First meeting of 2015 this Sunday!

This Sunday, 25 January, we will be having out first meeting of 2015 at the usual venue of Croft Memorial Hall (WA3 7BQ).

 

We will be experimenting with manipulated/folded patchwork and Lis will bring along various examples which you may like to try after seeing the demonstrations.  As usual, you are welcome to bring your own work if you would prefer.

Please bring something for the shared lunch. The cost is £5 for the meeting, plus an annual fee of £10 due this month.

 

Requirements for manipulated / folded patchwork

Fabrics 

If you have never done this technique you will need plain cotton fabric, calico will be fine.  

If you are familiar with this technique bring other fabrics that will hold the crease – you could use patterned, dyed, striped or different coloured fabrics. 

This technique uses quite a lot of fabric and as several techniques will be demonstrated you will need more than 1 metre or several fat quarters.

Equipment

Sewing Machine and hand stitching kit with appropriate threads.

Many of the techniques can be done by hand if you do not have a sewing machine.

Cutting mat, ruler and rotary cutter.  Ironing mat and iron.  If you don’t have these we can share.

Optional

Bondaweb or your equivalent choice.   

Light weight iron on vilene. 

 

 

 

Photos from October's meeting

Hi everyone,

Here at last are the photos I took at our meeting in October and my results from the rust dyeing.

First of all, some from the show and tell.

Phyl's finished piece using the fabric Leah dyed for the group. I have to admit, I've not decided what to do with mine yet. Has anyone else made anything with their piece?

Then some sun dyed samples from Lis. The piece top right is cyanotype which was left in water for several days and came out brown instead of blue.

And a batik piece from Phyl from earlier this year. Mine faded quite a bit, but this piece has really kept its colour.

For the activity, Leah brought along ferrous sulphate, tea and soda solutions for 'alternative rust dyeing'. To start off, Julie showed us some pieces she had rust dyed at home, which she had produced by tying the fabric to a rusty metal drum (note the string marks). This is usual way to rust dye, but it can take days for rust to transfer to the fabric.

Then we all tried not to make a mess as we added solutions to fabric in different orders and amounts. The last photo is of my fabric from the meeting. I got a good range of shades, which was a pleasant surprise as I had little idea what the result would be.

In two weeks time we have a workshop with a visiting tutor to learn nuno and 3D felting. Please let Lis, Liz or myself know if you will be coming to the meeting.

September meeting cancelled

As only a few members of the group were free for the September meeting, the next meeting will now be on 19 October when Leah will be demonstrating rust dyeing using ferrous sulphate (hope I've got that right). A requirements list will be circulated before the meeting, as usual.

See you in October!

Batik at June's meeting

Here are a few shots of 'work in progress' from June's batik workshop.

I shall look forward to seeing all of these after the wax has been removed.

Dyed fabric from April's meeting

A few photos from last Sunday's show and tell. First, some interesting textures from ice dyeing.

Second, a lovely palette of colours.

I'll post some photos from the batik workshop in the next few days.

May meeting - fabric dyeing

Apologies for the two month break in posts. First we had to cancel April's meeting as not many people were around so close to Easter, then I was on holiday in May and missed the meeting. Thanks to Lis for sending me the following report on the tray dyeing.

Leah has dyed large pieces of poplin delphina for us to have approximately 1m sq. each to see what we can do with it over the year. 

She started with soda soaking, then roughly pleated the pieces and put them in the tray - the ends were squidged as the pieces were too long to fit.

Royal blue, a touch of golden yellow plus water were poured under the fabric at one end. The tray was tipped to let the colour flow down the back of the fabric. The top end was squidged to absorb more dye.

Golden yellow,  magenta, dark brown and water were poured on top of the fabric at the other end and the tray was tipped again.

Golden yellow and water were added to the top of the fabric in the middle.  The dye was squidged and spread in from both ends.  More green was added to the top (blue) end and more yellow added to the centre.  Leah squidged and spread the dye from one end to the other and made sure there were no white sections before then leaving the tray to stand.

This is the final photo. I can't wait to see the finished piece at the next meeting, when we will also be having the batik workshop that we have been planning for several months.

April meeting - fabric dyeing

At our next meeting (Saturday 12 April) we will be working with procion dyes. Leah will bring the concentrated dye solutions and lots of soda. The list of things that you will need to bring is below. As usual this will not be a ‘taught’ workshop – it is entirely up to you to decide what and how you want to dye! So this is an opportunity to do more resist dyeing or to maybe do some graduation dyeing. Cost for chemicals will be about £5.

 

Leah will demonstrate ice dyeing (see photo above). If you want to have a go please let her know so she can buy the ice. One bag per person will cost approx. £1.50 and will give you enough to dye 3 or 4 pieces either quarter metre or half metre. You will need to supply the fabric and 1 or 2 containers to layer your fabric, ice and dyes in to take the home. If you want to do more, please bring extra ice – you could try ice cubes which would give a different effect. And if you want to try using dry dye powders rather than liquid dyes please also bring your own.

THINGS TO BRING -

Salt solution – dissolve 500g of the cheapest table salt you can buy in 2 litres of water. You’ll need to use fairly hot water to get all the salt to dissolve.

Fabric – procion dyes will only work with cotton, silk or viscose. Unless the fabric is sold as ‘prepared for dye (PFD) you will need to put the fabric through a hot wash to remove any dressings. Even with PFD fabrics it is worth checking how easily they absorb a drop of water, it should absorb instantly – if in doubt pre-wash the fabric.

Large plastic sheet, an apron or wear old cloths and rubber gloves.

A range of plastic cups and spoons for mixing the solutions.

Lots of containers for dyeing the fabric in and taking it home – plastic freezer bags for dyeing ‘solid’ colours, empty plastic pots for layered or parfait dyeing, trays for dyeing large pieces of fabric and for dyeing threads.

Kitchen towel.

Scissors for cutting fabric and a marker pen for labelling fabric / freezer bags.

Notebook to keep track of what combinations of dyes you use.

 

We also said we would use this session to dye one big piece of fabric that we will cut up and share – the idea is that we each then take this piece of fabric through multiple other processes in subsequent sessions to see where we all end up. If you want to ‘sign up’ please let Leah know. We will need to decide what size piece we are each going to have, what colour / colours we want to use to dye it and what dyeing technique we want to use next Saturday. Leah will bring the fabric (Whaleys Delphina Cotton Poplin).

 

And finally we said that we might have an ‘ugly’ fabric challenge – bring along a piece of fabric that you have dyed or printed but really hate and see if somebody else can turn an ugly duckling into a beautiful swan!

 

We’ll have a shared lunch as normal and a show and tell.