Project Progress: Liberated Alphabet Quilt

It was back in February 2010 that the Block Lotto (now here) had Liberated Patchwork Letters as that month's block.  I did a set of letters in pink to have a go here, but didn't do any more in the right colours at the time and didn't enter that month.  I added sashing then took a photo of them on my board, then put them in a box, waiting to be sewn together.  Another unfinished project....

Raw State

Then last month I finally bought myself a quarter inch foot with guide for my Bernina, not from Bernina themselves in Wales, because as it turns out the local sewing shop in Whitley Bay has cheaper postage (excellent! one day I need to go to Whitley Bay and visit their shop, it looks interesting, but it's about 30 miles and petrol costs are high so it'll have to wait until I've got other reasons to go too).

All Sewn Together!

And how amazing is a quarter inch foot? Oh yes, well worth the money.  So now the quilt is all sewn together, with two more crumb blocks, and a fairly narrow border strip having been added.  Not only that, but also with batting and a backing made up of various sized leftover pieces from the same set of self-dyed fabric, and all tacked together with huge stitches in the middle of my sashing.

With hindsight, I should have paid more attention and centred the letters within the white background BEFORE adding the sashing, getting rid of the excess fabric (or at least restashing it and now I can't find it again) and then having to accept it and just sew it all together.  It's particularly evident with the D which has no white on two sides and is a very wide letter, but it's an issue with lots of the letters.  Perhaps if I'd put the crumb blocks differently, it wouldn't have been so obvious.  Never mind, I've learnt a lot with that mistake! So I thought I'd move on, trim them all to the exact size (another thing I've learnt to do before sewing it all together) and get it quilted. By hand.

The Back

Then I got stuck.  I tried to handquilt 'in the ditch' thinking I'd do this along the bottom of each letter horizontally then vertically - just a simple hand quilted grid following the sashing.  But all those random seams, some of which are quite thick, make it really hard!

Handquilted along top of Z

It's not that hard to sew evenly along the main seam at the front (I've done a full horizontal from W to Z, and half from T to Z).  But there's something about my stitching angle and my needle can go HORRIBLY wrong through the layers, requiring quite a bit of ripping out & redoing, and even now it's not great....

What I'd like to achieve is even stitches in a straight line on both sides.  But despite never having had the problem before (albeit on plain cloth), I don't seem to be able to get it right (as clearly seen above).  Maybe I should have ironed the creases out of the backing too, but I'm going to wash it after it's made up, so hopefully it won't matter.

Any tips?  Should I be using a hoop? I do own some of that paper quilting tape that you pin down for even stitches, but it's smaller stitches than I want to use and won't help with the angles? 

Should I just give up & machine it with a meander or a straight stitch?  

HELP!!!!  All advice gratefully received!

This is why for the first time in ages, I'm posting my Design Wall on Judy Laquidara's blog, I KNOW you will know where I'm going wrong, and hopefully you'll tell me how to put it right....

Lois

TootHillMedley

Block Lotto: January winnings - progress at last!

Well, I've finally found some time actually at home to start putting together my Block Lotto winnings.  All I can say is that it's fortunate that this is liberated patchwork, as it didn't occur to me to check that the blocks were all the same size before I started adding the sashing, and to be honest, some of the sashing probably isn't quite right, and also, my seam allowances aren't always spot on.  So, the cornerstones, well the best that can be said is they're in the corners!

Still, it's my first attempt at a quilt, and will be used to protect my bed from cat hair, so doesn't need to be perfect.  And I don't believe in the existence of the quilt police, or at least, I care not what they think.  That said, I think I'll pay a bit more attention next time!

The quilt is arranged 7 blocks across, 9 down in the spectrum, with cornerstones in the appropriate complementary colours with white sashing all around, or thereabouts as with it being a Block Lotto winnings, I've got more of one colour than others and some prints don't really fit anywhere particular, and I don't necessarily have quite the right shades of complementary colours.  The pic below shows I've actually got quite a few more to sash before I can even get excited about sewing blocks of blocks together....

I also have no idea whether it will be too big or too small for my kingsize bed, so haven't considered borders yet.  Other than maybe pianokeys or scrappy or depending on how many borders are needed and where, maybe some liberated lettering like Lazy Gal Tonya's (or rather a poor attempt at it to be more accurate) maybe saying 'Block Lotto January 2010' or similar might be good fun.

I made some dog beds for my sister's dogs (up in Northumberland) out of an old loose cover for my Ikea Beddinge sofa - those dogs will just chew it to bits so the fact it was worn out is irrelevant!  This is my dining room come workroom, with an huge pile of stuff to be stuck on eBay under the window.

Where have I been the last month? Up in Northumberland helping my parents move house and then recovering down here by trying to declutter a bit and jobhunt and get the jungle under control.  My computer got a virus and died, it's sort of resurrected, but there's lots missing and new stuff I don't know how to use.  Grumble grumble.  I've also been harvesting strawberries and cherries.  The picture below is the view from their garden room out across the National Trust Estate Cragside - we went on the rhodedendron filled estate drive when I was there - stunning colours as the azeleas/ rhodedendrons were out, but didn't take my camera.  Doh!  Bizarrely it was at Christmas whilst we were staying in a National Trust holiday cottage on the other side of the valley that they decided to move to Northumberland - it feels strange that we were sitting talking about the move back then whilst looking across at the house they're now living in! Who would have thought it?

I'm hoping to be a bit more active online in July - but the good weather's arrived (I believe it's going to hit the mid 80s today which will be nice) and I want to be out there lolling in the shade of my cherry tree.  The night's are a bit sultry so I've had my window open, and have to be slathered with mozzie repellent to survive.  The cat's struggling a bit again, he's not a very well boy, so off to the vet we go tomorrow.  Typically this is in the week my car insurance falls due, and now my washing machine appears to be breaking.  Sigh.  Still, I'll soon be poor enough to claim social security benefits - always a silver lining!

Talking of surviving, the foxcubs - I think there are now only 3.  And I think they're struggling for food as they make the most awful racket every night - I keep thinking they're killing something slowly but only appear to be arguing...  The biggest one's legs are beginning to go black and all have white tips to their tails.  I've been throwing water towards them as they were getting a bit bold and coming into the house, so they run if they see me, so no more pics sadly.  Can't have it both ways, they need to be wary of humans and if piccies is the price, then that's fine.

I am thrilled to finally have something to show on my Design Wall - other people are far more consistent than me, check them out at Judy's blog here.  Judy's blog is worth looking at every day - she and her husband have quite an eventful domestic life and I love hearing about it.  She also has great links to other quilters and is generally something of an inspiration all round!

And finally, here's my cherry crop from my garden - this is the second picking (and last as the birds have stripped the top third, I've stripped the bottom third and the middle third still has cherries, but I don't have ladders long enough and even if I did, the dizziness would cause some difficulties: they can be for the birds and windfalls for the foxcubs.  I've given most of the first picking away, but I want to keep most of these for me.  The bowl is about 25cm across - that's a LOT of cherries for one person with virtually no freezer space.  I need to do a recipie search for how to preserve them without using sugar (I'm cutting down).  Any suggestions?

Block Lotto - Reeds

I've done four blocks, but don't have any more black (not that this is black as such, is black overdyed on a dark green but it'll have to do), and I laid out strips on plain white and it didn't look good at all!  So, as I've got lots & lots to do and not much time to do it in over the next fortnight, that is that for this month!

And yet again, despite entering Block Lotto in an attempt to empty my house rather than fill it up, I'd like to win...

Block Lotto - Reeds

For May the Block Lotto is a bias strip insert block we're calling Reeds.

For which you need lime green inserts and either black or black & white or white on white background.

Of course, I have no lime.  And it turns out I don't have much black either.  In fact now I come to look at my fabric stash, very little of it is medium weight quilting quality cottons - it's linen or silk or viscose or all sorts of weird & wonderful stuff, but not good for Block Lotto.  So that means I'm going to have to be inventive to use it up. Shame huh!

Anyway, I'm still unemployed (mostly because I've been a bit lazy about looking and also hard at work helping my sister with her house refurb and studying) so I don't have much spare money, but what I do have is lots of hand dyeing equipment and quilting quality white cotton sateen.  So, rather than go out & buy any lime, I've dyed some.  With effective but interesting results....

I used Acid Lemon & Turquoise (both cold colours) - did two plastic bags of 2x 1m pieces - one with equal 2tsps of both dyes, the other with 3tsps of lemon and 1 tsps of turquoise.  I chose to add the soda to the dyebath rather than soda soak the cloth itself.  It was a very hot day and I did it outside with almost boiling water and used Urea to make sure the dye powder mix didn't split. I added one piece of cloth to the bag immediately then 5 mins later added the other (technically the recipie I was using was for 1m of cloth then wait 15mins to add the next piece to get a less vibrant strike on the second, but I forgot to wait that long)

All 4 pieces came out beautifully, one strong lime, two mid limes and a minty blue. Not that I can remember which came from which bag!  BUT it took a 90 degree wash to get rid of the excess dye plus a couple of rinses with Synthrapol to be sure that they won't run - which I've not had to do with soda soaked fabric in the past, but then this is the first time I've used the cool range so I'm not sure quite where it went wrong.  The strike was very good, but it's also not quite the depth of strike I was after, but then the other pieces I've done I've double dyed, and I didn't have time to do that this time, and anyway I've run out of salt.

So, here they are, limes for Block Lotto.  Now all I need to do is turn them into Reeds blocks.  What I can't decide is whether or not to print up some WOW, or just use plain white, or use some doubledyed black that's a bit blue or a bit green....  Maybe I'll see how it goes!

Design Wall Monday

Not much progress yet on the Block Lotto TicTacToe blocks January win.  I've cut out the bottom white sashing to size and also cut out some doubledyed/batik solids for the four missing blocks (which will have white cut into them, so opposite of the other blocks), and I'm playing with cornerstones.

Apologies for the appalling light quality, the table is in the way and I don't want to move it by myself as it's a bit wobbly.  Antiques huh, who'd have them!

Anyway, the blocks are laid out vertically as red, orange, yellow, greeny-yellow, green, greeny-blue, blue, bluey-purple and purple (9 down) and 7 across.

The cornerstones have been tried out in various permutations of solids/patterns in the same colours as the main blocks are ordered, ordered backtofront ie the other way round, but I've sort of settled on complementary to the main blocks.

So green, blue, purple, reddy-purple, red, reddy-orange, orange, orangey-yellow, and yellow.  BUT I've not got the right solids cut with the right tonal values/colours yet, so the cornerstones that are up there are indicative and not going to be used in the main.

I'm also thinking  I'll use my double-dyed/ self dyed batik type fabrics, but don't have the right colours/tonal values for some, so will need to dye some more.

I'm also really keen on doing this month's block lotto which is curved free-piecing like reeds - in lime green and black/white or white/white or black or white.  Except I don't have any lime green other than some with pink on it which is the leftover bottom bit of my living room curtains and I'm kindof thinking I might need it someday.... So being unemployed and a bit poor, I don't want to go out & buy any more fabric, cos I've got lots (albeit not in the required colours).  The only solution I can see is to dye some - as I have white fabric and procion dyes.  So that'll have to wait too.

Which means the whole crafting thing is shelved until after my exam on the 19th, as I really need to get learning those cases - I'm now on my fourth pack of index cards - there's about 40 used for topic notes, and erm 200 for court cases.  I am so hopeless at remembering case names!! No hope!

The foxcubs are out & about and more wary so no new pics.  Ivor cat got a bit excited last night as one was nosing around the back door/cat flap.  I got a bit excited this morning as I retrieved various items from around the garden that normally live at the back door that the cubs had been investigating.  Sigh.  How one forgets the inconvenience of baby animals in one's life!

Check out what everyone else is doing at Judy's Design Wall Monday here

April Block Lotto - Wonky Shoo Fly

Somewhat at the eleventh hour, I've made 9 + 1 blocks for the April wonky shoe fly, and because I can't count (yep no surprise there) I made an extra two blocks from some 1980s Laura Ashley fabric.

And then because I didn't feel like doing studying, I made another 5 sets of the Laura Ashley which means I've probably not got enough left to make any borders/ binding etc (could do cornerstones) but will eventually turn it into a baby quilt.  But would anyone welcome a baby quilt in 1980s Laura Ashley fabric?  I'll worry about that once I've made it...

I'm thinking it'll be good practice for putting together the TicTacToe quilt. When I eventually get round to it that is!

Design Floor Monday - Block Lotto TicTacToe progress

Well, well, well, it's amazing how much time you can spend with so little to show for it!

I've made another 9 blocks to even up the colourways and reordered the blocks I won into an arrangement I like - although I need 4 more - and sewn white sashing on the right of each block.  I've also cut a pile of sashing for the bottom of half the blocks.

The pic is me standing on a chair with natural daylight with the blocks spread out on a duvet cover on the floor - not a great pic as a result, as the colours look a bit washed out.  Still, I managed to do it and get them back on the design wall in their correct placesyesterday  BEFORE the cat wandered in for a whinge about being bullied by the fox cubs (at least I assume that's what he was bitching about, it was a bit early to be bitching for his dinner).

Talking of foxcubs - I saw six last week, the guy in the flat upstairs next door nearly fell out of the window telling me he'd seen 4 at the weekend, and I saw two today - they've gone from charcoal black to a soft sandy red, they're bright eyed, bushy tailed and, finally, have stopped falling into the pond. Phew!  They have also developed awareness - so whilst last week I had to move otherwise they'd walk into me; this week, they're running away into their den if I come too close.  Quite right too, don't want them too habituated, although I'd like to get close enough for a pic....  to do that I'd have to do some gardening, and I don't quite have time. Sigh.  If only my garden was as tidy and organised as Judy's - check out her garden and the other design walls here.

This is what they looked like last week:

Leftovers from Block Lotto Liberated Log Cabin with Attitude

Sigh.  This whole project is supposed to be using up my stash, which has happened this month very successfully, but because I lack experience and didn't think ahead, I ended up with

• large number of strips I cut from the stash unecessarily thinking I might use them but didn't
• large number of part strips that were too small for the final layers, because I did all the blocks at the same time, so couldn't recycle part strips (next time I'll do two lots of chain piecing, I suspect it's less wasteful if you're doing lots & lots of blocks, or plan ahead).
• 40 trimmed triangles made up of varying amounts of pieced fabric from trimming the blocks with Attitude (I played safe and made the blocks around 13" square to cut down to 9.5" square so these triangles were big!)
• not actually using up many 'whole' pieces of stash fabric and quite a few pieces that I'd mostly used

A month or so ago, Sophie who runs Block Lotto posted this about 'strip fabric' she'd made then cut into blocks - so I decided to sew together the trimmed triangles into rough brick shapes, then intersperse them with leftover part strips sewn together if they weren't wide enough and full leftover strips to make up a load of extra blocks 'scrappy' style.  I ended up with 9 x 9.5" scrappy blocks from these leftovers:

Then I still had some really small bits leftover, and was wondering what size quilt I could do with 9 blocks (not very big) and decided to start another scrappy liberated log cabin, but this one for me, to build into a large 18"x18" + central panel that I could put the 9 blocks around (with sashing to make it comfortable) as what I really need is two light bedcovers that I can use to keep Ivor and my duvet covers apart on the bed.  The TicTacToe will be one, and I need another, and can practise/ learn on this one.....  Here is the centre panel (not quite finished):

Of course, 9 blocks are not enough, I'll need at least 12 if I want 3 on each side, or 16 if I want one in each corner too.  However, I have enough fabric for that.  Then I'll need to decide whether I do sashing in black or white.  I need sashing to get it to bedsize.  Initially I immediately think white as I like a nice bright & pale bedroom, but we shall see.

I still have some leftovers, but they are sufficiently few that they will fit into my scraps box (which is bulging, but not necessarily with fabric suitable for Block Lotto) or sufficiently large that they can go back into the stash.  Success! Of a sort, as I have now merely taken fabric out of the stash, and turned it from something not started into something halfway through. Oh dear!

March Block Lotto - Liberated Log Cabin With Attitude - Finished and Entered!

Ooo the excitement, I've done 5 pairs of blocks for this month's Block Lotto.  Having failed to enter any last month as life just got in the way and also having won the first month of entering, I think I ought to be polite and donate my chances this month.  Although I do like the blocks she thinks wistfully.  Nope, I have enough Unfinished Projects, it's good for stuff to leave my house and clutter up someone elses!

So here's the pic of the finished blocks (see the last post for their unfinished state)

and here's the link to my post on Block Lotto entering them into this month's draw (or use the Block Lotto icon on the right hand side to see what else is going on there).

Block Lotto March - Liberated Log Cabin With Attitude

I was quite excited about the February Block Lotto, and got as far as a test alphabet but no further so I couldn't join in last month.  But this month I'm determined to do so: and it's Liberated Log Cabin With Attitude.  Rules are:
Bold - have at least one black & white or one black & one white piece in there.
Cool - use colours from the cool side of the wheel - blues, greens, purples
Scrappy - use leftovers if you can, solids, prints or multis, but predominantly cool coloured.

So, I raided my stash, and found that I'd forgotten completely about some quilting cottons that a friend of mum's gave me a while ago, plus some lightweight furnishing fabrics in the blues/greens/purples/greys requested.  Plus I've got a lot of oddments of a gorgeous wax batik fabric I made a dress from for a friend's informal wedding a year or so ago, and some ready cut square patches in the right colour I'd raided from Wendy's remnants bin (Wendy used to have a designer kids wear business, then moved into soft furnishings and is now making prototype leather handbags preparatory to selling them on the web.  They are to die for, when she gets it set up, I'll post a link).

Four hours later, I had acheived this - three Log Cabins more or less 12x12" (you cut them down to 9.5" at an angle when they're done) and seven Log Cabins that are about half way there.  I cannot decide whether I like them or not - I like all the fabrics I've used, just perhaps not together.  Maybe when they're all the same finished size....

Block Lotto - January TicTacToe Blocks

They've all arrived safely (more or less) - the UK Post Office chewed one up and spat glue that's gone hardish on one or two of the blocks in an envelope that probably had the fewest miles to travel! Still I'm pretty sure I can clean it up (it's the pansy one in the very bottom left of the pic, you can just see the grey marks in reality but probably not in the pic....).  It's so exciting to have them, but rather scary too.  I won't be making it up for a while as I've done a To Do list today and I've got quite a lot of time-critical financial/freelance stuff etc to sort out first, but that just gives me more time to plan.

Please forgive the boxes at the bottom, mum & dad are moving so I took a load of stuff from theirs that I should have dealt with years ago.  Also I helped friends move house this month and it was a very traumatic experience for them as they'd not cleared out during the couple of years the house had been on the market, and left it very late to pack - so, I'm now in the process of checking everything I own, shelf by shelf, box by box, littered floor by littered floor (lol) and if it's not beautiful or useful (per William Morris) it's off to charity or Ebay with it....  I seem to be constantly in a state of getting stuff out, deciding then not quite getting it out of the house and I feel like I'm drowning in boxes at the moment.  I need to clear some space!

Block Lotto - February Love Letters - Practice Alphabet

I like the idea of the patchwork letters, but thought I'd better practice first.  How right I was!  It was only when I'd done the whole alphabet (from Tonya's instructions) that I worked out my major difficulty had been remembering/ envisaging the results of having a 1/4" seam allowance....  Still, most of the letters are ok, and the rest, well they're just very liberated!

It's in the polycotton from the stool (see earlier posts) that I used for a door curtain.  Plus some recycled bed sheeting.  I also did my first attempt at a crumb block with leftover bits.  Which taught me a lot more about 1/4" seam allowances!

So, now I just need to work out which red/ cream/ pink/ white fabrics to use, then I can have a go at the real thing.  I was thinking the word 'gorgeousness' would be good, and doesn't include any of the really tricky letters!  Then we'll see if I end up doing more than one word....

The alphabet itself I think would make a good cot-sized quilt.  But then again, it's my practice sampler, so I'm not sure if I'm going to sew it all together, or at least maybe sew it all together but then keep it for future reference....  I used the letter blocks to have a go at sashing, and that was a good idea too!

I won a set of TicTacToe January Block Lotto Blocks!

Which is very exciting, once I'd got over the initial shock.... I was relying on my total lack of luck in these things to practise making blocks and send them out of my house for quite a few months, rather than actually being a winner first time round!  Not surprisingly my friends found my naivety hilarious from the start and did warn me I was crazy to join in anything that had a risk of more unfinished projects arriving (bearing in mind my current mania for getting on with finishing them and not starting anything new or buying more equipment/stash etc until I have). Anyway, as I say, now I've got over the shock, I'm excited.  And slightly terrified. So -

I've done a plan of what I'm going to do with them.  Maybe.  Because I don't actually know how to do what I want to do - and usually when that happens it languishes for years & years in my unfinished projects pile, in fact everything in my unfinished projects pile is a result of big ideas and lack of HowTo knowledge....  But these blocks have been made by other people and it would be rude not to make an effort and learn how!  So, I'll be off to a couple of local libraries this week to see if I can find any books on patchwork/quilting, and I've asked the lovely Block Lotto ladies if they can recommend any as well.

I've also worked out the dimensions here and again asked the lovely ladies if I'm more or less in the right place with them. 

I've also bought sturdy card backed envelopes for sending my blocks off to the other winners, as having been the tardy one replying to the winners email from Sophie, I am determined not to be tardy on actually sending the blocks out...  otherwise I might be banned from the group and I'd be devastated!

The Block Lotto February blocks are words on the theme of endearments - pieced or applique.  And there's some gorgeous examples of what one might do with them here and here and here (not to mention the Block Lotto blog banner heading Sophie did), and I really really want them! After all I do need two quilts for my bed, one to use and one to wash....  So having initially thought I'd donate all chances after the first month (to negate the danger of incoming UFPs, perhaps I should have donated my chances from the beginning? chortle), my determination has crumbled after all... 

I've found a tutorial for letters here, I'm going to do a sample alphabet (for my burgeoning patchwork/quilting sample file), then some words by the end of the month, then hopefully win again - quite a few people are donating chances, so I might be in with a chance!  If not, I'll merely have to create my own UFP with word blocks instead of having one arrive all ready created for me (chortle).

The February blocks together with an Italian quilting sample that's finished but not mounted that I (re-)discovered during my clearout has rejuvenated my enthusiasm for the cushion I promised my dad years ago - it's word based and is his favourite Bible verse "For the Lord stood by my side and gave me strength" (II Timothy 4:17).  I've got the fabric ready dyed, I've got the verse, I've got the thread, the zip, the cushion pad, all I've got to do is to sort out a plan.... oh and actually do it!

So, those are my three aims for February, do a sample alphabet, do some February Block Lotto word blocks and work out a design for the cushion for dad.  That's in addition to the 365 Cards mammoth catch up (over 200 to go and under a month to do it - no way it's going to happen but will have a good go at doing as many as I can), jobhunting and studying for my Trust Law paper.  I wonder what will give first?

I've also been spending quite a lot of time at the Patchwork Times blog looking at the regular Design Wall Monday posters' blogs.  I never realised the sheer variety of patchwork & quilting patterns (nor how fast some people work!)  It's fascinating reading week on week seeing progress (or lack of it) and it's led me onto some very interesting websites on cloth/ quilting & crafts generally.   And generally enthused me to start sewing again which is a great thing.

Block Lotto - TicTacToe - January 2010

Well in the end it was a no-brainer, I managed to 'burn' the WOW on two blocks, and the tenth block was brown, which didn't feel so 'bright' in comparison to the others.  So, nine blocks it is for entry in Block Lotto for January.

I'm keeping the 'burnt' blocks and I'll try and work out a way of getting the 'burnt' bit off, then they'll be useable.  Otherwise I'll have to unpick them and just make them smaller all round.

Block Lotto - Fabric printing finishing - Tutorial part 2

Right so, I've printed that WOW fabric and left it to dry overnight. 

Then today I heat set it by ironing it with a flat (not steam) iron on cotton setting (as that's what my base fabric is) between two layers of baking parchment, on both sides.  Smooth movements to take around 10-15mins per metre of cloth (per Committed to Cloth instructions).  Not a steam iron because if you have it set on 'no steam' and don't move fast enough you can end up with a steam holes pattern on your cloth...  And as I'm using the ironing board my beloved cleaning lady Pat uses for the household linen, and I wasn't sure how the screen ink would react to the heat I used baking parchment - I wasn't going to get in trouble for messing up the board! Also, I didn't want to have to clean off the iron if it melted a bit....

Then I waited for the cloth to cool down, tore off a bit of excess and stuck the rest in the washing machine on a 40 degree quick wash cycle with washing powder (no fabric conditioner).  Whilst I was waiting for it to finish, I took some of the strip and tried ironing it directly with the flat iron.  And found that after a couple of minutes at cotton setting the screen ink blackened up on the fabric, however if I just passed the iron over quite quickly at a lower setting, it was fine.  However, I need to remember that whoever gets these blocks needs to know that ironing care is required!

And I was very pleased to find it survived the washing cycle without any ill-effects at all, and it improved the handle no end!

This above is the fabric wet out of the machine, and this below is the strip (top) I tore off before washing and the washed fabric (bottom) - you can't see but the only effect the wash had was to remove 'crispy bits' of excess ink that were sticking up from the fabric.

So then I decided to make up a sample of the TicTacToe blocks I'm planning to make with the already selfdyed cotton sateen. 

These are the colours I've chosen - I've got twelve 9" blocks, and can submit nine for the Block Lotto.  I'll make all twelve and pick the nine best for the Lotto, keeping back the others for making something else or even blog candy in due course maybe (if they're up to scratch).

Then I thought I'd better make up one block first and wash it at 60 degrees to make sure the selfdyed stuff is colourfast, and that my stitching can stand it!  As you can see below, the stitching coped well (although I don't overlock my raw edges so there's a bit of stray threading).

And best of all, it's colourfast, no runs onto the white and no obvious fading!  Also there was no shrinkage either.  Although I've messed this block up by ironing it on too high a heat and some of the corners in the inside WOW bit have got blackened ink as a result.  Curses! So that's only 11 blocks available now... Lucky I didn't just go with nine base pieces!  Anyway this last pic shows the basic fabric (washed at 40 degrees already) and the ironed block which has been washed at 60 degrees - you can see where I 'burnt' the ink on the inside of the crosses on the left - smudgy black bits.  It didn't happen when I was making the block so just normal pressing for a short time doesn't cause it, it was caused when I was pressing really hard to dry out the block to save time.  So more care next time!

I am absolutely thrilled! and am now assuming that the whole batch of selfdyed cloth is colourfast to 60 degrees as I treated them all the same when I made them - although I'd recommend 40 degree wash to whoever wins them.

So, now all I need to do is make the other 11 blocks, pick the best 9 and post them on the Block Lotto.  Excellent!

Block Lotto - January - Tic Tac Toe Sample & Fabric Dyeing thoughts

I've joined Block Lotto (more or less) and am really looking forward to the monthly challenge of a new block to do (in multiples of 9 or fewer) & send off out of my house to somebody else's (all part of my drive to reduce my stash); with the added bonus of winning a load of cool blocks from someone else, hmm that means yet another unfinished project though... Still it's unlikely to happen anytime soon there's lots of people doing it and only 12 months in a year!

Because I've not ever really done much patchwork, I decided to follow the instructions for the January TicTacToe Block on the same selfdyed fabric as that of my curtain, with the aim that if I use that for a sample block for every one I do, I'll be able to make something with them that I've then got as a reference library for the future as it were. 

So this is 100% calico and 50/50% PolyCotton procion dyed for my City & Guilds Panel project at just under 8" square (starting with a 9" square and 1" strips).  The colour values are a bit more orange than pink in reality.  Admittedly dyeing the PolyCotton was a slight accident in that I got my fabrics muddled and you're not supposed to mix fabric content together when you do patchwork, but it seems to be holding up fine as a combination in the curtain.  Being PolyCotton gets a bit crispy with a hot iron, but as I put a couple of PolyCotton squares in with the various weights of cotton squares in each dyebath it does give a pastel shade that works really well with the cotton.  The original project was to selfdye a load of cloth, tear it into strips and then use the strips as 'thread' to do tapestry stitch on canvas to make a stool topping, so the fibre content was irrelevant.  Now of course, it's an issue as I've got lots left over....  This is the stool I made with it, which as I wear really dark jeans that shed colour (damn you Gap) is now a bit grubby on the pale areas:

I did this set of dyeing following Helen Deighan's 'How to dye in a cat litter tray' (a clean one obviously!) set of booklets, which she's published as a book since then.  The great thing about her dye recipe is that is uses just 3 shades of bog standard Procion MX Dyes (Turquoise, Cerise and Lemon - by colour mixing you can get a lot of different shades without shelling out too much cash), common salt, washing soda and plastic sandwich or freezer bags!  That said, I used about 10 different Procion MX colours for the stool, as it's only once I did the C2C course that I learnt more about colour mixing.  I reckon I could have done it with fewer quite easily these days, still the dyes are still in my stash and there to be used so nothing's wasted!

The key to successful home dyeing is to prewash your fabric in the machine with washing soda and washing powder AND NOT to use fabric conditioner.  If you use undiluted fabric conditioner in your machine, then run it empty (or with dusters etc in it) with washing soda once first to remove all traces.  If you don't prepare the fabric properly, the dyes won't find the molecule ends of the fibres to chemically connect with.  The other tip is to rinse out the fabrics you've dyed really well (if you're on metered water it can be expensive if you're doing a lot!) then wash them twice in the washing machine at 40 degrees with normal washing powder but not soda.  If you've got Synthrapol it helps clear out any excess dye, but it's not a major issue if you don't, as if you've done the salt/soda/dye recipe properly then the dye should be exhausted and won't transfer to your household washing, but again just to be safe, once you've done all your dyeing run the machine empty/ with dusters etc in it with washing soda as your final act to remove all traces.  I've got an eco style condensing machine that I think uses the last rinse of the previous wash as water for the first wash of the next - and I've never had any dye transfers (and usually I'm an idiot and do a white wash straight after dyeing).  The great thing about the Soda Ash is that it's dead cheap and stops the limescale building up in your machine and your clothes (it can be bought at great expense in tablets as Calgon, why bother? Just use Washing Soda powder every so often).

Others I know didn't get good results using her instructions and it all came out a bit pale, but mine were quite deep.  I didn't overdye them (as I'd not heard of the concept then), but it's always a possibility if it doesn't work first time round!

The other set of selfdyed fabric I've got is following the dye recipes of Committed to Cloth which I did on one of their courses - it was supposed to be a fabric dyeing course for people who were then going to do a Strip Piecing Week with Nancy Crow (luminous in the USA? I'd not heard of her, but then I'm an embroiderer, but they very sweetly let me do the first week of fabric dyeing only, and at that, weeks & weeks after it ran because I came back from a trip to Africa really ill and missed it.  I love those C2C ladies!) 

Anyway, C2C use a different recipe, which is to scour the fabric (wash it in the machine with washing powder and soda - you only need to do this once), then soak it in soda and let it dry (cure) using heat (they roll it up in plastic sheeting & wrap an electric blanket around it), then dye it using Procion MX dyes in a salt solution. 

The key differences between the two approaches are that C2C use Soda Ash (which you should have available to you if you have a swimming pool, as apparently it's used in them as Alkali PH Plus granules, mere mortals get hold of it in smaller quantities from George Weil amongst others (who also sell the Procion MX dyes).  I do know that it's quite a nasty chemical: apparently, and to my mind somewhat bizarrely, the chemical can be used as an ingredient in explosives so if you choose that route, keep it away from children, the feckless and any other extreemists of your acquaintance!  and use a mask) rather than household washing soda and also that they pre-cure the fabric in the soda and heat dry it, rather than using the soda in the dye bath.  As a result you get a more reliable and deeper dye strike with C2C, but I personally find there's nothing wrong with the Helen Deighton approach which is more simple and easier for novices/ doing at home. 

Below is some of my C2C dyed cloth.  Be aware though, that the colour values are better in this pic than the others, and also this cloth has been scoured properly, dyed once, then again and then again, so it's not exactly a fair comparison to the TicTacToe block/ stool fabric which has only been washed in the machine with washing powder and not soda scoured, then dyed once using Helen Deighton's method and not overdyed a couple of times!

I have got quite a lot of old prime quality Swiss bedsheeting (acquired from a lovely friend of my mum's who was downsizing, the really good 'never used' stuff went to charity shops, I got the slightly worn stuff - as with all sheets where it's worn in the middle it's very soft and great for cleaning cloths, but the outside thirds are still good strong cloth that's perfect for dyeing and using for hand or machine stitching) that I'm thinking of dyeing in the next month or so.  I'm currently unemployed and as I always end up with coloured hands, now's the time to do it before I'm required at interviews or in front of clients!  So bearing in mind there seems to be an interest in fabric dyeing from the Block Lotto ladies, and how much easier I find it is to learn to do something from tips on blogs, I'll do a tutorial of Helen Deighton's method so that people can try it for themselves at home.  Also, I'll scour the cloth with washing soda, and do some overdying so that I can see for myself whether the end result is comparable to C2C method or not. 

I won't be doing C2C method for a while as I don't own an electric blanket, and it's not what I want to spend my cash on at present...

Fabric Printing for Block Lotto & Paper Printing for 365 Cards - Tutorial

As per my last couple of posts, I've got a bit excited about the idea of doing Blog Lotto.  So, having confirmed with the blog owner Sophie that my self-dyed Whaley's Cotton Sateen, being medium-weight 100% cotton will be acceptable, I searched my entire stash for WOW (white on white) medium-weight 100% quilting cotton, and couldn't find any, at all.  It was raining, and I'm feeling poor and didn't really want to go out and buy any...

So I decided to print some up for myself, using some Opaque White Screen Ink that I bought from Committed to Cloth a good few years ago when I was doing one of their courses.  The beauty of this Screen Ink is it's for fabrics and once heat set can be washed, and as long as you don't layer it on too thickly, it doesn't alter the handle of the fabric too much - whereas Acrylic Paint (which you can also use) can peel off in use, and you can't wash it, so you can't use it for anything that needs washing after use. 

That said,  I've done a little tutorial below, as the principles are the same for Acrylic Paint or the Screen Ink and I thought people might want to know how to do it for themselves.

Step 1: Gather together the items you need:

a. your cloth or paper - that you want to print your image on

b. your printing medium - paint or ink - it needs to be quite thick and gloopy otherwise you end up with splodges when the ink runs off the stamp)

c. a suitable stamp - I've used an Indian wooden stamp of a flower that I acquired at a craft fair years ago - you could use a cork, or a stamp you've carved yourself out of a potato or even a pencil eraser.  I don't recommend using your favourite scrapbooking/ cardmaking stamp unless you are quick off the mark on cleaning it (as the ink/ acrylic paint dries really quickly) and have a gentle stamp cleaning sponge that won't ruin it if you need to give it a bit of a scrub.

d. a flat palette and an ink pad - I use the lid of a plastic takeaway box and a couple of pieces of white felt for this.  Depending on the colour of ink used, I sometimes keep the ink pad felt after it's dried and use it in my textile pieces or cards (it makes great flowers etc), but you'll probably just want to throw it away.  You need to use felt because it is a bit bouncy and will 'give up' the ink when you press the stamp onto it.

e.  Decent covering for your table (and some old clothes) - I use layers made up of a vinyl tablecloth (not shown) with a layer of plastic (which is actually the bag that part of my sofa came in) and then some newspaper topped off with cheap paper Banqueting tablecloth.  Any ink/paint spillages or overprinting will be soaked up by the newspaper and banqueting cloth which can then be thrown away and you won't need to clean your plastic layer nor your vinyl tablecloth.

f. Kitchen or paper towels - to keep your fingers relatively clean.

Don't use Barrier Cream etc as it stops the ink/paint sticking to the cloth/paper, but you could use gloves if you need to have clean hands for work the next day and are a bit worried about the ink/paint staining your skin.

Step 2:  Put a splodge of ink/paint on your felt pad on your palette and rub it into a thinnish layer on the felt.  Then put your stamp in it, and then 'blot' your stamp a bit against some of the felt that doesn't have the ink/paint on it.  If you're using acrylic paint, it's a good idea to make your felt very slightly damp (this means barely damp, you don't want to dilute the paint, just make the felt a bit thirsty so it takes up & gives the paint up more easily) first with water.  I didn't do this with the ink as I'm not sure it would be a good idea, and it made it harder to handle, so next time I'm going to dampen my felt pad and see what difference it makes.

Step 3: Print the stamp onto the cloth/ paper making sure you turn the stamp around randomly to get a nice coverage (unless you want your stamping all in the same direction).  Depending on what effect you want you can use more or less ink or use the stamp twice before reinking.  As with any background type stamping, stamp across the edges of the fabric fairly frequently so that the pattern goes to the very edges.   I wanted quite a random & rough effect so sometimes the print isn't complete or is too much or too little ink.  To make it more even, pad out the printing area with layers of newspaper to make it more 'bouncy' and have more give, then the printing will be easier to control, you can then also 'pin' out the cloth against the layers which will also mean you don't have to keep touching the cloth to keep it still when pulling the stamp off it.  Try and keep your fingers wiped with the kitchen towel so you don't leave fingerprints of ink where you don't want them (long nails help with this, or hold a cocktail stick or similar). 

Sorry for the poor quality of this one, I was in the kitchen with the light behind me....

Step 4: Print as much as you need/ want. 

I know I want to cut my fabric up into nine 9" blocks, so I did 3 lengths of 9"x27" approx plus a left over bit in case I needed it for something else later, and to use up the excess ink.  Then leave it to dry overnight somewhere the cat/ family/ you won't trample it by accident - make sure you've protected the surface you're drying the cloth/ paper on - I used more plastic and more banqueting roll underneath mine because the ink/paint seeps through and you don't want to end up with coloured floors or furniture!  Particularly because mine are balanced on the top of a large Victorian Wicker Basket that holds all the clean washing ready for ironing....

Step 5: Don't waste the leftover ink

I got some coloured sugar paper and printed all over it with the leftover ink until there was none left.  I'll use this paper for cards for one of the 365 Cards Challenges in due course.  I've also kept the felt I used as an ink pad, because I'll either add more colour later or just cut it up into flower shapes or similar for using on a card in due course (cheaper than Bazzill Chips flowers!)

Step 6: Make sure you wash your stamp and palette/ utensils IMMEDIATELY.  If you've got to stop for any reason or can't wash up straight away - then put them into soak in cold water until you get back, otherwise you could find yourself with a solid mess of wasted ink and ruined stamp (although if you've made it out of a potato that might not be an issue, unless you need exactly the same stamp again to carry on)

Step 7: If you're using acrylic paint, you're good to go once it's dried, but remember you can really only use it for decorative purposes, as acrylic paint will fall off with much use or if it's washed. 

If you're using screen ink or other fabric paint make sure you follow the instructions for setting it. 

I have to leave mine for 12 - 24hrs then cover it with baking parchment and iron it on a Cotton setting on the right side without steam, then on the wrong side.  Then I am going to stick it in the washing machine as this will improve the handling for when I turn it into 9 TicTacToe Blocks for the Blog Lotto January Blocks.

Block Lotto - suitable cloth?

For Sophie of Blog Lotto - is this sort of thing ok? I picked these five at random, they're all overdyed and won't run when washed.