Last Quilt of 2018

"Afternoon Tea" (c)Pat Dolan - gift to granddaughter for Christmas

Now that I have two new shoulders to use in sewing and two new knees so I can go downstairs and back up again from my sewing studio, I've been at my sewing machine. This is a wall hanging that I made for our youngest granddaughter's new apartment. Alyssa is a great tea lover, she collects tea pots, tea cups, and various tea varieties as well as serves as hostess for regular tea parties for her friends. So this quilt was designed just with her in mind!

The tea pot resembles my maternal grandmother's tea pot. The cup and saucer were as close as I could come to an antique cup and saucer (I used Prisma-colored pencils to shade the cup and saucer). The lace doily is from my collection of laces - my paternal grandmother made many lace doilies in her lifetime. The napkin is actually a handkerchief from my mother's belongings. It is embroidered with a "G" for her married name of Gangl. I believe that either she or her mother did the embroidery, as both were adept.

The bluebirds are symbols of happiness in many traditions and I feed them and photograph them regularly, so they are part of the ensemble. I printed the photos on silk, then fused them to the quilt top and did machine embroidery to make them stand out from the background.

Since Alyssa has been an organic farmer and is very much a farmer at heart, as well as a nature lover in all ways, the background of lush leaves provides a relaxing atmosphere for a tea party. For the table I used rusted fabric that I did many years ago back when we were still in New Jersey. I love the rusted fabrics and still have a nice collection of them, but they are somewhat difficult to quilt and worse for embroidery! Machine needles need replacing often as then dull quickly from the rust. But it makes a perfect table top for this quilt!

I did the "pillowcase" method for backing to eliminate binding - I'm not very good at corners of the bindings and find the pillowcase a great solution! Here is the back of the quilt - hopefully you can see the machine embroidering and quilting in it. Click on the image for a better look!

Rust-Dyed Fabric!

Ta Da! Here are the best of the several yards of fabric I've been rusting for a few weeks. It's a messy project - the Mr. Clean sponge is excellent for cleaning up the sink, counter and plastic dishpan after these fabrics move through the rinsing, soaking in saltwater, rinsing process prior to hitting the washer/dryer. Some are quite wonderful, most are rather so-so. But all can be used, one way or another...

Rusting Fabric continued...

Here are the latest photos of the rusting fabric process. I've found it has taken longer than anticipated to achieve the depth of color I desire so every few days I have taken the obects off the fabrics, changed the positions of the fabric, spritzed them with straight vinegar (as Karen Stiehl Osborn so kindly suggested)and then rearranged different rusting objects on the fabrics. It's a lesson or two for me in patience, to be sure! It takes mother nature time to achieve results... Notice that I've also layered the fabric in some cases, placing the rusty object between two pieces of fabric as well as on top of the top layer - in my attempt to hurry the process, of course.

And, just because it's a gorgeous fall day, here's our Red Maple in flaming color.

Rusting Update

Last Thursday or Friday I began my "rusting fabric" experiments - after reading lots of hints from fellow Quiltart list members. Above is the mess on the back deck, rusting away nicely prior to bringing it in for rinsing. I've learned several things that weren't necessarily included in various instructions:
1. vinegar and water stings in paper cuts
2. vinegar and water is VERY cold in 45-50 degree temps
3. this is a very messy process
4. rust "dyes" lots more than fabric (plastic containers, wood floors, kitchen sinks)
5. the process is extremely slow when the fabric-wrapped rusty items are submerged
6. thus air drying speeds the process considerably
7. so soaked rust-wrapped cloth set on an unwanted plastic object rusts faster
8. bleach works well removing rust from counter tops and aluminum sinks

Here they are after wringing them out, but prior to any rinsing:

The best, most complete help came from Kimberly Baxter Packwood, who has written a book about this process. She has generously shared quite a bit of her information on her website - the most important of which is how to STOP the rusting process from coninuing forever. Salt water soaking does that trick just fine - I know, because I rinsed the rusty fabrics in plain water, then salt water, then plain water again - the first two waters turned a lovely shade of burnt sienna (rust), the rinse water was clear!
Here the fabrics are soaking in saltwater:

Here is the saltwater AFTER the fabrics were removed - not the lovely color you see below. The next rinse was perfectly clear.

I wasn't that pleased with the over-all effects - that's why I think that the soaking actually prohibits the oxegen from oxidizing the rust onto the fabric... Anyway, I chose to put the fabrics back into the rusting process for a second round.
Below: the fabrics are back into a strong vinegar solution, wrapped around various rusting objects, more rusty things laid on top, and now they are left to the elements to do their thing once again. This time should be faster since few of the pieces of cloth are totally submerged in solution.