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Bunny Stitching

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Happy first day of spring! Look, some bunnies are here to celebrate! I just finished up an auction project that I worked on with my daughter’s fourth grade class. Initially we were thinking of making a large-scale cross-stitched canvas, but there are two bunnies and a guinea pig in this classroom and it just felt like we needed to capture their personality rather than making a stylized version of a bunny. So I bought some tapestry wool and we got stitching! I tried using some yarn I had on hand, but it frayed as it was pulled through, so I’d definitely recommend using tapestry wool which is especially designed for stitching.

Each of the kids had a turn with this project, but I did end up doing lots of stitching myself to get this done in time for the auction this weekend. One of the teachers helped and they were both so patient with me being in their classroom all last week, even though I still have trouble not talking in class!

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I started with the photo below that I edited in Photoshop because of course the animals wouldn’t pose like this. Then I had the sudden realization that these sweet little bunnies don’t look that much like bunnies at all! One is a big fluffball and the other has down-turned ears. And the guinea pig was tricky! We stitched on colored canvas fabric, then I added some colored asterisks stitched up top, then stretched it over a canvas, which also serves to hide the messy back side. I think it would have been interesting if we’d stitched some brightly colored patches into their fur, but another idea for another time!

This was a lot of work, but the kids have been so excited and I think it would look adorable hanging in a child’s room. I really enjoyed taking the time to relax and stitch by hand, and now I want to make portraits of our own pets. I just have a quilt to finish up and I’m done with auction duties!

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Folk Modern for Kokka

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Here are the strike-offs for my new collection with Kokka, Folk Modern! There are six prints in three colorways, all in the cotton/linen blend. Inspired by American and European folk art, the collection features motifs such as sawtooth flowers, tulips, horses, and fruit trees — all interpreted with simplicity in a bright color palette. I’m excited about this collection and look forward to getting some yardage so I can sew up some samples! This collection will be shown at Spring Market in Portland and should hit your local fabric shop sometime this summer or early fall. Fabric shops may contact Kokka’s U.S. distributor Seven Islands to order the collection.

In the meantime, Miss Matatabi just stocked the full Stamped collection. You can also find some prints left here, here and here. I hope to sew up some more things with Stamped next week when I finish working on school auction projects!

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Fabric Dyeing with Kids

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In a previous post, I mentioned that the fabric used to make the school auction quilt, which is still in progress (finished quilt top here), was dyed by the kids at my children’s school. In order to get almost 400 kids to dye fabric and attempt to make each piece unique, we used a small batch dyeing process using plastic bags. Sarah from Intown Quilters here in Atlanta told me about this method. I ordered my reactive fabric dye from Dharma Trading. They have a great variety and an educational website to help you with the process.

First, I cut all the fabric into 7″ squares, then pre-washed it, dried it, and gave the pieces a quick pressing. For this project I used a white Kona cotton and some other white and neutral cottons and linens, but you might want to use fabric that has not been treated. I mixed several colors of dye, each in a small cup and mixed  the soda ash with water in another container. We then folded plastic bags over larger clear plastic cups, filled them with warm water and let the kids squeeze in some of the concentrated dye with a medicine dropper (another parent thought of using the medicine droppers so the kids wouldn’t spill and it worked out very well). We then added the soda ash mixture, dropped in the fabric, sealed the bag, removed the bag from the cup,  and let the kids squish around their bag, gently. That word “gently” is key when working with five-year-olds. Out of almost 400 kids, we only had two minor spills, so not bad! Many of the kids enjoyed the sensory input of squeezing the bag of warm water and didn’t want to give it up.

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Some of the bags we let sit for just 10 minutes and some a couple of hours. I changed the dyes up frequently, varying the colors and intensity so we could get the widest possible range of blues, greens, and yellows. Then I rinsed the fabric, let it air dry, then ran it through the washed and dryer. I think I bought nine different colors, but mixed them together in various ways and changed the concentration with each batch. Here is an Instagram photo some of the fabric drying on a rack at the school. The very patient art teacher let us dye fabric with the kids during art time.

Hopefully I’ll get this project basted and quilted soon!

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Work in Progress

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Since I’ve mostly been working on the school auction quilt this week, I thought I’d show you the work in progress (via Instagram photos). So far, I’ve got 44 of 64 blocks made.

I’ve also started watching some of the lectures from QuiltCon, which you can find for free over on Craftsy.

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