April Block of the Month

Here are 2 photos of my finished April block of the month by Sue Spargo. The applique pieces that look white are actually a light blue velvet. We learned 4 more new embroidery stitches for this block: eyelet wheel stitch on the small red circles, closed fly stitch as stems for the blue circles, double threaded back stitch on the green leaves, and French knots  above the blue circles. I really like the double threaded back stitch. It looks lacy, but is easy to do. I added, as Sue suggested, bullion stitches around and on the top of the lime green center with lime green size 8 Valdani thread #V18. The small blue circles on the green center are  made by using a 1/4 hole punch. Who knew??? I would have never tried to punch out wool with a hole punch, but it works really well. Sue just sent us a notice that the new hole punches are not quite as good as the one I have, so if you purchase one use it right away to see if it works. The punch is made by Fiskers and has a purple handle. Then I decided to add 1/8 inch blue rick rack and couch it around the  blue circles on the upper flower part with the Genziana wool thread to match the rick rack.
Sue, also, suggested that we add a back stitch with orange sea grass around the orange wool flower pieces, and pistol stitches to the upper part of the ribbon stem using size 8 variegated Valdani #V16 which I did. I then decided to outlined the multicolored cotton pieces with the stem stitch using the same thread and to add purple pistil stitches for stamens on the flowers. I used Shepherds Silk from The Thread Gatherer.

Purples and greens, etc

Here is the outcome of some more dying sessions. All these fabrics were dyed using the Fusion Dying book and the jar dying method. The bottom wool in the front left is actually a gold green formula #44. It looks brown, but is a dark gold green.  The soft green velvet on top is actually from the same formula. Hard to believe, but true. Velvet takes the colors very differently than the wool and silk.On the top of that pile is silk dyed with a bright yellow green formula # 34 with some wool dyed from the same color underneath. All the colors I have dyed so far from this book have turned out fabulous.  I am hoping to be dying soon, but I went to the foot Dr. yesterday and I can't wear a shoe full time for about 2 more weeks. I know standing and dying fabric would be too stressful for my foot for a few more weeks after that. The Dr, basically told me just to sit and take it easy.Well, I guess I will just look at my wool, velvet and silk and drool!!
 Here in Iowa we finally have warm and sunny weather. It has been a cloudy cool spring and I am very happy to see the sun. The lilacs are in full bloom, hostas are up as well as peonies. My lungwort  is in full bloom and the wild columbine is about ready to bloom. Due to my foot I will not be doing much, if any, gardening this spring, I definitely will not be digging up anything with a shovel. That would ruin all of the gains I have made with the tarsal tunnel surgeries---NOT going there!!!
The pile on the  left in the back (on the bottom) is  royal purple #17 and above that is lavender # 14. I believe (as I do not have my notes and sample swatches) that the color on top of the lavender is and the blue is # 19 blue purple.
On the right bottom is #6 soft pink wool with the soft pink silk on top of the wool. Next is #1 bright red, and then is #11 dark fuchsia with #43 orange  above that. I think the silk on the top is dyed with the dark fuchsia. In a later blog I will show all the colors separately with their values so you can see the colors better.

In the Pink (magenta that is)

 Here are a couple of photos of my magenta dying day. There is silk charmeuse, silk velvet and wool. In the top photo the wool is on the right and the shiny fabric is the silk charmeuse. I used the microwave to dye the silk and velvet and the lazy swatch method for the wool.
I mixed 1/2teaspoon of dye to 1 cup of boiling water and then spooned it onto the silk and velvet before setting the dye in the microwave. I spooned on some yellow (see orangey spots) and blue (see violet spots) along with the magenta and let them blend into new colors. Lots of fun. In the top photo you can see the different values I got from the wool.

Hand Dyed Silk Charmeuse and Velvet

 Here is piece of my hand dyed silk charmeuse. I dyed the silk in a large (gallon) sized zip lock plastic bag.  First I spooned on liquid dye of the three primaries while the silk was inside of the plastic bag, then I closed the bag and put it in the microwave for 2 minutes, stopping every 30 seconds so the bag would not pop open. After the 2 minutes the dye was set and I slowly brought down the temperature of the silk by putting it in a bath of hot water, then one of warm water, then a cool bath. If  the silk is shocked by quick temperature changes it will ruin it  (Ask me how I know!). I then squeezed out the water from the silk and put it on my Aga to dry. 

The next two photos are of silk/rayon velvet purchased from Dharma Trading Company. I dyed the silk velvet the same way as the silk. For this piece of velvet I used magenta and yellow only. I got some nice blending creating a few shades of orange. However, I did not get enough dye on the velvet and there are a few white spots, but overall I was very pleased for my first attempt at dying velvet. It is, also, drying on my Aga as is the last piece.


For this last piece of velvet I used blue and yellow. I got some great greens. The only problem with this is that there are,also, white spots where I did not get enough dye into the velvet. But it is all usable and overall I was very happy with this piece, especially since it was only my second attempt at dying silk velvet.