dyeing update

Ok so a lady from facebook emailed me a couple of articles about dyeing fabric. One was like what the RIT people had, but it didn't have what I was looking for. The second article was about making it mottled, which is like what the Silkweavers and Enchanted Fabrics hand dyed fabrics are like. I have read it through a couple of times and I think I know what's going on. Of course, there is nothing like actually doing said dyeing to put theory into practice. It might turn out just like I think (and it probably will) but then again might be a total messy disaster. Of course, I won't know until I try it out. I did pick up several different colors of dye to attempt this grand experiment in hand-dyeing. I don't know when I will get around to actually attempting this, but it should be interesting. I'll try to take lots of pics to document it.

finally an update

Here is the finished Jewels of the Orient (aka the 2 geishas) - I finished them on 7/1/09 after oh about 9 years of stitching on them on and off. I had to wash the piece, but that isn't surprising since it'd been a long time since I started it.




I started this one back in like 2003 or 2004. It's not very big, so I should have had this one done a long time ago. Oh well. At least I'm decreasing the UFO pile. If I get around to it, I'll take a pic of what it will look like.


Here is the finished Iris, along with a closeup of the wings bit. I love the beads. The purple ones have purple on the inside and blue on the outside. It took me a bit longer than I thought it would since I had a bunch of overtime. I started her on 7/1/09 and finished her on 8/15/09.



Well I have finally gotten thru the left side of the flower faries which I'm making for Stefy's baby. I started them on 8/15/09, and had really hoped I'd be done with them today, the 31st. Oh well . . . that didn't happen. I'd really liked the idea of starting my Tannith HAED on 9/1 just like the beginning of the term of Hogwarts. I might still start it, I'm not sure tho.

dyeing fabric

I have been getting special hand dyed cross stitch fabric (lugana) for the pixies. I decided I want to try to dye my own. That way they'd be extremely unique. But it's hard to find any info on how to go about it. I picked up some literature from that RIT dye but that was for if I want to make it all one shade or dye it. It's not the same as the cross stitch fabrics. I looked on Booksamilion to see if there was any books about it. I found some books and then found them on Amazon.com (put 'em in my wishlist too). So I decided why not swing by Barnes & Noble on the way home and see if they had any books. I found a big, fat nothing for my trouble. (Tho I was able to find the Twilight book 3 in paperback and the Gypsy Morph book which I was looking for.) Blah! They had just about any other kind of crafting thing you could think of, including get this upholstery but not one about dyeing fabric. What the crap? Three upholstery books but no dyeing? Sigh . . . I think I'll try calling over to Books a million tomorrow and see if they have any and if not, I'll order them from Amazon.

More to come on the odyssey of the fabric dyeing.

Iris update

Onto the wings!

Oooh loook a dreeesssss!

I finished the dress bit of Iris a little after 6 am on Harry Potter's 29th birthday. lol I crack me up. That means 7/31/2009 for those of you who have no clue when that is.

Onto the fleshy bits, the hair, the wings, the backstitching, and the beading in that order.

Here's more update pics of Iris. I stayed home sick and watched some dvds on my new little portable dvd player and stitched a lot. I have gotten further than the second pic, but I didn't feel like taking another pic yet. I have gotten about 1/3 done with the purple bits on the left side.



When I finish the left side, then I'll work on the fleshy bits - legs, arms, face, hair. (Ok that's not fleshy but it's part of the fleshy bits.) Then I will just have the wings to stitch. Then after that will be the back stitching, and there's not much of that on the pixies. And the last bit will be the beading. That usually doesn't take too long. I'm going to update my places where I post cross stitch pics and then work on it some more.

Ok it's been a while time for an update

Ok I've not been very good about updating this lately, but here it is.

I finished the geishas on 7/1/09 sometime around 3:45 am or so. They needed to be washed, as did Mom's bird heart wreath. Not surprising, I'd say, since the geishas were almost a decade old and the wreath was over a decade and a half old. The wreath bled from that maroon color thread and it took me about 8 soakings. But I was finally happy with it. When I have a little extra money (I'm thinking after I do a lot more overtime?) and they have a 50% off framing sale at AC Moore, I'll have Mom pick out her frame.

I have finally started Iris - I started her on 7/1/09, and I got lots done on her during the 3-day weekend. Then, however, I sort of stalled a bit with the 2 weeks of overtime. This is how far I've gotten on her:

I'm really looking forward to being done with all that gold/brown . . . I'm sort of sick of that color. But it will look really nice when it's done.

This is what I am really looking forward to stitching. I'll be stitching this for Stefy for her baby. I don't think they're going to take that long to do. I'm thinking it'd be really neat to be able to mail it to her for her baby shower, which is August 29th. But I'm not going to beat myself up if I don't make that deadline. I'm adding some 0032 blending filament to the wings. I'd thought about matching the sparkly to the color of the fairy, but Stefy thinks opalescent would make sense for fairy wings.


They have another 4 new pixies! Ack! I'm falling further and further behind. lol I do have Pansy and Sweet Pea. I haven't gotten Bluebell (I really like the color on her) and Magnolia yet since I just ordered them this week.
Here are the new ones of the pixies:
Bluebell:


Magnolia


Pansy


Sweet Pea



And in the music videos:
I'm thinking now for Ishtar, I'd really rather use Godsmack's Voodoo and that maybe their Serenity would be nice for Aveyond. I was thinking their Running Blind might be nice to use for that Miribilia's Stargazer. Yup I do want to stitch that too. So I think that Corsira will get Greensleeves (RVCB).

I think I need a 36 hour day to stitch this all.