Dye Dog #2 Finished

I started on my 2nd Dye Dog (compliments of Kay Sorensen - Quilts + Color) back in February...I did have my knitting project to work on plus I was doing quite a bit of hand stitching on this piece.  

So this was the start of Kay's beautiful shibori hand dyed fabric she created.  I started with stitching all the black lines and in some cases I used a fabric marker too enhance the lines.

 

Kay's fabric is beautiful...nothing about a dye dog in my mind!

I added some black fabric stripes in between pieces of the background fabric.

I saw a tree in her fabric so I took fused black fabric and traced my tree stencil on the back cut out the tree  then fused onto the shibori fabric.  

Of course, I had to add some beads and some other hand work.  The pink is ultra suede that I painted with black fabric paint a few years agao.

I was happy with how the pink stood out as well as the beads.  I added some multi color fabric in a 1/4" strip around the piece to tie in the pink, which is also in the background fabric.

And then the stitching began...I did machine stitched some of the tree limbs in case the fusible didn't hold up.

I was only going to do hand stitching along the bottom of the piece but I really think stitching the entire piece worked out a lot better.

I also added some embroidery thread along the top right just to tie in some of the pink ultra suede.

Another picture of the stitching and beading

ALL FINISHED AND HANGING IN OUR BACK ENTRANCE WAY!  No one comes in the front door!  HA  This way folks will see it!

And these are two layouts using the leftover dye dog fabric.  I am anxious to get started as soon as I get this Cyano printing on paper out of my system!  HA  And I have another project to start documenting the process!  I've put that project on hold for almost two years...so I need to get busy!  Right after I get all these other techniques and projects out of my system or need a break...AND I need a new knitting project!  Oh where is all this time coming from!

Dye Dog Progress - not much!

 It seems like I'm not making much progress on my Dye Dog #2....stitching takes a lot of dedicated time, which I only do at night while we watch TV....that is as long as the dogs aren't on either side of me!  I'll have to take a picture of what that looks like!  

I watched our grandson's Lacrosse game on my laptop this past Saturday while stitching.   Multi tasking!!  I like when his college games are on YouTube or their home site.  Makes you feel like you're there....OK, kinda!

You can see in the next two pictures how much stitching I have to go.

I do have some other stitching in mind for this piece in addition to the background.  But I have to finish the background first!  

I still have the 2nd dye dog #2 up on my design wall but I haven't done anything else with it.  I need to finish this piece first and then my lace top!!  Easter is almost here!

I was reading that Blogger is no longer emailing out new posts to readers!  I was wondering why I wasn't getting some posts as well as a few have asked me the same.  That's too bad.  I'd much prefer to get emails of new posts as I don't always go into my Reader List and then I'm so far behind seeing what everyone is up to.  Darn!

Week's progress...

Well, Michigan weather has allowed us to have a few decent days of 40 degrees, which also allowed the dogs to be walked twice in two days!  Kalee loves her walks...Gigi is a fair weather gal so not so much..but good for all of us.  Donna and I walked at the church walking track twice this week.  So between dogs, walking, making dog food, cleaning and cooking not a lot of progress on two projects.  But there is progress!

Depending on how many dogs are on my lap at night and what's on TV, I can either knit or do stitching on my dye dog #2.  It's progressing and I'd say I'm about half way, well almost, half way  with the background stitching...???...close enough, right!

I'm about half way on the sleeve for the knitted top...BUT I am going to 'unknit' the ribbing.  I think it's too tight and I should have used a larger needle to bind off.  I'm knitting the Italian Bind-off again, which I really like.  It is stretchy but the more I look at this pattern, I see it's fitted quite a bit more than the other two I knitted.  I'm hoping I didn't mess up and the top will be too small.  I will try on after I finish this sleeve but I do know the ribbing/bind off is too tight.  SOOOOOOOOOOO.  

We're due for a rather large snow storm of 6-8 inches starting later this afternoon.  It's good they forwarn us but it doesn't alway happen in our area...but we could have run out of luck.  Our winter has actually been very mild this year!  Can't complain and other then going to the library to volunteer, I don't have to go anywhere until next Wednesday!  HA  So I should get a lot done, right!!!  

Dye Dog #2 - Two'fer!

 So what is Dye Dog #2 - Two'fer you ask!  Well, I decided to use up the other two fabrics and any leftover from the Dye Dog #2 for the backing of my piece.  So, I started just doing some patchwork of pieces and adding some other shibori fabric (I used some pink shibori in the original piece in the strips).  

This was one of the layouts I played with.

 

Another layout...actually, I flipped the piece!  I had started this piece horizontal then I decided to change to vertical, which looks so much better.

But then the more I played with it, the more I decided to make a 2nd quilt piece!  Why waste this on the back of the quilt!  This is my favorite layout, so far. 

I can see LOTS of hand work on this one too!!!!  

So this is my DYE DOG #2 - Two'fer!

Dye Dog Progress

I'm working away on handwork on my dye dog #2!  This is the best part, as far as I'm concerned.  I just love any type of hand work.  It's so relaxing to me...even if I have to 'unrip' at times...who me!...it's still a fun process to do.

These are pieces of ultra suede that I had leftover from other projects!

In addition to some of the embroidery work, I had to add beads, right!  I played around with different colors of beads (hence, the 'unripping') but decided on turquoise beads, which look very pale here but they are a pretty shade and match the turquoise in the quilt.

Here is the side panel finished with beading and stitching.  I'm happy with how it turned out.

I am making progress...now to do hand stitching around the tree!  We don't have a target date so I don't feel that pressure, which I don't care for!  We have enough pressure in our lives.  HA HA

Again, I'm using a turquoise thread.  It's Lana Madera, color 3875 and only using one strand.

On a side note, I'm working on the ribbing of my lace top!  Woohoo!  And should be starting on the sleeves next week...depends on which mood I'm in...to knit or hand stitch!

Dye Dog #2 Progress

 

I've been working off and on the design for dye dog #2 this past week.

And started on quilting the piece!

Makes it easy to quilt...just follow the lines!  HA

Didn't do any fancy free motion work.  

I had to color in some of the black lines with a black micro pen.

I traced the stencil of the tree on back of fusible web then cut out the tree in black fabric.

And now it's handwork to get busy with!

Once I finish with the square embroidery, I'll be adding black beads (I think!) around the circles.  I plan on doing some stab stitching on the main piece...but that could also change.  I'm busy the rest of this week, so might not get to the hand work until next week.  

Hope to finish up the body on my knitted lace...I have about 2 more inches of the body then ribbing...THEN I can start on the sleeves!  Well, Easter is a long way off, right!  It will be finished by then...fingers crossed!

Dye Dog #2 Progress

 Before I get into my post...I had lunch with my BFF, Carol, on Tuesday...and come to find out Thursday she tested positive for Covid!  She didn't get sick with fever, sore throat until Wednesday but I'm hibernating until next Tuesday just to be safe and not infect anyone.  I don't think I'll get it but better be safe than sorry.

Of course I have a few ideas on my Dye Dog #2....hard to control my mind!  I see so many different ideas and go back and forth, but, I think that's just what the process is or should be, right!  I should have turned this pic of one of the dye dog fabrics.  

Just reminds me of branches of a tree.

So out came my tree stencil which I used a few years ago.  You can read that post here.

Ran the stencil through copy machine

traced tree onto fusible web

I really like the look of the tree on Kay's dye dog piece.  

So next up is deciding on the rest of the arrangement.  The piece on the left is another one of the 'dye dog' pieces.  This 3rd piece is quite light BUT I have an idea there as well...maybe using thickened dyes to enhance the black in the fabric.

Worse case, I'll use this 3rd piece as backing for the quilt.

I'm also looking at using some of this ultra suede I have.  Putting 1/8" of the pink in between black fabric looks pretty good.

Hard to tell but that 'reddish' strip is actually the same pink you see here. I have plans for doing quite a bit of hand work too.    I didn't have any solid black fabric so I ordered some from JoAnn's (with my gift card, Susan!).  They had cotton sateen on sale for $7.99 and free shipping...can't beat that with a stick, right!

So this is where I'm at with my dye dog project.  And before you know it, I'll have changed my mind and will have come up with an entirely different design!  Just the way my mind works!  

My week!

 This past Tuesday I had a tooth extraction! UGH This one hit me hard for some reason...ok, maybe I'm wimping out...as of today, (1/26/2023), it's only been 48 hours!  I'm missing eating real food!  The one plus is the swelling on my left side is taking away the wrinkles in my face!  Honest, it's kinda funny but as I say there's always a plus side to everything!  HA

I honestly haven't done much the afternoon after the removal, nor did I do anything yesterday except lay on the couch in the family room, drinking tea, napping and watching Netflix!  Today, I'm feeling much better (still enjoying the look of no wrinkles on one side of my face!  HA).  I felt like I had wasted two days so kicked myself in the butt and started to work on designing my Dye Dog 2!

I picked out some JoAnn fabric that had some shibori type pattern to it and picked out a pink fabric.  I wanted to have some type of angle blocks using small strips (pink), which I could then embroider somehow.  Really, I thought about cutting this up some more and sewing back together...but I didn't....my mind went another direction.

These are the 'dye dog' fabrics Kay sent me (you can read the post on how this project started here).

Pretty cool  fabrics and the patterns sure can get the old mind working!  Just hope I get my mind working correctly!

So now I'm playing with other colors or fabrics that may work with Kay's 'dye dog'.  

I pulled out some old ultra suede fabric I had.  These are pieces that I painted with black paint.

I have a design in mind but I need to go into my dye work area, which means asking Bob to move his plane from my work table!

I won't have time to do anything until Sunday.  Today I'm going to try and knit before dinner or after.  Tomorrow, I need to go to the grocery store and possibly laundry.  Saturday I'll be headed to the library to put away donation books.  I'm sure there's a playoff football game on Sunday but I might be able to do something or at least get my table set up with my 'idea'!  Fingers crossed!

Dye Dog 2 Project

Back in 2018 while in Florida, my quilting bud, Kay, who most of you know as Kay Sorensen from Quilts+Color, gifted another artist and I with pieces of her 'dye dog' fabrics.  Kay considers some of her shibori/over dyed fabrics as 'dye dogs'...pieces she just isn't that happy with!  Heck, anyone would be happy to have her dye dogs!  So, Beth Sherman and I were given the task of making a small quilt with some of Kay's 'dye dog' fabric.  

Also, I was fortunate to receive a piece of Kay's art work.  It's the positive and negative Kay quilted and put into a dual frame!  This sits in my sewing room so I see it often!  One of my prized possestions!

Here is the process for the completion on my dye dog!

And both of our 'dye dog' quilts!

Beth did a beautiful job utilizing Kay's dye dog as well as the addition of the flowers! 

Here is the reveal of Beth's and my 'dye dog' pieces.  I love what Beth did with her 'dye dog'!!!!  For her flowers, Beth used fabric that was dyed with bleeding tissue paper!   So delicate but so effective along with the other shibori fabrics from Kay.

So, Kay is back in Wisconsin (yes, a true Packer Fan!) and thought it would be fun to gift Beth and I another 'dye dog' fabric challenge!!  We are both up to the task!!!!  And, yes, my head is spinning with ideas!!!  Here are the 3 pieces of fabric I'm starting with!

The don't look like a 'dye dog' do they!!!

How pretty...and my camera doesn't do the color any justice!

I love Kay's shibori!  You have to check out her blog or better yet, just click on this link!  You'll see tons of Kay's shibori/overdyed fabrics.  They are beautiful and how she incorporates her fabric into beautiful quilts is just as amazing!

I love the colors in the fabric!  I know I'll have SO much fun!!!  Or a real challenge...probably challenge but it does get the old brain starting to get back into designing and quilting.  I'm afraid I've been lax with my quilting and allowing knitting to take over!  Now, back to the drawing board!