I sat in the backyard stirring my brew like an old witch.  I like how it came out.  I dyed 1/2 yard.  I, also, want to try overdying with red Dy-na-flow to see how that comes out.  All that washing, drying, pressing, and folding, then stirring plumb wore me out.  I will further cut the one-yard pieces down to half yards, so I can give a half yard of original and a half yard of bleached to each of my Unruly Quilt Artists at our 'Dying Day", in June.  

Question:  How many yards were on the two remaining bolts?

Answer: Seven on one and eight on the other.  Fifteen total.

An Actual Regular Sized Quilt Is Completed!

I have not been making many regular sized quilts these days.  I have been absorbed in art quilting and, of course, helping "the girls" with their quilt projects.   Once again, I started doing some scrap-busting about a year ago and this thing occupied my design wall for many months before I finally carved out the time to finish it.

It was quilted by Virginia Gross of Crabapple Creek Quilts.  In April, I took A on the shop-hop, as she had never been.  She is now retired and has time to do many more things.  We went to Nyssa, to visit Country Corners Quilt Shop.  Naturally, I spied a very fine old barn to take a photo of.  I asked permission and it was granted!  This is my latest quilt photographed on a barn.