craftster one of the best of 2010

I'm a Craftster Best of 2010 Winner!


and very happy..it is for the spiral tie-dyeing tutorial that I created.

Fabric cover for a gratitude journal

This is another project destined for a swap. it is simply sewn from a simple green corduroy fabric, with some patches appliqued on, I used some buttons and a ribbon for the closure. it holds a simple hardback notebook, which is replaceable when its all used up.

Did you know that one of the techinques that have been proven to contribute to long term happiness and contentment, is the practice of gratitude. i have been making lots of journals recently to give to people as gratitude journals. The idea is that you write in them every day or so, just make a note of three things that you are grateful for in your life.

I think this would make a fabulous gratitude journal, which is why i used the colour of the heart, green..and of love..pink

new necklace for me

I succumbed to the lure of sparklies on ebay over the holidays. I bought a few of these silver pendants. This one was begging to be made into a necklace for me. it is pink topaz, amethyst and blue topaz, on sterling silver, The necklace part is just a mixture of glass beads that I had lying around.

A quilt in a day, from 9 fat quarters

It was time to make a quilt..

 I decided that I wanted to start something new and found these great instructions online, to make a quilt from 9 Fat quarters. I have some nice FQ that I had been saving for a special occasion. It is my new resolution to stop saving fabric....I plan to use it instead. I also had a very cute (Very expensive) FQ that I got in Galway last weekend)

I had just decided to piece the top that night, it was Sunday afternoon,  but the cutting and piecing of the top went so fast..it would have been about an hour and a half. If I didn't have to rethread my machine about 10 times, not sure why..crappy thread perhaps...and if I hadn't got impatient about one mistake and instead of using a seam ripper...ripped it by hand..and yes, ripped the block, so had to resew the whole thing....

so it took about an 1 3/4 hours. Having more time in hand..and only sunday night, -back-to-work-tomorrow- blues to look forward to. I thought I would work on a bit of overachieverness and see if I could finish it..

and I did!! I used an old foxford wollen blanket for batting, and even pieced a strip for the back and put a label on it- using the embroidery function on my machine-

The whole thing took about 4-5 hours I'd say, allowing for mistakes, it is far from perfect, I did mostly quilt-in-the ditch on my regular machine, so there are some puckers, and the corners are awful..but it is a finished quilt, rather than adding to my many unfinished objects...and I love it to bits!

Two dresses

One of the more frustrating things I made over christmas, was these two dresses, for my daughter and I. I used Burda world of fashion magazine patterns for both and was not at all happy with how the bodice patterns on each were drafted. Mine would have been better (and required a lot less fitting) if I had used a fabric with a slight stretch. I kid you not, but I ripped and resewed the bodice of mine about 6 times and the bodice of my daughters dress ten times!!

I was happy with how mine turned out..less so with hers. Mine is a taffeta(ish) fabric, lighter in weight with embroidery all over, it is fully lined. hers is a gorgeous silk satin, with vintage lace at the neckline.

Some quick jewellery for me

I seem to spend a lot of time making stuff for other people and so this was a quick little jewellery set for me.

spiral print tie-Dye tutorial

These pictures were taken in the last of the summer...trust me there is no going outside these days with all the rain and the coldness!..but the colours make me happy.

This is the finished result. i use fibre reactive dyes. I make up a strong dye solution, with just water. I only own dyes in the primary colours, so I mix up red blue and yellow dyes, power and water, in disposable containers!..you only need about 1/2 pint of strong colours. And then mix blue+red=purple etc, to give me the three secondary colours.

 Start with piece of prewashed cloth (to remove any starch) I used a square about a yard long/wide. Lay it flat on the ground in front of you and grasp the centre point and start to twist

it will look like this if you let go...dont let go.

keep twisting, keeping the fabric fairly flat to the ground, until you end up with a tight spiral of all of the fabric, arrange the pleats as you go to keep it fairly neat.

For a rainbow spiral, take three long pieces of string, carefully put the first one underneath, bring it to the top and tie off, do this with the two other pieces so that you have the fabric divided into 6 sections (I know a rainbow has 7 colours, but this is a good approximation)

 tie off the string fairly tight (tighter than in this pic) and tuck in the loose ends so you have a neat package

I use the soda soak method of dying, with procion fibre reactive dyes, this means that the (dry) fabric gets soaked for about 20 minutes in a strong solution of washing soda and water.





take out the fabric and squeeze out as much of the soaking liquid as you can, keeping the spiral intact. Set it on the draining board of the sink..or work outside..it is messy.

'Fill' in three segments with your three primary colours, yellow, skip one, red, skip one, blue , skip one...( you will notice from the photos that I screwed this up..but it still looks OK, tie dyeing is very forgiving. You don't have to completely soak each segment, some white is good and will look good in the end. Don't worry about staying inside of the lines..as long as you have complimentary colours adjacent to the ones you are adding, they will blend and look great. I use a big paintbrush to put the colour onto the fabric.

You can either put the spiral, very carefully into a plastic bag to allow it to soak for a while, this should increase the intensity of the colour a bit..or if you are like me, cut off the threads, rinse out the fabric to remove excess dye and glory in the eye-popping colour.

this is the  very best way to revive tired bedlinen, makes a great centre for a quilt and is just fun,


once you are done you might find you have dye left over, so scurry all around your house for tired white cotton clothing, chuck them in the soda soak  for about 15 minutes and then have fun!

I'm a Craftster Best of 2010 Winner!