It's all about the quilts.

Week 18 zoomed by and of course I'm late. Seems the norm these days but college finals are next week, so I've been pretty busy drawing up a storm. Self portraits? Can't say I like them much. Getting lots of practice though. Maybe one day I will actually be able to draw what I see. Not as easy as it seems.

What did I learn this week? I learned that even if you think you can dye, everything you know goes out the window when you are dyeing silk. Colors are what colors should be and the results can be mighty humbling. Check out the pictures. My oldest wanted me to dye some silk (8 yards) to be a deep cranberry color. Being the die hard dyer that I think I am, I said sure, no problem. That's when the confusion started. I mixed up the dye and did a test run. My muslin came out cranberry, my silks came out blue.... What the heck??? I then did 4 other test runs and the results were not what they seemed. The rust brown came out cranberry, the drab olive came out semi true to color. The fire red came out semi red and "barbie pink" and the plum came out .... sort of purple..ish. So I went with the rust brown and it wasn't as true when I mixed up a large batch. Well, I can a least overdye and maybe, just maybe.....Something will come out semi right. I worked hard and learned a little, but the most I learned was to expect the unexpected. So, keep on quilting and dye a little, it will surprise you lots.....