Virtual Retreat Aug thru Dec 2015 Info on first post

[Nancy R.]

Anyone ever bought Cherrywood fabric? Beautiful hand-dyed cotton in lots of rich colors. However, they do bleed a lot of dye. I had a dark plum color that I had to wash about five times by hand before I dared to put it in the washing machine with other dark colors. My guild made a wonderful quilt as a fund raiser from Cherrywood fabrics, when I asked if they washed the fabric first, I got a blank stare. Yikes, I told them to tell the winner to use lots of dye catchers.

Kathy

[Judith A.]

i use mainly batiks for my quilts - and some handdyes
as all my quilts are meant to be used (and therefore washed), they all include sewn-in washing instructions, and when i gift them, generally also a package of colorcatchers for the first couple of washes (although all my fabrics (unless i use jelly-rolls - which is very rare) are prewashed and the quilt is washed at least once before it leaves my house. better safe than sorry

Lotti,
That's smart. What a great idea.

[ANNE E.]

Lucky iPad...it's lovely.
Anne

[ANNE E.]

i use mainly batiks for my quilts - and some handdyes
as all my quilts are meant to be used (and therefore washed), they all include sewn-in washing instructions, and when i gift them, generally also a package of colorcatchers for the first couple of washes (although all my fabrics (unless i use jelly-rolls - which is very rare) are prewashed and the quilt is washed at least once before it leaves my house. better safe than sorry

I haven't used any of my hand dyes yet, but I too always wash the quilts before they leave my house
Dawn...love the iPad cover!

[ANNE E.]

I am finished with the appliqué of my Celtic Hearts 2 fabric W/H

I will try to post a picture of it.

Margarita

[ANNE E.]

.

I am finished with the appliqué of my Celtic Hearts 2 fabric W/H

I will try to post a picture of it.

Margarita

What does the w/h mean? I'm acronym challenged!! LOL at least this one I know!
Luann

[Nancy R.]

Very nice, Margarita!

[wendy w.]

Lovely Margarita it glows

[ANNE E.]

Margarita that's lovely it looks very intricate.
Anne

[Dawn S.]

Margarita, I agree with Anne! It DOES look intricate! I can't tell if it is a resist thing going on, or all just hand appliqué. I suppose if I knew what W/H meant, then I'd know. ops: Very nicely done.

And, thanks everyone for your nice comments on my iPad cover! It was so much fun to do.

Dawn

[Dawn S.]

Love it Margarita!!! Very pretty :cheer:

[Judith A.]

Dharma's latest newsletter has some interesting info on getting dyeing with less water. Sorry this is so long. I could not get the link to work.

"How To Save Water While Using Fiber Reactive Dyes
California is in the middle of a terrible drought at the time we are writing this. Texas and some other states got TOO much rain. But any way you look at it, dyeing with Fiber Reactive Dyes has always been a somewhat water intensive craft, partly depending on which technique you are using.
To dye a solid color, you need large amounts of water for the fabric to swim freely in. Also the dyes do not “exhaust” or get all used up the way Acid Dyes do on silks and wool. With tie-dye, you normally use super concentrated dye mixes, and not all of it “fixes”. So with all techniques, getting all the excess dye out of the item, when you are finished dyeing, can use a lot of water. This is a critical step so that the dyes don’t bleed in the future, either on you or on your other laundry. The beauty of this dye is that what is left is totally permanent, so much so a baby can chew on fabric properly dyed and washed out and it will not come off! But you have to get out the excess dye first, no matter which technique you are using. .
In the interest of conserving our precious water resources, here are some suggestions for water conservation to try. Many ideas are from our fantastic, information sharing Dharma customers:
One option is to use less dye - less dye takes less wash out. Pastel colors can be just as beautiful! Plus, you can always dye it again with the same color to achieve a darker shade, if necessary.
If you’re tie-dyeing or using a low water immersion technique like bag dyeing, try letting the item “batch” longer, from 12 to 24 hours. This allows the excess dye to bond with the water molecules, and to wash away more easily.
Switch at least temporarily to low water immersion techniques (scrunch, crystal wash, baggie, bread bag dyeing, etc.), dye painting or more “careful” tie-dye techniques (where you apply weaker dye more sparingly and leave more white areas) as opposed to tub and wash machine dyeing or super saturated tie-dyes.
Some of our customers have said that if they do a quick rinse in cold water to remove the Soda Ash, then a long long soak (overnight!) in COLD water, they are then able to get the excess dye out with only one super HOT (the hotter the better!) wash in the washing machine (with Synthrapol or Professional Textile Detergent). During the long soaking period, the dye will gradually diffuse out into the water. This eliminates a lot of "running water type rinsing" before the wash. It is all the rinsing, especially if tie-dyeing with normally supersaturated dye solutions, that uses the most water.
Other customers have recommended, again, the first quick cold rinse to remove the soda ash, but soaking in HOT water instead of cold. With multi-color tie-dyes and similar dye jobs, this could be riskier for back staining than a cold soak. Hot water gets dye out faster, so you may not have to soak as long. Soak similar colored items together, and don’t soak items with a lot of yellow on them with anything else. Rainbows of colors can be problematic because of the yellow. Then HOT wash with the detergent. As a rule, always use the hottest water available for washing out, as hot water is much more efficient than cooler water for removing unfixed dye, so less water is required.
Try leaving your garments or fabrics still tied up (the tighter the ties are, the better) and do a first COLD water rinse in a washing machine with everything still tied up. This will help preserve your whites, and your washing machine is going to do a more water efficient rinsing job than you can under running water. Again though, we don’t recommend mixing garments with lots of different colors. Then fill the machine back up with HOT water while you untie your garments, add them to the filled machine for a super hot wash with the textile detergent.
Some have recommended a line of successive “rinse buckets”, where you untie the garments and dip and rinse in one bucket after another. The water gets dark with dye fast at the beginning bucket, so you have to change it out with fresh frequently, and then put that bucket at “the end of the line”. We are out to lunch on how much water this method actually saves. Not having constantly running water would save some, but the water needs to be changed frequently. No soaking is done, so this would be a method for folks who are in more of a hurry. Cold water for the first bucket for sure, then cold or warm for successive buckets, keeping in mind that warmer water gets dyes out faster.
Save your shower/bath warm up water (you know all that stuff that goes down the drain while you wait for the water to get hot) and use that for your rinse water. When you are not dyeing and rinsing you can use it to wash dishes or water houseplants.
If you suspect that your water is even a little “hard”, add some water softener to your washing-out water. Many dyers do this as a matter of course. Softer water is more efficient at removing excess dye.
Now if you have some money you want to use to solve this in a far superior way, the absolute ideal situation is to install a system for your dyeing that filters and re-uses the water. These kind of systems have become much more common and affordable than they used to be. Reverse Osmosis filtration is the best. There are also far cheaper systems that do a very good job of filtering the water and getting the salts out so that the water is safe to irrigate your plants with. Dharma is looking into finding a company who might be willing to drop ship some affordable systems to our customers who are interested. Stay tuned...
We invite you to please write to us with any more suggestions you have for conserving water while dyeing so we can share them. Water is a precious resource and all of us could benefit from more “water wise” techniques."

[Geneva C.]

Margarita your celtic applique is very nice. Love the colors.

Dawn your ipad case is really cool! 50 thread changes? Wow! Sybil would hate that and get all messed up!

Speaking of, Sybil is now home! Yes, she threw Mr. Fix It to the side of the road and wanted to come home. Mr. Fix It did a great job for a very reasonable price. I haven't used Sybil yet as I've been busy this week taking care of my mom. But I hope to embroider my soon to be granddaughter's name on her quilt. Here's what it looks like so far.



The baby shower is next week so I wont have it done. But I made what I call a "car quilt". It's a flannel quilt panel to throw in the car for whatever may happen. At least it's something quilty! I'll give her the special quilt when she is born.



And I made 2 Halloween pillow cases for my granddaughters in New Jersey. We will be seeing them the end of September.



That's my mom being the photography assistant!

All this talk of dyeing fabric makes me so glad that there are places to buy wonderful dyed fabric. That's a lot of work! But you do get your very own version of what you want. Thanks for educating me on all this dyeing stuff!

Well, off to our grandson's 2nd birthday party. Take care,

geneva

[Geneva C.]

very very nice Geneva!!!

[wendy w.]

Love them especially your car quilt and mums legs!

Hurrah for Sybil and Mr Fix It is forgiven