Leaf Dyeing -part 3

The darker cloth in this set had been previously rust dyed on chicken wire with results much to faint.  The rust reacted with the tannin in the leaves and gave a nice purplish color.

 Before washing

 After Washing and ironing

 

Waiting to dry and annoying my family!

a few more ironed cloth pieces

Working Hard

Just taking a quick break.  I've been working on 6 new journal covers and some quilted bookmakers.  Need to add hand embellishments this evening.
The rust dyed velor fabric made 2 very nice journal covers. Only one problem, the sewing machine needle would not sew through them and just kept shredding the thread.  This is the first time I've had trouble with my rust dyed fabric.  I thought I had a perfect solution, I'd try needle felting it.  Three broken needles later I gave up.  Now I am hand embellishing shell outlines and couching other fibers.  I am happy with the results, just not the pace.

My second attempt with glue batik has had good results.  I thought it would be a disaster because I started painting and then let it set three weeks before I got back to it.  Rinsed out the glue yesterday and it actually still came out. Yeah!   Now for some color touch up an a lot of thread painting.

Rust dyeing Results

The rust dyes are washed, dried, and ironed.  Here they are just be for I brought them in to iron.  I was not as pleased with the first cotton one as I usually am.  It will be good cut up and used with other fabrics.

 The rust dye on the white velor turned out great.  I am planning on making a quilted journal cover from it.

 Close up of the rust dye velor

Rust Dyes - June

I left my rusty materials from last year set out and rust some more over the winter.  In June I soaked scraps of fabric in white vinegar and water. Then I wrapped them around the different objects.  Some I let set all day and others only an hour.  I did not wrap them in plastic this time.  The gray or blackish ones were then dyed in tea. Here are the pictures of the fronts and backs

 

Some Rust Dying Results

These are some of my results from my rusted object fine.   I wet the fabric in vinegar and water and covered it with clear plastic.  The gray fabrics were then tea-dyed.

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Objects for Rust Dyeing

I was very lucky this morning.  I found all the objects in these pictures at a yard sale this morning for about 6 dollars.  They had so much stuff, it was hard to choose.  I can't wait until I have some time to dye again.

Betrayal

I finally finished the thread painting on the faces and hands. I also added rope for a border. This was a new white nylon rope. It was tea dyes, scuffed up on trees and then burned over a candle to look old.

More Rust Dyes

The following rust dyed pieces were done on PFD fabric. I wrapped the cloth around old horse shoes. Then covered in vinegar and water and let set for a week. I also learned a very important lesson with this set. Never use an aluminum foil tray with this. We were gone for the week and when I came back my tub was coated in black sludge and rust because it had eaten through the pan.

Rust Dye Pictures

these first two scraps of fabric are from an old white sheet. They where soaked in vinegar and wrapped around a pole on the roof. Next I tea dyed them. After that I put them in a bag wrapped around some small poles and poured vinegar and water on them to soak. After two days I removed them and tea dyed them a second time.

Well, I have finally gotten cloth wrapped around my rusty horseshoes and soaking in water and vinegar. I did another cloth with lots of found objects. For my third experiment I soaked my cloth in vinegar and water and climbed out on the roof. I wrapped it around an old antenna poll and then squished the cloth together. Finally I wrapped a plastic garbage bag around it and tied it with string. We are going to begone several days, so they will have several days to set up. I can't wait to see them.

I wonder what my son will think when he sees the messy experiment in the bathtub and the bag wrap when he looks out the window. we will begone before he gets home.

Recent Projects

I've been doing a lot of sewing and quilting, but not much blogging. My daughter and I spent several days making scrap quilts for our community backpack program. This program gives kids clothes and blankets when take from meth homes.

I have also made two large fleece baby quilts. One for a friend and one for my soon to be grandson.

I have spent a few days each week helping some home schoolers work on quilt blocks for the school block challenge in Paducah. These quilts were done by girls age 4-12.

My latest endeavor was to make some fleece quilt with angels for a 2 and 3 year old whose house burnt down last weekend. These were designed by my 11 year old and me. We have some other angel designs we would like to make into quilts at another time.

I am still working on my stations of the cross, my triple Irish train boarder, and our challenge quilt for my guild as well as a Christmas wall hanging.