Fun with Backs


Problems photographing outside on a windy day? OR....A fabric too happy to stand still? I pick the later.




It is time to start thinking about quilting the auction quilt for my children's school fundraiser. Only problem, I forgot to make a back for it. I was planning to tie dye a whole cloth, like a rainbow. I did that once before and was quite happy with the results. Plus, children love rainbows, so I thought it would be popular. And this one was supposed to be a rainbow, but an accident happened and it totally changed the color scheme. It seems like every time I think I know what I am doing, something happens and I learn something new. This time I learned that if you are dye painting on a table, and your cloth is much bigger, it can slip off when you turn your back! Thus the warm tones, already painted on, landed on top of the white half that had yet to be painted in cool colors. I decided to go with the flow and camoflage the serendipitious 'error' and paint the rest in warm colors. See if you like it!


The other thing is this. I don't know why, but before I started, I decided to do batik instead of tie dye. I love all the circles. They look so happy and seem to have so much movement. The real trick after dyeing is of course getting the wax out. I do this by boiling. And since this is a large whole cloth, 60" x 72", it is really quite a trick to get the wax out. And I don't know why I insist on taking an easy project and making it harder on myself. Art? Some creative vision that needs expression?? Regardless, I have added an image for you to see the pots I use for boiling out the wax. The one on the stove (on the left), is my old 'Big Pot' for boiling out wax. I use it for fat quarters, half yards, and maybe up to a yard. The really big pieces won't even fit in this pot, so I had to get a bigger pot--it's the one on the right. It was a cheap steamer I found at the grocery store. It is not meant to boil multiple gallons of water. I found this out when I tried. It is made of aluminum, and when you fill it with water, the top of the pot looses heat so quickly, even when the lid is on, that you can't quite get the water to boil. However, it does get hot enough to get the wax out.