If at first you don't succeed, cry, cry again

This has been both a fulfilling day and a frustrating one. First, I'm not even sure I want to show the lovely fabric I made today. It might make Theresa want her ink back she sent me . Yep, I dyed some material today using printer ink refills gift to me by Theresa. I used about 10 drops of cyan and made this beautiful material.
This is from a pant leg from the clothes I picked up for nothing at that garage sale about two weeks ago. It felt like muslin, but once I tore it, I learned it had a bit of stretch to it in one direction.

I started with wet material and added a few drops of ink to the material. I then added more water and rung the material until the ink was fairly well distributed.

Next, I decided to iron the material, both to dry it and remove the wrinkles. To protect the material from my iron, which is pretty nasty on the bottom, since I only use it for craft projects, I got another piece of the same material and laid over it. This piece was dry.
Much to my surprise, the ink seeped onto this piece, so I got two lovely pieces for the price of one. Let's see, the price was NOTHING except the electricity needed to heat the iron.
These are gorgeous pieces, but the camera didn't do them justice.
So, I scanned a portion of the larger piece. Click on it for a great view. The "gray" in the material is where the material wasn't flat against the scanner and not the material color.
While at the scanner, I also took a photo of my hands. Although my hands don't lay flat (due to arthritis I've had since birth), you can see they are completely covered in cyan ink, which has not washed off after repeated hand washings. However, I was still really elated about the material that I dyed. I can't wait to try other colors and a mix of the three inks, too.
Next came the frustrating part. I've had SO much trouble with this quiltlet. It seems it was not to be!! I often tell ABers that if they don't like a spread in their book, either tear it out or collage over it. Since I couldn't rip the birthday cake off the piece, I covered it with my hand dyed material on the left, cheese cloth (my new favorite embellishment) in the middle only slightly hiding the cake for posterity, and some fabulous hand dyed material gifted me by Pamela on the right.

Did I mention that 1) I'm NOT a seamstress, and 2) the pant material was stretchy in one direction? Well, it buckled (or whatever sewing people call it) when I sewed across it. It looked HIDEOUS. What could I do, but add some material to hide it, thus the beige in the upper left.

My woes weren't over. I broke the thread four times while trying to work on this today. I think the quiltlet was too thick by this time, but I'm only guessing that's why I had so much trouble.

Next, I added the picture, which was printed on plain old printer/copier paper. I didn't use a stabilizer or wonder under on the back, just sewed it on. As I was adding the first of the tab holders at the top, the thread broke AND the picture ripped. What else could go wrong? So, I walked away, frustrated as anything.

Later (MUCH LATER) tonight, I went back, threaded the needle, added the second tab, and glued a flower petal I colored with color washes (raspberry and cranberry) to the ripped part of the photo. As I was putting the flower on the photo, I dropped it. It was not dry, and it stained the blue material I had dyed. To mute the color, which really drew the eye right to the blob of lavender in the lower left, I sewed cheese cloth over the top and slightly colored the other side of the cheesecloth for balance.

Now I'm not sure that George is going to like this piece, since it doesn't really look like him. I may or may not give it to him. I will have to sleep on it and decide in the morning when I'm not so frustrated over this piece. One thing I DO know: I'm not messing with it anymore!!

I look back on my day and recall all the things I have learned in this quiltlet. I could write a book on DON'Ts just from this piece alone. However, always trying to find lemonade in the lemons, I came away with two very positive things: printer refill ink dyes material beautifully and cheesecloth will hide or mute a whole host of mistakes.