A messy play day with friends.

Title page to "Woolly Thoughts"

A few things have been completed since I last posted a blog here. I went along to a really enjoyable Messy Play Day at Meryl's last Wednesday. Such fun. I'll show you what we did later. I felt I really ought to get my challenge book cover completed before heading off to the dyeing session. I wanted to prepare it ready to hand over so that it could be taken along to the next Pinfold meeting. Sadly, I can't be there since I will be giving a mini workshop at Quiltfest. I added a title page as well as a cover.

Front cover

The cover is made up of dyecatchers which have been drawn on using permanent markers in various colours. This has then been quilted over a thin iron-on wadding.

Full cover

 These are the original pages I completed ready for the challenge. Hand made felt, printed and hand stitched with dyecatchers which had been free machine embroidered.

My pages inside the book

After handing over the book, it was time for playing. For the Messy Day we first dyed threads and cotton fabrics using procian dyes.

Dyed threads awaiting rinsing out

Dyed fabric drying

threads drying on the rack

The fabrics were dyed inside plastic pots whilst the threads were painted with dye. Such a lot of fun.

Dried and ironed fabrics ready to use.

The dyed threads wound onto bobbins ready to use

Dyed bias tape wound round cardboard after ironing. Hopefully this will keep the tape flat

As you can see, we actually completed a lot of dyeing - bias tape, threads and fabric. All of these are going to be so useful in various projects.

The afternoon found us playing with different materials to make decorated papers. We used stencils, Brusho powder, spray inks and Pixie Powder. Spraying the different media using a fine water spray brought out such a variety of different effects. Even the kitchen paper used as masks has been kept since it can also be used in different projects. Thanks Meryl for a really exciting day.

I've put my decorated papers, fabrics and threads away for now while I get on with the quilts I really ought to be sewing. Unfortunately, the quilts really aren't of quite so much interest. However, there are deadlines to meet, so I really ought to get moving with them. Hopefully there will be some progress to report next time.