Just JoAnne Fabrics - Design Wall Monday

Test Fabric 419M - Scoured Kona Cotton

One thing I've learned after 20 years of quilting, is that you never know what you're going to find at JoAnn's Fabrics.  Friday, I had an hour to kill so I started exploring their red tagged clearance rack.  With all the bolts at 50% off - I thought - What the Heck!  And gosh - I wasn't disappointed!  I found  a nice linen  cotton blend,a white cotton with a light texture to it,  a bolt of light yellow cotton, a cool textured rayon with a nice hand and this really great burnt knit.  Now I know what you're saying -
"Nina - what are you going to do with all of that?"  Well dye it of course!

With PFD (prepared for dyeing) getting more and more expensive (plus shipping since I can't get it locally), I thought I would scour these fabrics and see how well they take dye.  I ran them through two hot wash cycles of the wash using a non additive detergent and Soda Ash. Then I mixed up some pretty purplish magenta dye concentrate (Grape/with a bit of fushia) and dyed fat quarters in my red solo cups.  I also added a piece of Test Fabrics 419M (mercerized) fabric and scoured Kona cotton (also from Joann's) to see how they compared. 

Here are the results:

 

1. Test Fabric 419M
2. Kona Cotton Scoured by Me
3. Rayon
4. Linen/ cotton 
5. Cotton 
6. Yellow Cotton ($2/yd!)

So as you can see - there wasn't a difference between the Kona and the Test Fabrics - the Rayon dyed up wonderfully.  Just a shade lighter were the linens and cottons.  With that yellow cotton being only $2  - I'm going back for the rest of the bolt.  For an overdyed it came out really nice!  I mean unless you need really saturated blocks of color - it would work well for anything!

Also, I found this  wonderful grey burnt knit.  It has this wonderful textured and layers to it.  Isn't this full of possibilities??

So you're never quite sure what you're going to find at Joann's.  They also had a 15% off your entire order - so I did get a real bargain on all the fabrics.  

And yes - while I was doing all this fun experimenting I did manage to start quilting my fall piece.  I first started doing it with my regular presser foot but soon changed to free motion.  This is the first time I've used Metro's poly thread which worked well as long as I lowered the speed of the needle just a bit.  I used a top stitch needle with sewer's aid.  The spray basting is holding well!

I hope you all are having a wonderful Labor Day - here its raining (big surprise!)

See more great design boards at Judy's Patchwork Times!