August 2012 Meeting

What a fun meeting we had, lots of show and tell from our dyeing workshop! Old Business We received a Thank You note from the league of Women Voters for our participation in the Garden Tour. We decided if they ask us next year to participate again, we would be happy to, as long as there is shade. Corienne brought her bag of weaving thrums for us to go through, and we had a big ball of Pendleton wool trim from Maureen, to take snips off of. We double checked everyone's phone and email for the membership list. Bring your Beatles challenges to the Sept. meeting, Peggy and Kay will take them up to the Sutherlin Library for display. New Business We discussed the possibly of a fall retreat at the coast, and decided to post pone it for Spring Break, everyone seamed to have more time then. I will look into the dates and info. Sept. meeting - Corienne will give a demo on "Kumihimo" Japanese Braiding, she will provide supplies. Oct. meeting - Vera will demo the iron on vinyl/silk screening process. Show and Tell We got on with the show and tell portion of our meeting, everyone was anxious to see how all the dyeing turned out. We discussed if the heat of the day, or the size of the ice cubes made a difference on the patterning. Meredith said "NO" she had tried it on very hot days and with different size cubes. Everyone who used the "Millsoft" conditioner on the silk, loved the way it made the fabric soft and conditioned it after the harsh chemicals of dyeing.

Kay surprised us all by showing us the dyed paper towels that were used for clean up. They were as pretty as the fabrics. Her green silk scarf was shimmery, and the orange/red was an intense color. She and Meredith had several pieces of marbled fabric that they liked, tho frustrated with the process. Meredith learned it takes two people to lay down the fabric for marbling or you get hesitation marks on the print. Meredith's two scarves were rich blends of earthy colors of green and rust, made by tucking the silk in plastic strawberry baskets for the patterning. One of the fabrics was a Habotai silk, the other was Charmuese.

She also showed us her yardage of red/yellow ice dyed fabric with a "sun" look to it and explained how it was twisted/folded to get the pattern. Her Beatles challenge is almost done. Vera had no show and tell, but her silk scarves are for sale at the "Touch Stone Gallery" in Yachats on the Oregon coast. She has silk charmuese, crepe de chine, and "Devore" burn out scarves. Thank you Vera for all the hard work you do so we can have our workshop at your place! Pat displayed a baby quilt made with purple and pink Bali batiks, for her grandchild. She is hand quilting, with large stitch pearl cotton in front of the TV, and says "it is a way to endure football!"

Nancy had three silk scarves in similar colors, of deep rich blues/teals/fuschia, and her two yards of jacquard yardage that she dyed with two shades of black. The black separated and "haloed" into rich dark purples with green and mauve patterning. She intends to make a garment with it. Corinne was unable to come to the workshop, but she has been doing crock pot dyeing of some white hand spun and commercial wools. She intends to make woven yardage to make some men's vests, as they keep trying on the women's vests at the shows she goes to. Jana's 3 silk scarves are also similar shades, she used the "Bronze" dye, and got blends of peach, coral, bronze "fall" colors. As part of an online spinning challenge called the "tour de fleece" she spent time spinning everyday during the "Tour de Fance" then as a knitting challenge she finished knitting a beautiful shawl during the London Olympics. This combined into a beautiful coppery rust colored shawl with a lace knit edge.

Peggy's silk scarves were an assortment of colors, she wondered about ironing the crinkle silk jacquard, and we discussed hemming the torn edge scarves. She and Gracie had dyed matching scarves together, and she was disappointed Gracie couldn't be at the meeting to compare the results. Her two pieces of tray dyed fabric came out tricolor like she wanted, a very nice blend of colors.

Amy shared her discharge fabrics that she made when Peggy came over for a play day, large stencils were used and Jacquard's Decolourant. Some of the fabrics had Shiva paint sticks stenciled over the discharge. One of the fabrics was made into a whole cloth quilted wall hanging with an asymmetrical border.

Her many scarves were an assortment of colors, several purple and fuchsia, two multicolor that Meredith couldn't keep her hands off of, they went with what she was wearing. She displayed her ice dyed cotton fabrics that she had played with before the workshop to see how old (really old-35 yrs) dye worked. It worked out just fine, they had been very well sealed. Meredith said some of her dyes were 17 years old, and were still working fine. Amy's assortment of marbled fabrics from the workshop, another trial day, and a third day with Peggy, came out with various success, although it was all very frustrating. After much trial and error, the paint was still not acting properly and no consistent results were achieved. After watering down paints, and using dispersant, they decided to try one more batch of thicker goop, to see if that might be the problem. Stay tuned for results.

Amy also ice dyed a rayon dress that Meredith had given her (thank you!) she used various shades of blue, emerald green and chartreuse, and put lemon yellow over the whole thing, to achieve a green color. It was darker at the hem, and lighter on top, for her niece who loves green. We all had so much fun, that the two ladies who missed out, want to try it too, so a few of us will get together at the end of the month to play again with the ice dyeing at Amy's house. Everything came out absolutely beautiful, we learned a good lesson about "letting go" as you can't control much of the out come, the finished fabric is all a surprise. We all agreed it is worth doing again, and was simple enough to do on our own, our confidence is growing, I look back on our first dye workshop 5 years ago and can really see the learning we have done. I hope everyone enjoys the pictures as much as we enjoyed making everything.