Day Five: A Week at FabricDesigns.com

Today began with no surprises. Checked email, answered email - only one order - checked the discussion forum at Quilt University, arrived in the dye studio at about 9:30, and began rinsing out the silk velvet, Christmas banner.




Next order was a custom dyeing of some silk scarves and sarongs. Into the dye buckets they go!



11:30 a.m. they are ready to be rinsed.

I have two, long, retractable laundry lines that span the back portion of our yard. Living in Northern California, I can dry pieces outside 8 months out of the year and sometimes longer depending on the winter we have. Being able to use the fresh air and sunshine saves on energy use and also entertains the neighbors. You can just barely see Sally's upstairs bedroom window in this picture. She absolutely loves it when my hand dyed fabrics are out to dry. She is a painter and enjoys the color and ever changing display of fiber art.

After lunch I sewed the Christmas banner's hem. This piece is going to be beautiful. I may have to make myself one of these.

Here's a picture of the banner finished. It's really hard to see how luscious the silk velvet is in the picture

2:00 p.m.- time to iron the silk scarves and sarongs. These are heading out to Hawaii. They should be out on the beach in a few days. Wish I was going with them...

Silks done.

I can print out the postage on my computer and then put it out for Norma to come get when she brings the mail. This has been a real time saver for me, especially when I have lots of boxes and not a lot of time or energy.

So that's it for Fabric Designs today. How about a tour of the dye studio? Here is a picture of our house. It was built around 1879 or so. We aren't 1o0% sure when it was built as there was a huge fire that destroyed city records in the 1890s. We do have an old insurance map that shows a structure on the property in 1886. This house went through a major remodel in 1902. Then again in 1956. Other than that it still retains a lot of its charm.. and annoyances.

To get to the dye studio, we have to go around the left side of the house and into the back yard. There isn't any access from inside of the house which bugs me sometimes but then again, having to go OUT somehow psychologically makes me feel like I am going to work. Here's my purple door again...

When you come in the front door, and look to the left, there is a small room where I mix up my dyes. I constructed this room myself about 10 years ago for our son who needed a music/study room where he could get away from the rest of us and just "be". Once he left for college, it got converted into my dye room and I never looked back.


Here we are in the dye room. Looking to the south, I have all my powdered dyes and chemicals stacked on an old metal desk. Key recipe books, rubber gloves, my own combinations of dyes, stirring sticks, it's all there.

Looking to the north is my "three holer" sink. I bought it at a restaurant supply house in Sacramento. I love, love, love this thing. My darling husband installed it with a sump pump that shoots the water uphill and outta there! That was a major project but sure beats hauling 5 gallon buckets of water. I DO miss the big old biceps I used to have but not that much.

Coming back out of the dye room and right by the door is my table with all my shipping stuff on it.

Also along that north wall, I have a folding screen that hides all my art supplies. I keep cleaning these shelves off but can't resist art supplies so it's just like a revolving door...paints out...paints in....brushes given away...brushes bought....colored pencils taken by my grown children...colored pencils donated by friends...

I like not having to look at all that stuff so here's what it looks like when the screen does its thing-

Still looking at the north wall, there are open shelves next to the screened ones that hold my bolts of silk, baskets of blank silk scarves, shawls and sarongs.

The next thing I want to show you is my telescoping tables. The long, red, oil cloth covered table is high enough off the ground that the white covered table can easily slide out when I need the space. Sometimes I have multiple runs of yardage to dye and this comes in really handy. I have a customer who wants 40 yards at a time (dyed in 2 yard runs each) which means I have 4 tables going at the same time. These two and then 2 others you can't see in this picture get a work out during that busy time.

Here's how it looks when the tables are shoved under each other.

Behind the red table is my design wall. On the left is a quilted piece Myrna gave me. Awesome! She's so good at those pointy things!! Points and curves! Points and curves!

Looking south now, is my work table you saw in an earlier posting. I only cut fabric on this table so that it stays clean and free from arty slops. The slops you see on the SIDE fabric of the table are from dyeing frenzies years ago when I was wild and care free. The fabric skirting is hiding amazing piles of crapola. I'm not going to show you what's under there....

Next to the work table is another screen that is hiding my light table. Want to see back there??

Okay then.....

That's my light table. It's really fantastic. My neighbor had THREE and gave this one to me! Yes...three....he has at least three of everything and I do mean everything. I can say, "Dell, do you have a hinge like this?" and he will say, "Just a minute!"...go down into HIS basement and come out with...you guessed it...three hinges. The light surface of this table is about 36"x36".

Here's a picture of my drafting table. This was also given to me by a friend who salvaged it from the city but I'm not supposed to tell you that. Maybe if I don't tell you WHICH city it will be okay. It's oak and humongous and can be tilted up at some impressive angles so all your stuff falls off all the time BUT is cool because when sewing it keeps your neck from cramping up and is easy on the back. Myrna taught me that trick. She wants this table. Wonder how much it would cost to ship it to Canada? Norma won't want to come get it that's for sure.

The next picture is to show you another way that I am saving space. I have a smaller drafting table that I put right in front of the larger drafting table. This is handy when I need to sketch AND have something else going on the big table. I often have multiple projects going at the same time so surface space is essential.

That's it. I DO have another table that is behind the black curtain at the right of this picture above but it is SO embarrassingly crammed with fabric and junk that I can't even go there with you. Just know that there is another table but it exists in "never-never land"...never, never let anyone see that land.