Why Dye?: Some Thoughts about Dyeing Wool

Sue Makinen's Wool Applique

Since Sue Makinen has joined us at Threadbenders, we've gone a bit applique mad. It's around the bend a bit, but didn't we all want to travel?

Our Vintage Wools

That being said, we started to talk about wool. And wool is truly wonderful to work with. It needles beautifully, you can do astonishing applique with it, and it feels wonderful to work with. 

We have a great collection of vintage wool pieces that are amazing for applique. And we have Sue as our guide, mentor and inspiration.

Peg's Wool Block

Then Peg started to work on this block with hand dyed wool.It's beautiful. No doubt about it. 

But why dye? Why would you make that kind of mess?

Personally I get asked that all the time and the answer is easy. I'm just that messy.

Three Sheep Studio

But dyeing gets you fabric you just can't get any way except by dyeing. Unless you know someone else who can dye it and will share.

Why would we dye?
Several reasons:

From The Cotton Patch

• You can get colors you just don't find anywhere else.There probably isn't much vintage orange, lime green, purple plum, and bright pink wool anywhere. I can't work without those. Can you?

  

  Page by Leslie Main Johnson 

•  You can get ranges of colors. It's nice to have one brown. It's fabulous to have 3 or 4.
• You can have it in quantities that are useful for your work
• A vintage piece of fabric is only as big as it is.I know that sounds obvious, but when you want it for a background and it's in three inch pieces, it is a heartbreak. If you're dyeing your own, it can be in useful sizes.

  

  From The Wool Garden

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• You can get variations in fabric color that are really gorgeous for floral applique especially. Mottled colors are very beautiful in all kinds of flowers, and echo the real shades from a garden.

• You can have fabric that shifts colors. Imagine vines made out of fabric with several greens in them. Are you there?

Finally we have a collection of people in our store doing applique who might really want it.

So we're thinking about it. I dyed up some tiny samples just to get a sense of the process, and we're considering dyeing wool for the store. Are you interested?
Let us know what you think!

And look for Sue's wool applique class coming soon. 

What Kind of Fabric is That? Why Cotton and Wool are Queen and King of the Quilting World

Peg's new wool applique block

There's a mystery solved on the end of every fabric bolt. You can probably find the manufacturer, the width of the fabric and what the collection is called. Somewhere in there it should tell you what it's made of.

If you're in a quilt shop it probably says 100 % cotton. There are some very good reasons for that. Cotton has always been the go-to fiber for quilters for a lot of reasons.

Cotton

• It's soft.
• It's washable.
• It dyes well and has great colors.
• It's hyper allergenic.  
• It pieces well.
• It irons flat.
• It can be blocked a little.

But cotton's not the only fabric to quilt with.Wool is an old quilting choice that's all new again. Pretty wool solids make for fluid applique and a hardy textural kind of pieced quilt. Because it's a thicker fabric and more loosely woven, it feels very different to work with, but in a good way. Here's some of the reasons wool is a great alternative quilt fiber.

From Winterberry Cabin

Wool

• It has a fabulous texture
• It dyes well, but with different kinds of dye.
• It needles well for hand applique.
• It has a more raised feel and hand.
• It's extra warm and snugly.
• It can be blocked into shape.

Wool often has other fibers blended in with it. Unless it's a significant amount, say 15% or more, it usually doesn't make a huge difference. But of course, pure wool is best.

Fabrics you want to avoid.
When you walk outside the quilt shop there are all kinds of other fibers that are not so user friendly. This isn't like they aren't pretty or that they have their own uses. They just don't respond well to quilting techniques or they don't wear well. Here's why.

Rayon
Rayon is made of tree bark. It's soft. It's pretty. But it's much too fragile to quilt with. And it sun fades very easily.

Test Tube Babies
Polyester and other test tube babies are not great quilting fabrics. They don't piece well and they are miserable to iron. And if they're mixed into a fiber blend, they still have the same issues. Do you remember the polyester double knit quilts of the 70's? Need I say more?

Lycra is a fiber that stretches. Great for sports wear. Miserable for quilting, as it has to be either stabilized or it will bounce along as you try to quilt on it.

So what happens if you find the perfect color or print and it's rayon. Or lycra? Or poly? You can use it. You can do anything that isn't illegal or deadly. But you deal with the limits and problems of those fibers for the whole life of that quilt. Did it fade? Rip? Sag? Pull out it's stitches? Cotton and wool are queen and king of the quilting world for very good reasons. They work, piece, applique, quilt and needle so much better. 

How long does it take you to make a quilt? How long will that quilt be part of someone's world? No one can afford poor fabric choices. They're just too costly in the long run.

Sue Makinen's great pin cushion

We have a new collection of vintage wools that are perfect for applique. Sue and Peggy have gone insane about them. Sue will be teaching us about wool applique and embroidery on wool in a series of upcoming classes.

Our vintage wool collection

All of this is a reason to be shopping for fabrics at a quilt store. We know what's in the fabric. And it's the best quality for quilting, all the time. Surprises are really only nice on birthdays and Christmas.

Fusible Applique: Lickity Stick

Pictures from Thread Magic Garden, by Ellen Anne Eddy

Hand applique is pretty. Calming. Historic. A bit time consuming.
So is there a way to speed this up? Of course there is!

Fusible applique is the lickity split way to applique. Instead of turning your edges you either cover them  with some kind of stitching, or you don't. But either way, you fuse the applique pieces to your top fabric first.

Kinds of fusibles
Fusibles come in several classes

• Unbacked: 

These are raw spun webs or films of nothing but glue. They have no paper backing. Some of them are formulated to be less stiff. You need to be really accurate to use these. You want to applique piece to completely match the glue so it's really stuck and so it doesn't bleed glue around the edge. You probably want to use a teflon ironing sheet to protect your iron and ironing board.

Backed: Paper backed fusibles have a paper backing. It protects your ironing board and  iron. It can be ironed onto the fabric and then you cut the applique pieces. Which means it really is accurate and you don't have glue bleed. These fusibles have one paper side and one glue side.

• Tacky: These fusibles can be finger pressed onto your fabric, cut and then ironed down. Like a peanut butter sandwich you have two pieces of paper, and glue in the middle. You peel one side, pat it on to your fabric and cut your shape. Then  iron it down.

Web textures
Most webs have a texture of some kind. It will show through. Films and webs work better than webs with a formal glue structure on the back. Of course if you stitch enough on it, who will know?

Some of the first fusibles have been around for over forty years now, and have proved permanent. But  I don't ever trust it as a finished product. You might if it's:

•  a piece you never intend to wash.
   If it's just going up on your wall, it's probably fine, but cleaning it is going to be dicey if you ever need to.

• a piece that will never be rough handled. Keep in mind that shipping or traveling quilts to show can be very rough handling. 

Most people stitch after they fuse in some regards. But fusing fabric changes its texture. It's much harder to stitch through. So stitching by machine is probably the way to go.

Next time we'll talk about machine stitching applique.

Applique Treasures: Sue Makinen

We've always known our greatest treasure is our quilt community. We have a new person who personifies that!
Sue Makinen has joined us as a teacher and staff.

Sue does the most amazing hand applique. And she's going to teach us in her beginning applique class.
Sue does her applique by hand, but she has some great tricks with patterns and starch that make it all work so much better.

Sue has worked with Kim Diehl, making a quilt called Checkard Past that Kim included in her book, Simple Charm.

Here's the great applique project we'll do in her class on Saturday May 3rd, at 10:30-3.
You'll find Sue, and the Simple Charm book at Threadbenders, waiting for you. 

Aphabet Soup: Say it in Fabric Letters

Wanda's letters

Whether it's a baby quilt, an art quilt that needs to say something or a journal quilt that depends on words for design, it's good to have a fabric alphabet. We'll explore some of the ways we can do that, both on and off a quilt.

The ideal thing is a beautiful printed panel of alphabet letters. These letters were a panel piece that was fussy cut sewed onto another  layer of cotton with bat between. Pinking sheers make the cool serrated edges. Our resident MacGyver, Wanda, made the batch above.

Of course the alphabet is an endlessly interesting toy, and every little kid would like to put it in their mouths when they're not spelling with them. So nice play with cotton letters are a great use of scraps and always appreciated.

Happy Together Creates

There are some great tutorials on making cloth letters. Jessica, on Happy Together  has made rag letters that have frayed edges that soften when washed.

Threading my way

Pam from Threading My Way has another tutorial that shows sewing the cloth letters onto felt. Both of these processes involve blowing up a letter on your computer to a 8 x 11 inch size and using it a a pattern. Choose a font that's a bit bulky and not to complicated, as you'll be cutting them out. Both of these alphabets are cute as buttons.

cut paper letters

There's also another way of cutting letters. This is an old primary teacher trick for free cutting letters out of paper. I found it in the New Zeeland Digital Library, but it was something I learned from my teacher mother. It's another great way to cut out letters.

Of course the same letters you cut separately for a child's toy can be appliqued anywhere.

Whatever you choose, it's a great toy for a toddler, a great use of scraps and a lot of fun for you.