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Archive for January, 2016

More Dyeing Results

Thursday, January 28th, 2016

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I had great results on my re-dyeing session. I used less orange in the red and yellow orange and less black in the yellow green.

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So here is my new run of colors. Wonderful addition to the gloomy, rainy days of winter here in Portland. It was pretty nice today, however.

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I have been doing a lot of knitting as I limit my activity to keep from having too much knee pain. I have added my favorite chartreuse color to this Fuzzy Wuzzy cowl that I am knitting.

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Wordless Wednesday

Wednesday, January 27th, 2016

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My Dyed Colorwheel

Tuesday, January 26th, 2016

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These are my color wheel fabrics so far. As I expected the really potent orange dye made all colors in which it was used look more orange. I want to get a real red, a better yellow green and yellow orange.

You can see that I dyed a lot of fabrics that turned orange in my attempt to get the right colors. Here are the other fabrics from yesterday’s run. More orange! And I love that green which is yellow with black. I wanted a lighter shade of that.

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So, I went back to the studio today and dyed three more fabrics. Here they are, marinating in my warm studio. I will get them in the morning and wash, dry and iron them. I think I got what I was hoping for.

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I am finding this method of having dye concentrate ready for mixing and dyeing is going to work well for me. You avoid the mess of starting with dye powder every time.

I had a good time yesterday spending time with my Condo Quilter’s group. We had lunch and shared our work and did some critiquing. Mr C had to drive me as I am finding it more and more difficult to walk very far. Our hostess drove me to my studio, where I rinsed out my dyes fabrics to take home and launder. Then, Mr C came and picked me up. I find myself having a meltdown most every day as I deal with the pain in my knee. I am feeling slower and less mobile and am gaining weight and feeling crappy too often. But, as Mr C says, each day, I am a day closer to getting a new knee.

A Colorful Week-end

Sunday, January 24th, 2016

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My dyeing workspace in the studio is covered with newspapers. I love the look of the splattered dye on the newsprint.

This week-end, I started working on dyeing the rainbow.

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Here are my quarter yards marinating in dye and soda ash.

Here is a closeup of the purple. I love it. I can’t wait to wash these out and iron them.

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I think I might have to redo some of the pieces which used orange in the recipe. My orange seems to be a lot stronger that my other dyes and has been overpowering. I will wait to see what I get before I jump in.

It was a busy week-end as it was Mr C’s birthday on Friday. We went out to dinner with Steph, Jack, and M & M on Friday night. On Saturday, we went to Lisa’s for dinner. Clay’s father and brother are here from Atlanta to go skiing.

A Clean Well-lighted Place to Create

Friday, January 22nd, 2016

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I didn’t accomplish much today. I needed to take it easy as my knees were not happy. I got caught up on SDA work and this afternoon, we drove out to the airport to pick up Lisa who was flying back from LA where she was a judge for Quiltcon 2016. She had an amazing time and has a new appreciation for the art of quilting.

We got a tour of the studio that she has created out of the garage at her new home. It really is lovely. You can see the frosted glass garage doors in the photo above so even in the waning light this afternoon, it was light an bright. She does her smaller drawings and illustration work on the table above.

Here are the other work areas:

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Packing and shipping is done here.

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Her studio manager works in this area.

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These flat shelves hold all of her past work. The doggie bed is for Wilfredo!

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And here is her new easel where she does her large paintings. It is all very well designed with great storage and areas for all the tasks that need to be done. I am very happy for her and proud of what she has accomplished.