Custom Coloring

I know that all of us have those projects that sit around for a while because you just cannot find that last perfect finishing touch. I am super excited though because as I was strolling through Hobby Lobby earlier this week I had one of the ah-ha moments.

You all know that I love flowers - and if you didn't let me tell you I L.O.V.E. flowers. But last year when my sister was just stopping through, she showed me this quilt pattern online. It is called LuLu's yoyo's from Pie Plate Patterns. It is free - which is great and you can get it here. But I just loved it and I had never made a yo-yo flower before.

I watched a couple u-tube videos on how to make them, then raided my stash and found I had everything I needed to make this quilt. So I got to work. But then I could never find the right rick-rack for my stems. So I set the quilt aside and almost a year later it hit me.

I could make my own custom coloring for my rick-rack. Rick-rack was on sale 50% off this week so I bought a couple of rolls of white that would be perfect for dying.

I then mixed up a water paint solution to the color I wanted. I should mention that I had not pulled the quilt out and so I was going by memory of what color I wanted. Not the best plan, but now I have to make it work! And yes that is a old toothbrush I am using to mix this all up.

I added my rick-rack to the paint water and mixed it a little.

I then was trying to decide where I could hang this to dry. It was a nice day outside and so I decided that I would hang it outside. Now I do not have a cloths line, so I clipped up to my pine tree. And it worked and dried super fast.

And you get a beautiful sage green colored rick-rack. It did turn out a little bit darker then the paint water, and I wish it had a little more lime green to it, but oh well.

 

Then I sewed it onto my quilt top, and now I just have to quilt it and place the flowers and I will be done. I am so excited about this being done - maybe more so because I found what I was looking for.

Here is my little one helping me place the yo-yo flowers onto the quilt. He usually likes to walk to the middle and sit down when I lay my quilts out to take a picture, so I was happy that he wanted to help on the side.

Now I have to decide what color I want my borders to be. I am thinking that darker red color for the big outside and maybe a green one for the skinny inside one. Any thoughts?