New Fabric and T-Shirts

Warning! High Fiber Content in this Post. Those not interested in fabric and dyeing may want to only look at the pictures.

I finally got a chance to start putting into practice some of the things I learned in my Dyeing to Discharge Class. It took about a week to get my supplies and then another few days to find the time. I always find it's best to immediately try to practice what I've learned in a class so that I don't forget what I did. Here are the results of my solo operation.

First the fat quarter samplers. All were various commercial black fat quarters (that were labeled.) All were folded pretty much the same way and discharged in bleach. I used an assortment of dyes to overdye after the discharge was complete and washed out. I did keep a record of the dyes, but discharging is not an exact science.

#1 - Yellow and Red overdyed

#2 - Yellows, Reds, and then Blues overdyed

#3 - Reds and Blues overdyed

#4 - Yellows and Blues overdyed (looks like slightly burned wood)

I was a little surprised at how much black was retained in some of these. I had them in the bleach about all the same amount of time and they were basically bundled the same way. But the fabric was different and I that apparently was what made the difference. The thinner, more light weight fabric discharged much more than the more tightly woven one. That's why it's good to keep things labeled.

Then I did my first discharged t-shirts. I've always been impressed by Carol Soderlund's t-shirts and now I have some of my own. My children think I've reverted to my high school days in the '70's and I have to admit they are bringing back some nice memories and yes I do have memories. I was only a flower child, didn't do the drugs at all!

All of these shirts started out totally black. I then discharged them and then over dyed them to give them some color.

This was fan folded on the diagonal and then rolled up in a coil. The bundle was then discharged in bleach and left bundled for the washout and overdye application.

This shirt was fan folded from left to right and then fan folded again lengthwise. That gave it the cross hatching that is best seen in the lower right corner of the shirt. It was overdyed with reds and blues. When I was done, I really thought it would mostly be purple and black. I was surprised to see how much of the colors did not blend. I applied the blues first to give them a head start into the fabric, but the reds still got in just as much.

This was my first attempt at pole wrapped shibori. I wrapped the bottom on first and ended up at the top collar, folding the sleeves in as I rolled. I then scrunched all the fabric together and applied rubberbands. I expected the bottom to be darker and thought it would be more of a gradual change to the top, but it's a bit more abrupt than I wanted. I still like it, but next time will try to roll the shirt on a smaller pole (this was a 4 inch diameter) and have the lines run more diagonally for a different look. The colors came out amazingly well! I applied the yellows in the middle and mixed the yellows that I used. Then on each side of that band I applied the reds and the final outer layer was the blues. Again I was very surprised to see that the blues and reds didn't blend as much as I thought they would. I was expecting much more purple. So I think I know what I'd do differently next time and just need to experiment some more.

On the Go All the Time!

After coming home from a fun filled week of discharge and dyeing fabric my next weekend was back to Barbeque! Don and I attended a cooking class up in the NC foothills taught by Championship Cookers, the Texas Rib Rangers! It was a great class and we learned lots of great tips and tricks to get some great tasting BBQ in much easier ways. This team is always at the top of every contest that they compete in and they also vend at most competitions. Here's Don carefully adding our brisket to the cooker for the 8 to 10 hours of cooking that is needed to get it nice and tender.

That's Don in the red shirt and yes those are umbrellas that the men are holding. It rained most of the day, but that didn't stop us for a minute. Barbeque is always cooked rain or shine!

Here's is a close up of the pork being put on. It also has to cook for about 6 to 8 hours. Later on, we added chicken and ribs as well. I was the only lady in the class besides the teacher and Don was the envy of the class because I was taking careful notes on everything while he listened carefully. I was getting offers to purchase my notes before it was all over.
Unfortunately I may have done too well of a job, because in July we're now scheduled for another class out in Kansas City, MO. No BBQ widow here, I'm included in all the "fun!" Really it was a great day and we learned a lot too!

More and More Fun Everyday!

Having been gone for a week, I was very surprised how much Faith has changed in just one week. She's getting more fun with each day. She is on a new and improved schedule which means being awake and active for 4 hours straight and then down for a couple of two hour naps. With a four hour time slot to fill the smart thing for grandparents to do is go out and buy a mega playset apparatus!

It was a hit! Purchased from a second hand shop, it was in brand new condition and even had extra toys that interchange. The best part was that we didn't have to put it all together. I downloaded the directions because it is suppose to collapse for easy travel (or in our case storage) and wow it saved us tons of time with all the parts that had to be screwed together and what not!

With her Mom and Dad at work, here she is busy doing her own daily work. She takes some things very seriously and trying to get one of the brightly colored toys to mouth is one task she is relentless about. There are lots of bells and whistle on this thing literally and we all, Faith and Grandma and Grandpa have lots of fun discovering what each thing will do.