Our last day working on the Tote - but not our last day together

Our little group has produced the cutest little bags!

Everyone worked very hard and successfully got the outside of the tote and the lining made and many were able to get a good start on the handles.


I will work on planning our spa day. We can all parade about with our wonderful totes, have a nice lunch and then lavish ourselves with the life we would love to become accustom to. I'll get the details and send out an email. Be sure to respond by using the comments at the bottom of the blog so everyone can read what you have to say.

I went to Jo-Ann's and purchased the cute little purse pattern that Diane showed us, the one from McCall's patterns. It might have been the last one, so if anyone wants to use it, I'd be glad to share. While I was there I checked for the Hobb's 80-20 batting and apparently they do not carry it anymore, however, Hancock's does carry it. You could also use Warm and Natural, this is not available at JoAnn's as far as I know. I do not like the Fairfield products they do carry but you could try them and see what you think. If you want to make an order together, we can order from Quilter's Dream which has really wonderful products (they cost a little more but are worth it).

If you feel inspired to make the tote I showed at our meeting, you'll find the pattern at Quilt Soup - the Bag Lady Lunch pattern. I bet the owner of the website would be thrilled to know how much you appreciate the pattern. If you make up one drop her a line and send a picture if you can and by all means bring it to our spa day!!!


It has been so much fun getting to know all of you and I can't wait until we can meet again. Debra

Almost Done

It has been an exciting journey
making our totes.

Here are some pictures from last week. There were some serious decisions to be made.




Then there were embellishments to be attached. And of course lots of admiring our work too.

For our final meeting, you will need to bring back your front panels. I hope you had time to work on even more embellishments.
In addition you will need:
1. Your sewing machine
2. Thread
3. The fabric for the lining of your tote
4. Pins, rotary cutter, mats, scissors, etc
5. Extension cords and multi-plug units

I will bring the cord for the handles, the dyed fabric from our first meeting, my sewing machine, an iron and board, batting, chalk and my camera.

If I have left anything out please drop me a line.

Several people were interested in purchasing the Madeira Monofil. I found a source which sells this product in a convenient amount. You can purchase it from Columbia River Quilting Supply (1000m) clear / smoke - $4.95 Monolon (15,000 yd) clear - $19.99 this price does not include shipping.

See you on Wednesday.

Touting our Tote

Last week we had a grand time dyeing our fabric. I hope you all had time to rinse out, dry, iron and most of all admire your beautiful fabric.

It was Sunday before I had a chance to get the extra pieces washed out and dried. The fabric used to soak up the left over dyes are just beautiful. I will bring them so you can see them in person. Please bring all your dyed fabric back so we can see it, even if you are not gong to use all of it.

For Wednesday, you will need :

1) the fabric you want for your tote and your dyed fabric
2) your sewing machine, (take a minute to make sure it is cleaned on the inside and put in a new needle)
3) thread to use for sewing the fabrics you have chosen and decorative thread if you want to use it for embellishments
4) bring an empty bobbin, this is for the mono-filament thread I will bring. You will find it very useful and it is a great product
5) you will be attaching your embellishments before the bag is completed, so bring you yarns, beads, charms, braid, trims, etc. I will bring some too
6) if you have a rotary cutter, ruler and mat it would be helpful to have several available to use
7) since I forgot to look at the electrical situation last time we met, if you have an long extension cord and a multi-plug bar it would be great to have a couple of those too

I will bring an iron and ironing board, the rest of the supplies you need (batting and muslin cut to size already), some embellishment items and the instructions.

It should be another really fun day for us. See you then!!!

Now What? You need to Cure and then Wash Out

This sounds like a title for some medical problem, but it's not, we're still finishing our dyeing. Since you now have made your wonderful creations and they have had a nice ride home with you, here are the instructions for finishing the job.

Once you combined the dye concentrates with the fabric, you leave the fabric to cure or batch. That simply means you're leaving the dyes to work their magic. This step can take from one hour to 24 hours (or longer if your work space is very cold). I recommend 3 hours or more. If your work space is below 75 degrees F, you will want to leave the fabric longer to ensure the dyes have time to react. Go watch your favorite show, go to another class or just have some fun. If you don't get back to the dyed fabric until a day or two later it's no problem.

Basically, once you’re done batching or curing the fabric (which really just means waiting while the dye does its stuff), you will pour off the liquid (dye solution) and discard it since it's almost powerless now (unless you want to use it for some unpredictable pastel shades on more fabric), squeeze out the fabric and place it in clear, cold water to rid the excess dye. Be sure to wear your gloves as the dye can still stain your hands.

The rinsing procedure:
1. Take the first fabric cup/bag and pour the dye solution down the drain.
2. Turn on the cold water tap.
3. Rinse out the empty dye cup and put it in the trash.
4. Run the water over your fabric piece, squeezing out the liquid. And open it up to see how lovely the colors are! Notice how much dye runs out--this will get lighter and lighter as you go.
5. When you've squeezed oodles of dye out of the fabric piece, put it in the fabric rinse bucket. Keep going until you've rinsed all your fabrics. This is the initial rinse.
6. This first rinsing step can be quick or long, depending on the recipe. Some batches are done after one good rinsing, some take several. Be patient and do it right. You do not want beautiful hand-dyed fabrics if they are going to run and ruin your quilt.
-Reds/pinks are notorious for requiring a lot of rinsing.
7. You can place the fabrics in a rinse bucket of cold water and leave them for hours, days or weeks. The excess dye will gradually leave the fabrics. When you next have time, just pour out the dirty water, squeeze out the fabrics and put them in a fresh bucket of cold water. Repeat until the water is clear after the fabrics have been soaking a while (minutes if you're stirring them in the water to assist the process, and after a few hours if you're leaving them to soak unattended).
8. Time for the final wash and rinse. Using cold water and New Dawn, Dawn, Joy, or equivalent liquid dish-washing detergent (1 teaspoon per yard or two of fabric) or Synthropol. Wash the fabric and then rinse one final time in a bucket of cold water. The rinse water must be clear or you are NOT DONE. Repeat until the rinse water is clear.
9. When the rinse water is completely clear it is time to dry the fabric. If you’ll be hanging your fabrics to dry, do not use wooden clothes pegs --they pick up dye and can stain your fabric. Use plastic ones instead.

Probably the greatest concern people have with hand-dyed fabric is whether the fabrics are going to bleed/run dye. If you follow the steps here properly, you should not have to worry about this.
Between the rinsing and the liquid dish-washing detergent used to grab any excess dye out of the fabric in the rinse process, your fabrics should be colorfast.

Introduction

Welcome to all!

I would like to introduce myself, I am Debra Smith. It seems I was born with a recessive gene called "The Q" gene. Apparently my mother passed this on to me. She was a very prolific quilter and made many beautiful things during her life. I hope to share my love of textiles with all of you.

We will be meeting for three Wednesdays (Oct 10, 17 and 24), at St. Luke's Episcopal Church, 270 N Placer Ave, Idaho Falls, from 10 am to 12:30. The goal is to make a beautiful and useful tote.

We will dye fabric the first session, begin to assemble our tote and work on embellishments during the second session and finish the handles and have a little fashion show for the third session. There is a $10 lab fee for the class. This fee is to cover the cost of fabric, chemicals, dyes, batting, etc.

Wednesday, October 10th should be a really exciting day for all of us. We will dye our fabric. One piece will be used for the accent band and handles and the other piece is for the lining of the tote. For this session you should bring a notebook and pencil if you wish to take notes. You will be provided with all that is needed to do the dyeing. Be sure to read the entire post for details about the outside fabric.

It is important that you wear clothing for which you won't be upset if there is a spill or splatter. The type of dying we will be doing is called low-immersion with Procion MX dyes. We will place our fabric and dye into plastic bags. There usually is very little mess to this method, HOWEVER, accidents can happen so let's be prepared.

I would like to invite you to bring your own fabrics for the outside of the purse. You will need one 9 inch wide piece that is at least 22 inches long (a fat quarter would work well for this) and a coordinating piece that is 3 inches wide by 22 inches long (another fat quarter). I suggest using a floral for the larger piece and a geometric for the other band. The band between these two fabrics will be one that you dye. JoAnn's has a super sale on Monday October 8th. They have fat quarters for $1 and in the back of the store they have all the discount fabric at half off. There are many wonderful fabrics which are at $2/yard. Here are some examples of fabric that I have chosen:


It may appear that these fabrics do not go together very well. In truth, I think the results are very nice. Here are two of the purses that I have made already.


I have enough fabric left over from the first purse (green with pink flowers) to supply 8 participants with this fabric. If you want me to bring this fabric for you, please email me and let me know that you want to make a tote using these two fabrics. You will still dye your own fabric and you do NOT have to have pink for the accent and handles.

You will need to bring your fabrics to the first session, if you are not using the fabric I have left over. Please bring your fabric so we can mix the dyes based upon the colors you have in your fabric.

The second purse is a variation to the pattern. I have learned a few new methods of construction since I made the first purse in June.

You might also think about the embellishments you want to use on your purse. Do you want to use eyelash yarn, buttons, grommets, beads, etc. JoAnn's also has decorative yarns on sale Monday. You will need to bring your own embellishments to the second session. If you want to bring them the first time we will all ooh and aah.

Please drop me an email if you have any questions? I look forward to seeing all of you on Wednesday!