Snow

We definitely have enough snow to snow dye!!  Look at how much snow has fallen without the wind blowing it into hard drifts. Gotta love these Christmas card photo days!

Nuno Felting at Annette's

Shirley and I met up with Geesje and Pat at Annette's cosy studio to try a type of wet wool felting called "Nuno Felting".  Annette has the best studio for doing this kind of messy craft. She has converted a shed in her yard into a studio with a wood stove. Very cosy. It even sports a chandelier for its main light source!!

To Nuno felt you lay out whisps of wool (we used Merino, a very soft and fine wool) on top and bottom of a sheer piece of silk fabric. You then soak this sandwich with soapy water, roll it up in bubble wrap and agitate it by rolling back and forth a total of 400 times. 

The entire process took between 2 to 3 hours. The scarves are beautiful!!

Laying whisps of wool roving on top of the silk fabric.

Pieces of dyed sheep wool locks that I added for design on my scarf.

Geesje adding hot soapy water to her wool sandwich to assist with the felting.

The results!!
I neglected to get photos of us rolling the scarves 400 times.  Guess I was too busy!

The four of us in front of our finished pieces.

Annette's flower shop, another outbuilding on her farm.  

Visiting Alma

Yvonne, Bill, Don and I went to the Care Home to visit Alma. She was very alert. She nodded her head yes or no in response to our questions. She even held my hand when I told her to feel how cold it was. 

We sat in the visiting area where we gave her a poinsettia. We wheeled her to her room to look around and set up her poinsettia. Then we wheeled her down for supper. Saw a few other folks we knew too. 

Visiting Joan and Norbert

Shirley, Beth, and I stopped into Joan and Norbert's interim digs in Winnipeg. They are staying in a condo just off Pembina Hwy near Bishop Grandin. It is a gorgeous place to stay for the four months or so until the apartment complex they will move into is finished. 

The condo they are in now is very comfortable for them. Three bedroom, two bath, kitchen, dining room, laundry, etc. I love that the patio window that looks out on the Red River. Wonderful!!

Dyeing with Helen and Donna

The local fibre fanatics met today at Helen's house to dye some of the wool fleece we got from Lisa on shearing day. We used Ashford dye that is ment specifically for dyeing wool and Procion Fibre Reactive Dye. The Ashford dye was amazingly brilliant. Loved it!  The Provion wasn't as bright, but I have seen better colour from Procion on wool before. I will have to find out why it didn't work as well as it should have. This dyeing always seems to be tricky!!

Here is a photo of two felted cuffs that Helen made. Hers are the pink ones. The blue one I just started. They are made by needle felting. 

Dyeing with Leah

Leah and I made Christmas dainties. Then later we did some dyeing. Again, lots of fun. The best part is the reveil. To bad Leah wasn't there for that part. But here you can see our results. 

Dyeing with Beth

Used the snow and gorgeous weather to do some snow dyeing outside with Beth. The cold snow melting with dye on cloth causes the dye to strike more slowly and separate into its component colours before setting on the cloth. Interesting, but need to play with this some more to get it figured out better. 

We also did some regular, room temperature dyeing too. Lots of fun!!

How to Sew a Circle

It is amazing how many different ways people have figured out to sew circles. It really isn't easy to do. But look at this way that Marla showed us. 

Iron freezer paper circle shape onto back of fabric where you want the inserted circle. Cut the hole leaving 1/2 inch extra. Cut snips in the 1/2 inch sewing allowance, up to the circles edge. Iron so the the snips are turned with fabric side showing. Glue your circle insert to the snips. Iron to set the glue. Remove freezer paper. Sew along the ironed crease. Voila. Circle insert. 

Marla's Dye Class

In order to learn more about dyeing fabric, I attended a class on dyeing by a member of the local art quilting guild, Mavericks, that I just joined. 

Marla has a very amazing space to work in. Her entire home seems to be dedicated to creating!  Her house is filled with artistic creations, she has a huge studio area and her entire back yard is a wet studio (including her pool)!

There were four of us in the class. Marla showed us the basics and then let us 'play'.  We had a blast!!

Marla mixes her dyes very concentrated in large recycled juice jugs. She only wets her fabrics in soda ash, she doesn't necessarily soak them for 30 minutes as suggested. Then she puts some dye concentrate in a bowl adds part or all of the cloth. She will add some pre-mixed soda ash water to the bowl for lighter colours. The totally soaked with dye piece of cloth then goes into a plastic bag and sits in the sun. It cures for a couple of hours and then is rinsed out. Check out where she does her rinsing!!  Then the cloth is washed in a washing machine with some Synthrapol which gets out the last of the extra dye. Voila. Your own dyed fabric. 

Preparing for Dyeing

I'm helping Madonna out at her store Mad Bs Quilt and Sew by doing some dyeing classes. I was preparing some samples this week. I was using squares of prepared for dyeing cotton fabric. 

I did three tie dyeing techniques:  spiral, accordion fold and rosettes. The last example is using a flag fold. It looks great. Almost like a mandala.