Dye Dog finished!

Dye Dog 2018

23" x 33.5"

You can read the story behind this piece here.  I have to thank Kay, Quilts + Color, for giving Beth and I an opportunity to stretch ourselves by working with her dye dog!  Most of you know Kay from her blog and you've seen some of my posts on Kay.  If not, head over to her blog (after you look at this post!  HA) 

This was quite a challenge for me and not wanting to let Kay down with my work just put more pressure on me!  I'm happy with how the piece turned out and hope Kay is as well!  Thanks again for the challenge, Kay!

This was Kay's original fabric.  I'm afraid the colors are not true....blame the photographer!  But you'll get the idea on what the pattern was for us to start with.

I used a thermofax screen I had made using my friend, Carol T's, fathers blueprint design!  I just happen to have had some maroon dye already mixed up. 

Next up was trying to figure out a design.   So out came the rotary cutter!   I made a slew of flying geese sections and starting to lay them out.

Looks like my geese flew away!  You really can't tell that's what they were/are!  HA

Final layout...now how to quilt it!  Hand stitching works for me!

I started with the blueprint designs first.  Then the piece just told me which way to go!  Yes, this was "slow stitching" (see my previous post!

I love to do circle hand stitching...can you tell!  The yellow sashing called for some type of thread work and a fly stitch seemed to fit well.  My fiber art group assisted in helping me decide on the colors to use. 

And some straight line stitching finished off the piece...along with free motion quilting in the border. 

A little short animation on how this piece came together!

Dye Dog Progress

Bob watches either baseball or his What on Earth series at night (if we don't have a show taped) or some other Missing show....when he does,  that gives me time to sew at night.   I can watch my movies/series  on my tablet and stitch!  Works for me!

I'm happy with the progress on my dye dog, even though it is slow going.  Now to decide how to finish the borders...I'm thinking I will just free motion some design vs hand stitching.  But who knows....

You can see the border on the right side...it actually is on all four sides.  Maybe I will get really bored and decide to add some hand stitching following the design in the fabric!  OH, NO!!!  Think I have enough hand work!!!  But.....you never know!

Miscellaneous Stuff!

We had our fiber art group meeting this past Monday and I got feedback on a  few projects I'm working on, which is always a good thing.  This is my 'dye dog piece' that I'm adding hand stitching. 

All the circles are stitched as well as the circles in the square centers, 

Just doing straight lines to fill in areas.

I decided to add some embroidery in the shashing but wasn't sure I liked it.

 So I received some input from my buds!  They suggested the embroidery looked good...perhaps adding different colors of threads (e.g. maroon) vs all green would work or/and adding some opposite color (maroon again!) in between the stitching.  I really liked that idea.

So, I looked into my Perle cotton thread box and decided I didn't like the green shade above and found one a tad darker.  The yarn on the far right is what I used in pic above.  I'm now using the green on the left as well as the brown Perle cotton (both #5).

And off I went with the stitching! 

I think it's working and I'm liking where this is going now!  So great to get wonderful input from your talented friends!