Sharpie Tie Dye Project

Here's my Sharpie tie dye fat quarter.  I auditioned it with other fabric and found a pretty intense aqua that worked.

I cut four 9" squares from each and used the instructions for "Peppermint Pinwheel" in Cultural Fusion Quilts to make two blocks.

The pieces are kind of wonky when the sewing is complete.  I pressed each piece well and squared to 7".  Then I made two blocks.

I'm probably going to put them together the same way I used two blocks made with a leaf print fat quarter back in 2015.

My New Big Ugly Bag

True confessions.  YEARS ago (5-6) I happened to pick these up FREE in NYC while visiting my sister.  A chunk of pre-quilted fabric (yes, it looks a lot like a moving van blanket) and a roll of wide tape.  I  thought I'd make a tote bag.

I didn't get around to it.  For a while they lived in my attic.  Then they made it back into my sewing room.  Recently, I was packing up a box for Goodwill and they almost went in.  

ALMOST

Today was the day!!!  I set out to make a big tote bag.  I referred to another bag to figure out handle length. 

There was binding on two edges only that I wanted to take advantage of.  I was able to figure things out so that there would just be one side and one bottom seam.

I boxed the corners and turned down a cuff.  In the future I may add some big buttons to secure the cuff behind the handles.

It's not the most beautiful bag, but it's big and soft, about 19" wide and 20" deep.  You can never have too many tote bags!

What do I do with the leftovers???  Maybe they can go to Goodwill.

  

Sharpie Tie-Dye

Short and sweet, this is what we all did on Saturday at our monthly meeting of Artrageous Quilters.  First, we ironed fabric onto freezer paper.  Then we drew on the fabric using colored Sharpies.  Some decorated scarves, some experimented with different effects.  I drew flowery pop art shapes with curling lines of dots winding through them.  The next step was to drip, dribble or spray alcohol to make the Sharpie ink run.

Once the ink and alcohol were dry, the freezer paper was removed and the design heat set by ironing or in the clothes dryer (I used the iron).  My colors really spread out so I chose to enhance the blurry shapes by adding more to the drawings with black Sharpies in two widths. It was FUN!