my-ty

I am so tempted because I really like the colors. My only other mystery was Grand Illusions and I really disliked the reveal. (It's still a UFO and I need to see if I can rescue it with a modified layout).

I might follow Bonnie's advice and only make 12 units of each - enough to create a few blocks and then fill in the missing units once it is revealed.

Iceblossom

Last week I picked up a big bag of someone's hand dying fabric binge at the thrift store. I recognize what it is because I had one of those once too...

Not enough neutral/pales, so maybe I'll tie dye/tea dye some solid white 100% cotton fabric I have to make those. It was a heck of a deal I wasn't going to pass up (the entire bag was only $7.99!) and it seems to me pretty darn perfect for this project. I find some wonderful things in my thrift shopping.

I also have another lady in my small group who went through a hand dye phase, will ask her if she has any lights.

I do also have a nice light tan/yellowish batik for a consistent neutral... it is definitely more patterned than the hand dyes, but it is subtle.

PamelaOry

Wow! I haven’t gone through a hand dyed phase yet so that looks like a real treasure to me. I’m surprised that I haven’t....I did tie dye and sold at my local Saturday market so I already have all the dye supplies and such. Maybe the urge will strike next year.

Iceblossom

I love the quilting and I love fabric of all sorts. I played with a bunch of different techniques for a couple of years maybe 20 years ago? Dying whole solid cloth in the washing machine, tie dying in the microwave, bleach processes, batik and wax processes, all sorts of things. I've been know to take a marker and draw on fabric too. Once it was a large apple blossom white on white and I "highlighted" the white outlines with black marker. But I've just added dots of color here and there to make things play a bit nicer together.

And back in the days of Tri-Chem, I don't know how many people remember that stuff but I loved it... used to make little punk/new wave baby t-shirts for my friends with bright colors and angular designs.

I guess I'm committed to being in on this project, didn't really need another one right now but when has that ever stopped me?

I went back to the site and wrote down the yardage amounts and color groups. Probably start ironing and putting together color groups around Monday. I don't really like to iron (hate it!) but that bag needs it so I'll do it in sporadic bursts between sewing on my current donation project which is small and will be quick.

Sandra-P

Iceblossom, I remember tri chem! Loved it, do they still make it? It was fun, kind of relaxing too. What a lucky find you have. I would just make sure that those colors dont run too much. Maybe take a couple out and test them since they are hand dyed.

retiredteacher09

I enjoy looking at the fabric choices.

Iceblossom: My husband was much better at using Tri-Chem than I was at it. My sister got us involved.

Iceblossom

Was definitely going to test the fabrics, they feel like they were properly treated and I'm hoping for stable washing. I know some of the things I did set the fabrics very well, like doing them in the microwave. Besides, they would probably iron better after getting softened up.

Looked up Trichem -- it's still in business! Seems to be set up for classes/direct marketing. Tubes look better designed. I wonder what ever happened to my Christmas tree on black flock piece, hadn't thought (or seen) of it in years.

QuiltingVagabond

I sold Tri-Chem! Back in the 80s - I was pretty successful as party plans go, had a team, drove a company car...

KalamaQuilts

Iceblossom, we've followed so many of the same paths. You missed doing the sun resist dying on the lawn, and leaf pounding?

Iceblossom

Well... it happens that just last week one of the ladies in my small group gave me some of the light sensitive blueprint type fabric, she didn't store it well (took it out of the black bag) so it might not be reactive any more. And I've done quite a bit with screens and leaves and ferns and nature shapes as well as natural dyes. I'm guessing my dying phase was for about 5 years closer to 30 years ago, it's been awhile!

I'm just really lucky that I didn't get caught up in stamping stuff, I'm seeing tons of those in big bags for cheap at the thrift stores. My son and I did use things like vegetables and cooky cutters and things like that.

I've been looking at that collection and I'm thinking I will need to change "Neutral" with "Yellow" and use an artificial dye. The lady in my group is going to see what/if any she has in "yellow tinted tan to bright school bus + orange" for me.

I pulled out the batik and was surprised by my immediate and definite no way! While I do have some hand dyes in my batik box that I can use (especially a good green), can't happily use a pattern with those hand dyes even subtle.

Originally I was thinking of a thick block log cabin with those hand dyes, just picked it up as a bag too good to pass up and then came along this project.

PS: This desire to mess with things started before quilting. I think it was phosphates in detergents which are no longer allowed and that fluoresced very brightly. You could thin Tide (and other detergents) with water and paint designs on a white wall that only showed in black light... and then there was the lemon water notes (shows up when you heat the page).