E Cubed Arts

Modern Update

Did the topstitching on the bag this morning. Here are my dark yellow centers for the Modern Quilt. Slowly I'm making progress again (recap for those that have forgotten in the long interval since I last posted about it...the red, dk orange and orange sections are done, I have the dark yellow and light yellow to go.)

posted by EA @ 1:35 PM 0 comments

Weekend

This has been a productive weekend for me. Up early on Saturday to drop off a big box-o-junk with some people doing a fundraiser yardsale (cleaning out junk is good) then EK and I were off to pick up new junk from other yardsales:

Cordless iron: $2
Blank decal stuff for making cling-ons (one and a half packages worth): 50c
Tailored shirt, fits: $1
Nice cotton/ramie sweater (I'm allergic to wool): $1
Large piece of cotton with morning glory pattern: 25c
Set of metal punches in a neat metal tin: 50c
GFCI outlet I need for the bathroom: $3
Half of a Flex Shaft (split with EK): $5
Huge book on needlecraft and such: $4
Risk: $2
Music CD: $1
Huge bag made of of tarp fabric with zipper (great for storing stuff in the garage or toting around 20 yards of damp pre-washed dyeing fabric): 50c
Three quilting books when a yardsale was closing: free
Two huge round tubs for fabric dyeing/rinsing: 75c each
Two large enamel pots for boiling out wax after batiking: $1 each
Three white high-thread-count pillowcases for dyeing: 10c each
$24.55 (went a little over my $20 budget, but hey, we found a flexshaft for $10, how can you beat that?)

Spent a chunk of the afternoon playing Risk (I won! But to be fair EK had never played before and you learn a lot the first time) and eating brownies. Off to somewhere else to shave a dog, then home again to choose fabrics for a quilted purse, iron them, and cut them out.

Then ironed all the dark yellows for the Modern Quilt (which had been sadly neglected and piled up in a corner and therefore needed ironing again).

Today I got up late but have quilted and assembled the quilted purse and made a cute pin and labels for it. It still needs to be topstiched around the top opening. I also inventoried the rest of the stuff I'd already made for Boston, and dyed a few more things (needed some more pastels).

The quilted purse front, quilted. I cut the back the same size (but all one piece) and somehow after quilting the back was smaller than the front. I quilted the front about three times more heavily than the back, so the front should have been the smaller one. Oh well, I can just trim to fit.

Then before assembly can progress, I had to stop and figure out how to do the tags. I bought blanks online that can be printed with a laser printer, but I had some designing to do. Here's the result:

Not perfect, but I have some good ideas for next time. Here's one installed in the lining of the purse, plus a flower pin I made to go along with the purse:

The purse with handles and pin, (pocket and magnetic clasp inside), all done except the topstitching.

And I got the front section of the lawn mowed. I meant to do the rest, but I went back in for a break and started dyeing, and now it's dark outside.

Next modern quilt update here.

posted by EA @ 9:49 PM 0 comments

Dyeing Results 3

Okay, I thought I should chime in before I head out to Utah and Vegas for vacation. A few years back I made some tie-dyed underwear (mmm, boxer briefs) for a few of my male friends for Christmas. Then I got jealous. I wanted tie-dyed underwear, too! So partway through our dyeing weekend we took a trip to Kmart and I got some quality cotton undies. Here are the fab results:




Wearing them, it makes me happy :) And I put my favorite pair on top, of course.

EK - when are you going to post a pic of the underwater shirt???

posted by eM @ 6:44 PM 0 comments

Feeling the love

So I got a call today...the gallery we've been involved with has a show in early August and they are apparently desperate for stuff. So we've been invited to bring a few things each to fill out the space. It's always nice when people call us rather than the other way round.

Labels: gallery

posted by EA @ 5:55 PM 0 comments

Dyeing Results 2

More things have been ironed (ironing is not my favorite task...)

Some pastels:
The two on the left were in the same dyebath together, but the far left was white on "natural" and the center was white on white. So a nice range of lavender, though the picture makes them look grey.


Another purple and a blue:



Some yellow/orange mixes:
They are much more pastel than I expected. The one on the far left is a strange color. Like a pastel neon, it is very bright and yet pastel. I can't describe it and the photo doesn't pick it up.

This is one of the two big pieces (2yds) that I did on the table:
It was done folded (as you can see). You can also see where the air bubbles between layers make neat little craters.

We've dropped off our stuff at the consignment store that opens August 4th. Those items have been pulled from the website (a couple necklaces, bracelets, earrings, etc and some purses, plus the big orange totebag that I never did take a picture of). Very exciting, I can't wait to see it open.

posted by EA @ 12:36 PM 0 comments

WIP Friday

Today's work in progress: A multi-strand necklace in pink. I am both attracted to pink as something I think I should work in, and at the same time unable to work in it. As I was working on it this morning I originally had decided to use mostly rose quartz with a bit of pink FWP and pink opal, and a bit of hematite as a dark accent. As I worked on it, I ended up adding some garnet, lots of silver, more hematite and suddenly I had a dark necklace with a pink accent. So this is round two, I'm just using the garnet as one dark strand and all the rest will be pink! Or so I plan...



And another dyeing result. This is the traditional tie-dye pictured in-progress in a previous post. Originally a boring shirt for our local farmer's market, now it's a hippie statement about local food!

posted by EA @ 1:52 PM 0 comments

Dyeing results number 1

The first results from the dyeing: The blue on this one turned out a lot lighter than I expected. Still pretty cool. You can see my great pile of (clean but unfolded) laundry.


This one is okay, I love the color but the pattern is not the greatest. Also most shirts marked 100% cotton still are sewn with polyester thread, and there is a bunch of overstiching down the sides that I didn't really notice when I bought it.

posted by EA @ 10:29 PM 0 comments

Fabric Dyeing weekend, part 1

Lots of fun and mess this weekend. The neighbors thought we were nuts (you shouldn't breathe the dye powder, so we started the day in masks, in the yard - lots of little containers of powders, plastic bottles, and latex gloves do look a mite suspicious).

First up, a traditional T-shirt tie-dye:

Some solid colors for quilting projects:

You can overdye the white/light fabric part of anything that's printed on, and the printed part (the thick ink) isn't affected. So white flannel with black spots from the clearance rack becomes this (and subsequently some outrageous pajama pants, or perhaps a pair of pillowcases):

Procion dyes will dye anything with cellulose (plants) so cotton yarn works just as well as T-shirts:

Some fabric, a la Fibermania:

Be careful you don't get a hole in the finger of your glove:

Kind of looks like we went voting in Iraq. . . . it came off later, after rinsing out some of the fabric that still had the alkali fixative on it. Not necessarily the best way of dealing with it, since the alkali in the fixative essentially removes the top layer of your skin by turning it to soap, but the rinsing needed to be done anyway :) .

And finally, some batik attempts on the stove:

Will post pictures of de-waxed, washed, and dried items later!

posted by EA @ 1:13 PM 0 comments

A Poodle Is...

Overheard at the Farmer's Market yesterday:
"I don't think he knows what a poodle is. {name of small kid}, do you know what a poodle is?"
"Yeah, a poodle is a horse that eats people."

posted by EA @ 4:23 PM 0 comments