Saturday, October 17, 2009

Saturday is a lazy day ~ get busy!

Rick was off to Oklahoma City on a Patriot Guard ride early this morning. So I had most of the day to myself. Now, if I'm not careful, I'll waste an entire day doing nothing. I hurried through the morning chores of laundry, dishes, dog-brushing, vacuuming and such. Once I had enough housework finished that it wouldn't look like I spent the whole day playing I got out some fabric, dye and started water boiling on the stove.

The first fabric I dyed was the bright orange on the left. This was RIT dye called Sunshine Orange. I wanted a really intense color so I used very little water and the entire packet of dye. The fabric, 28 count Jobelan, soaked for about 30 minutes. I was very pleased with the resulting orange because I wanted something suitable for a bit of Halloween stitching.

The middle fabric wasn't quite as pleasing. I added some liquid RIT Scarlet to that same orange dye bath and put in a cut of 25 count Lugana. This too soaked for about half an hour. I was trying for a darker orange color but what I got was a light salmon??? It's a pretty color though. I think the type of fabric made the difference in color.


Then, I drained the orange dye and mixed up some straight RIT Scarlet. This fabric is 32 count Belfast. I soaked this one for 30 minutes as well. Be aware when you dye with red dye...you will spend forever rinsing! I think I rinsed this for 40 minutes before I got all of the excess dye out! I'm really happy with this fabric, it has lots of variation and it should be perfect for some Christmassy stuff.


I think I like the liquid dyes the best. The granulated packet ones never seem to completely dissolve. However, the Sunshine Orange dye was really nice and I've never seen that one in a liquid form.

Blog Stuff
Have you seen the new widget in my sidebar: The Blog Frog? Isn't that fun? I like seeing who's been visiting and it gives your blog some advertising when you visit mine. I just wish more of you would add the widget to your blogs! I also love the FROG part of the name ~ fun for a stitchy blog ROFLOL!

Would you do me a big favor? I now have around 450 blogs in my Blog Roll. These all should be in my reader as well. If every one updated their blog on the same day I'd be in big trouble! Anyway, (I'll get to the point) 450 blogs is a lot to keep track of! Would you please check to see if your blog is in my Blog Roll? If it isn't or if you've changed the name of your blog and it's still listed as the old name, leave me a comment and I'll fix it. Also, if you display the Followers gadget on your blog and I'm not following you let me know! If you don't use the Followers gadget, why the heck not? Put it on! Again, just leave me a comment so I can fix it!

A new start?
I'm itching for a new Halloween start and I have a couple of designs in mind. Some deciding to do this evening and I'll settle to one of them and get to stitching! I'll let you know what comes about.

Thank you for visiting my blog today!
xox

42 comments:

  1. Gorgeous fabrics! I can hardly wait to see how you use them!!

    Congrats on having some fun time to do what you would like to do!! It was well spent!

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  2. what is the point of the followers gadget exactly?! :)

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  3. Your fabrics turned out gorgeous! I've often wondered how dying fabric with Rit would look. It gives beautiful results.

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  4. Love the colors of your new fabrics especially the scarlet!!!! Nice work there.

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  5. Those are really very pretty! Congrats on getting some new fabbies dyed for your stitching pleasure!

    Looks like I am listed, and yep you are following me!!

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  6. What a lovely fabrics you have dyed. Such beautifull colors, I like the orange.
    The frog is cute, I put it on my blog too, I don't now if you want new blogs in your blog roll, you can put mine in it, if you like.
    I'm curious of your new start

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  7. The fabric colors are really pretty! I've been thinking about using the red. Thanks for the heads up. I tried using the Blog Frog a couple of days recently and I wasn't sure how it worked.It showed some visting 2 or 3 times a day and I know that person rarely visits my blog. Due to that I presumed it wasn't working right and removed it. I think it was set on showing a sample or something. Anyway my whole reason for having it was to see who had visited. We tested it with my son's computer and he never showed up . Oh well.Have a great rest of the day!

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  8. i love the colours you used for the fabrics, and i put the blogfrog on my blog ( the non stitchy one where i moan a lot lol), i dont think it will be too long before it will catch on, and i ought to be stitching but i have discovered reading blogs through google reader (yes i am slow) so been on here most of the night - after seeing to hubby and the kids, i think i need a holiday away from them all, then i could stitch till my hearts content, what bliss lol

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  9. Hi Sharon,

    You actually have me listed twice on your blog list on the left. I'm cyn_stitches :-)

    I like the new fabric that you dyed today. Very bright and colorful.

    Today is a lazy day for me also. I'm sitting in a condo by the beach. Sounds great except outside it's cold and rainy! In addition, we are down here to take care of DD who broke her foot while at college this past Wednesday. Yep, she's in a wheel chair until she can get to a specialist early next week.

    So since we can't walk on the beach or go wheeling (in her wheel chair) down the boardwalk. I'm catching up on blogs and about to do some stitching. Or at least until dinner. :-)

    Cynthia
    Windy Meadow

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  10. Fabrics look great!! One of these days I'll try that :)

    I'll look into Blog Frog, looks interesting. I've recently added the followers widget on my blog too.

    Hope the rest of your weekend is as fun as the start of it has been!!

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  11. Oooh.. Pretty colors!!! If you have an arts and education store in your area you should definitely check out their dye sections. There is a powder dye that comes in a tiny tin that is very fine and dissolves nicely.

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  12. the fabrics are beautiful!!! I love them all! Great job!
    And yes, the blog frog is fun!!! I added it to my blog yesterday! I am seeing LESS people visit my blog thou. I am beginning to think I have a disease, by the lack of interest.

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  13. Love that orange. Can't wait to see what you are going to stitch on it.

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  14. OH, such yummy colors! I can't wait to see what you stitch on them.

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  15. Very preety, I am shoping for Sunshine orange tomorrow, as have the perfect pattern for that color fabric. (see my lastest post and the mag cover design, there is a bellpull version of this). I have never used RIT dye but there is always a first. CJ ok;-)

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  16. I love how that orange turned out. Well, I like how all of them turned out, but being that orange is not one of my favs, I am drawn to this one. Nice job! Can't wait to see what you do with it. :) I think you are correct about your red fabby. It will go well with Christmas.

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  17. What pretty colors. Anxious to see what you are stitching on them. I used to use the powdered RIT dye to dye reed for basket weaving and I know what you mean about it how seems to not all disolve. The mess you make when dying is worth it when you see the results.

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  18. Your fabric turned out great. I have included The Blog Frog on my blog, I think everything else is alright!!

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  19. The fabrics are gorgeous! I love the variations on them. I have only tried dyeing fabric once and it was for the finishing fabric. I am planning on trying to dye a stitching fabric too.

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  20. Those fabric colours are awesome. It will be fun to choose the projects to stitch on them.

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  21. That fabric is fabulous! Hm, going to Michaels this morning, must buy dye. You are a bad influence LOL! Now, on this Halloween design, it sounds like you are going to design your own? Another great Daffycat design? Can't wait to see with what you come up with.

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  22. Love the orange fabric!

    Oh you Blogger girls and all your cool widgets. lol

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  23. ahaha...you've been busy trying to get that 30 ct WDW carrot color down, haven't you??? It looks like you did my dear...well done!

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  24. Lovely fabbies, shame abut the salmon pink (I don't get it either)... but I'm sure you'll come up with a suitable project for it!!

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  25. Those are lovely colors! I especially love the orange :o)

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  26. I forgot to add this to my comment earlier. You asked a while ago how I got the mini pincushion looking so square like. The linen I used is quite stiff so it keeps the folds well and I used a foam sheet that I got from my friend as stuffing. She bought a new sofa and the sheets of foam were protecting it during the transport. So it's kind of a reusable material. :) It's about 1,2cm thick and I have tons of it. If you'd like I can send you some, email me your address and I have some in mail soon.

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  27. Oh, what luscious colors, Sharon--remind me of sherbets. Yummy! I will get up my nerve and dye some fabrics one of these days...you and some of my other blogger friends are really inspiring me to give it a try :)

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  28. Love your fabrics...especially the orange. Will have to get up enough nerve to give this a try!

    Thanks for sharing the Blog Frog widget....I like that and will definitely add to mine~!

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  29. Lovely new colours, looking forward to seeing the new halloween design

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  30. Pretty pretty fabric colors.
    I need to try that scarlet for one of my valentines BOAF patterns.
    I had blogfrog on for about 3 days and it was giving me nothing but problems, until I got rid of it.

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  31. LOVE the fabrics and I don't even like orange usually but I do like what you have done and when I next come to the states I am going to buy some of this RIT dye that's for sure.
    Love
    Patti xxx

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  32. Love your fabric colors! I have to try some of this RIT dye soon. WOW, 450 blogs! Hopefully we won't all blog on the same day! LOL.

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  33. Incredibly luscious fabbies! Have fun stitching on them.

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  34. Those colors are lovely! I can't wait to see what you stitch up on them!

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  35. I love that Sunshine Orange one. Totally digging on it!


    I will have to get some RIT and do that myself! :)

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  36. oh, amazing fabric colors, oyu make magic with the dye!. lovely the 3 colors.

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  37. The fabrics look great! I have always wanted to try dyeing my own.

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  38. De-lightful fabrics!!!

    I know what you mean about trying to keep the blogreader updated (it's like a full time job!)

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  39. I think I have been inspired to try dyeing fabrics. Yours look so wonderful.

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  40. I loved the fabrics, you did beautifully.

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