New Dyes - amazing results!

The 2nd Annual Katie's Quilts and Crafts TIE DYE PARTY was a success!!
We use only the highest quality dyes, and do our dyeing the "professional" way, complete with all the high-tech chemicals and whatnot ;c)

In the past I have always used dharma, or  Jacquard procion mx dyes, this is the first time trying the "Grateful Dyes."  I am now a FAN!  This is certainly the best dye session I have ever had.  They are SO bright, and the wait time is much shorter.
Here's some photos:

Here's my package from GRATEFUL DYES!!   Pretty ROYGBV

 Me mixing up the chemical water - soda solution.

All the girls busy making their tie-dyes.

 Heather and Lauren, happy in their colorful mess ;c)

 I find it best to lay down some plastic (a garbage bag ripped open) then lay down a towel, and then do your dyeing on top of that.  The towel will soak up the excess dyes, so your garment doesn't get muddy.  I happen to LOVE my tie-dyed towels and use them daily ;c)

 I use an old drawer to nothing for my dyes

 Washing your dyes in the washer. .  the water is black ;c)

 Some tie-dyed cookies for the party!

 some finished tie-dyes hanging on the line.

 Tiffany and her awesome tie-dyed shirt!

 Amy and her amazing tie-dyed pillowcase!

 Yes she did!  Amy dyed some shoes!

 Another of Amy's tie-dyed pillowcases.

 Baby Miles got a few tie-dyed garments . . awww

 Amy's tie-dyed shirt!

 These next few are Sarah-Elaines tie-dyes:

 And these next ones are Ang's tie-dyes:

Next up:  I cannot WAIT to use these awesome dyes to dye myself some new QUILTING FABRIC!!  

Stay tuned!!

Double Delight UFO progress etc.,

As I mentioned before, I have two "big" projects coming. Both of them are memory quilts (quilts that will utilize inkjet printing on fabric.) I have finished all my current-running projects and didn't want to start anything new or "big" because I knew these two quilts would require my FULL attention and were going to be started very soon.

So as I'm here, twittling my thumbs in a way. I can't start anything new, so I've sorta been FORCED to dig into my UFO pile. . .which everyone knows is a GOOD thing. I knew I would dig these things out ONE day. . and the day has come!!!

UFO #1: String Quilt.

Remember the string blocks we swapped on quiltvilleswap yahoo group? I paired these, with my (now ufo'd) RRCB neutral string blocks and stitched these into an odd top. I say this is odd because there are many more neutral blocks than colored ones. I don't have a photo of this just yet, but will have very soon and will share it ASAP.

UFO #2: Double Delight.

I pulled this baby out today, and this is what I saw.

I was constructing this quilt using the QAYG method (as usual) and since it was on-point it was very INTERESTING to put together... Here you can see that all my blocks were put together in rows, and the sashing already added. All I had to do was put the rows together and the center would be done.

I don't know why I UFOd this in the first place. Yes, I just used UFO as a verb. I was SO CLOSE. So close in fact, that I finished the whole "center" of the quilt in just a couple hours!!

Here's a few more photos of the finished "center" section of the quilt:

Tomorrow, I will wake up, get my coffee, turn on the latest episode of "WEEDS" that I'm watching on netflix, and start on the borders. I had a pile of new fabric in the same bag, so I'm assuming that's what I had already chosen for the borders. Hey, works for me! One less thing I have to think about.

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Last week, I finished another batch of hand-dyes that I was hoping I could use for Sindy of FatCatPatterns.com's BOM "Fiesta"

I made a Flickr Slideshow of all the gradated fabrics and you can view them here.

I only used 4 colors, and did 2, 12-step gradations.

Brown -> Red -> Ecru

Brown -> Blue -> Ecru

I used procion mx dyes by jacquard and the actual colors are called "Carmine red" and "MEdium Blue" just in case you were wondering.

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One more thing!!!

I'm SUPER excited about the upcoming quiltvilleswap yahoo group CIVIL WAR swap!!!

FatQuarterShop had a sale of the eXACT fabrics I was eyeballing at the eXACT time I was wanting them!!!! So I bought a yard of each so I could have about a 1/2 yard of "leftovers" for me ;c) The other 1/2 yard I cut up into 2.5" by half WOF strips to swap. I took some photos of them just because I think they're so awesome. . . .

Look at all the squishies!!!!!!!