Virtual Retreat July 2015 - Join Anytime

[Lotti D.]

Great Quilt, Lois! And welcome back...

Had a 'dream night for adventurers' at the animal sanctuary, complete with dinner, night-time guided tours, sleeping under the stars and early morning visit... Of course we're here for the day today as well - was fab...

[Geneva C.]

Kathy, Yes it does wash up very nice. I have several friends/babies that love to sleep and snuggle under the quilts that I made using Kona cotton solids.

geneva

[Pamela N.]

Rosemary Maxiature is amazingly beautiful - I am in awe of your talents, I'm sure you will win. I'm only catching up with posts as I was in hospital last week Scary.
Best Wishes Pam

[Pamela N.]

Rosemary Maxiature is amazingly beautiful - I am in awe of your talents, I'm sure you will win. I'm only catching up with posts as I was in hospital last week Scary.
Best Wishes Pam

Pam, hope this finds you well or 'on the mend' from last week's time in the hospital.
May God bless you with calmness to handle whatever He allows in your life,
Luann

[wendy w.]

Taken with my phone so ill apologise in advance.

Thanks Luann

[wendy w.]

Lotti I want to camp with you

[wendy w.]

Oh dear I've lost my marbles I posted on CW thinking I was here so here is a copy to explain the above :lol:

"I've had a great day I went on a workshop. It was called Treasured Splinters and run by Viv Denscombe http://www.embroideryviv.co.uk/index.html . We made a strippy type quilt based on a photo. I used a photo a friend sent me of her farm in Australia. It's 36" x 7" which is a lot longer and narrower than I've done before. I used lots of my hand dyes, some scrim, tulle, sari silk and bits. Such fun and so much playing. I'll try and get an upright pic for you but it needs embellishing and finishing yet.

Roll on Wednesday I'm on another workshop making a quilt from a Klimt picture called Summer Fantasy which is the same sort of playing. This is a great retreat week for me except that the old man drilled through the hot pipe on Friday so we've no hot water all weekend. Luckily a plumber is coming Monday to fix a new bathroom. I'm beginning to smell. :lol:"

[wendy w.]

Oops the colours are wrong on the photo but never mind I'll do one when I've finished.

[Dawn S.]

Wow, Rosemary! Your tiny quilt is breathtaking! Such patience and perseverance! Does it get judged? I'm sure everyone viewing it will be in awe of it's intricacy for its size!

[Catherine S.]

I have been gone for a little over a week too. 170 posts to read on this thread alone. WOW!
Ritzy, I am sure you are so excited about the twins. If you have some time off and want to get together, just pm me. I am about one and a half hours away. I realize it will be hard to tear yourself away from the twins and their big brother. Have fun.
Dorothy, I think your hand dyes are beautiful.
Luann, glad your baby was safe. Have fun with her.
Lotti thanks for the pics. The scenery is beautiful. Looks like a wonderful place to sleep under the stars.
Everyone, I think the chicken saddles are for both purposes. The roosters do tend to injure the hens and if there is an open spot, the other hens tend to peck at it until it is really bad. They have been known to kill one by pecking it. I would think the saddle would cover any injured spot and let it heal. It could prevent a scratch to begin with. They can be mean to each other sometimes, kind of like people. But not quilters. I have never met an unfriendly quilter. We are the greatest!!

[Catherine S.]

Wow, Rosemary! Your tiny quilt is breathtaking! Such patience and perseverance! Does it get judged? I'm sure everyone viewing it will be in awe of it's intricacy for its size!

Hi Dawn, yes it does get judged. Keeping my fingers crossed that I get something - however if any of the Japanese miniaturists enter I will be 'up a gum tree' as some of the matching up on the diagonals is not 100% perfect :unsure: . Also unfortunately, I am not able to go on the Thursday for the awards afternoon/evening (although if I don't win anything, I will probably deputise Lorchan to stand in for me). Anyways, I am really pleased with it , and it is certainly eye catching from a distance B)

[Catherine S.]

By the way, lovely fabrics Luann.

Perhaps I ought to pick up the dyeing bug again, I've just retired a lightweight cotton lawn dress that would be a great weight for miniature piecing (easier than normal quilting weight cottons) but it is just plain pink at the moment.

[Pamela N.]

Thank you for your kind concern Luanne, I'm fine now. To cut a very long story short I was admitted to hospital with a suspected brain bleed as I suffer from hypertension and had a prolonged visual Migraine. The shock of being admitted as an emergency to hospital sent my blood pressure was off the scale - I was terrified. Praise The Lord it all settled down. I'm back to the retreat now Luanne and happy.
God bless you
Love Pam

[Geneva C.]

Pam, I am glad you are back with us at the retreat. Here have some M&Ms. I'm sure they will cure what ails you!

geneva

[Geneva C.]

Judith, Dorothy, and other "dyers",
I remember back several pages, Judy said she was having trouble with the wash out. Well, I am utterly taken aback by what happened in my laundry room today.
You may recall the sheet sets I dyed a few months ago.




The final washout was clear. I had even put in a color catcher every time since when laundering them. This is most often every 7-10 days, depending if we go away for a weekend, or I'm just otherwise focused. LOL
Well, those color catchers have been coming out with a tinge of color. Nothing I would worry about if I had put white undies in with them. But today, same washer, same water temp, same detergent, only thing that could be different is the 'chemicals added' by the city!!
And here's a picture of today's color catcher and this is after drying! You should have seen the intensity when wet,,, yikes




So, with that being said, I am going to do more experiments and contact my scientist friend to see if she has any ideas about what might be taking place and how to correct it! I know I'm baffled and befuddled. Next time they get washed, I will put in my color catcher as usual, but I'm going to put in two other pieces of cloth. One will be pfd straight off the bolt, the other one will be pfd, soaked in soda ash and allowed to dry, then put into the wash. I will mark them with tyvek labels. I almost want to just rehash these right now, but I'm trying to be conservative with water. So I'll wait.

Any input from you will be appreciated.
Do the rest of you want us to take this whole 'dyeing' matter to its own thread, or is the retreat an ok place?
Watch for the August retreat thread to be coming online by Saturday. I think I may extend a giveaway of some more hand dyed cloth just for listing a current project on my blog.
May God bless all of you
Luann