Ice Blue Aida!

is the material called for with the Bluebell pattern chosen for the next in tandem project my BFF and I are calling our lock down stitch a long. Just on the basis that we are doing the same pattern at the same time and stitching along together via Skype. This will be project number two.

And it calls for a coloured Aida.  Blue, ICE Blue 14 count  by Zweigart to be exact.  In this instance exact is not going to happen on several points.

I don't have that fabric in my stash, buying it especially for this project does not fit in with my parsimonious nature as any to buy would be in bits way bigger than I need and given it would be order via the post not guaranteed to arrive on time.

I did recall having some blue 14 count in the stash but had a feeling it would be a bit too blue, judging by the picture of the finished piece in the mag this Ice blue is a very very pale shade of blue indeed.

The in one of her blogs Jo over at serendipitous stitching mentioned painting Aida with acrylic paint, oh that there is a thought, paint some white the shade I need.  Look it up on the internet and ah! it apparently needs a medium to do that. (Not someone that contacts the dead, a painting medium especially for fabric) and we come back to the parsimonious problem and the timescale.  The fabric medium came in rather large containers (well for what I wanted, the stitching area is only 97 by 70) and again for a "try it and see" I felt the cost was not merited and there was the ordering and waiting.

Disappointed I mulled a bit then recalled I have some silk paints, somewhere safe? Mind that was not all that appealing for some reason.  Then the light bulb went on, I have fabric dye pens, but again the shades would be a bit too intense.  Perhaps if I coloured the fabric and rinsed before setting with heat some of the colour would stay put and I would get the light shade I wanted.

A bit more mulling and I decided on a double test. 

1 a small piece (and I do mean small, I keep small, I use small (click to see how small) with the three shades of blue drawn on to it to see how well the "fade" would work.

2 a slightly larger piece of white just popped into the water with piece 1 to see if it would take up enough of the dye bleeding into the water to colour it.

Her are the bits soaking. 

So here is a picture of the pattern illustration, with the big bit of blue I had (too blue really very too blue) and with the result of test option 2.

Looks a bit too pale the tester, but still closer than the stash fabric. 

It was hard to tell if it had taken any colour until you put it next to white..

I had every intention of checking the frame stash for something suitable and deciding on the count to use based on the frames aperture. Notice past tense, I got carried away with the dye process and all in a hurry I cut a bit of 18 count white and popped it in to the blue water, unsure if there was enough colour left in the water and needing a bit more water to cover this, I applied more dye pen to the strip of test Aida and put it back in.

This has resulted in a slightly deeper blue shade on the fabric for the project and a much deeper shade on the test strip.

So here is my home dyed "Ice Blue" for the project. It is a bit more turquoise in its blueness than the picture suggests, a bit warmer but I am happy to give it a go.

I did ask my BFF if she would like to give this a try, but she felt that she had a shade of blue in her stash that she could live with for the project and that would keep things simple and it is always nice to use stash, especially the coloured stuff bought in packs that you wonder "what will I do on that!"

So whilst same pattern at the same time we will again be stitching on different coloured Aida and this time round I think we will be on different counts too. Hopefully that will be interesting.

Of course this has also opened up a whole new set of options for the cross stitch, I have at least 20 shades of fabric marker in the pen format.  Mind I am quite happy with the blue, I have in the back of my mind that there is a pattern of corn, poppies and a field mouse I quite liked the thought of but it was on a blue I did not have....hmm more mulling over ahead I think.

It might be nice to start a new pattern for me that is not as complicated as my ongoing Teresa Wentzler, or perhaps it is time to tune back to the three angels (embroidery no cross stitch) time will tell.  

Here is a link to my BFF's blog life outside the washingbasket