A Little Start

 

But I will be ripping this out. I dyed this fabric; I think it is Monaco. I also dyed the floss, but I don't like how it looks. I think I will start again with a solid thread-dark grey, perhaps?

A Little Dyeing

My local library held a dye workshop where we played with grey and black dyes. It was a lot of fun, although I am usually a bright person.

Not sure what I will do with these although I think they are the perfect size for backs of things, if I ever FINISH anything. Sigh.

Fabric

I dyed fabric at the library last Friday and I have finally rinsed, dried and ironed it. Thought I would show you it.
First I ice dyed some pieces including some linen:

Firecracker

Dutch choc+silver lining

Linen-Night Sky

The linen is nice but needed to be overdyed so it would be better for stitching:

Linen overdyed

Cotton-Night Sky

I dyed 15 fat quarters and then made this little chart for my fabric calendar. I kept wondering why I chose this colorway. Then I remembered-I think the fabric might work for lining Tall Year Squared!

Fabric Fun

 I needed to show you all the fun fabrics I dyed at the library last week.  The above photo is a piece tablecloth I cut up and dyed. Below is a photo of all the different colors did of the same cloth. My excuse is that I am going to show it to the quilt guild and eventually make it into a crazy quilt.

 The following 3 photos are of linen I over-dyed.

 They were originally for my local guild but came out too blotchy. I will find use for them eventually. The yellow with black would be fabulous for Halloween/fall motifs!  And the bottom green/blue one is lovely.
The last two pieces are silk from the same botched project for my guild. I hope to cut the pieces up and use them in a quilt. Although, it is silk dupioni  so I should be able to stitch on them too.

I really want to add more to the silk and tablecloth fabrics. Paint and stencils come to mind. Not today though. I need to go back to my crazy quilt research.....

Snow Dyeing-Photo Heavy

We had a good snow on Valentine's Day so I took the opportunity to dye some fabric.  Not sure I like all of it, but some of the pieces are fabulous!

Playing with Fabric and Stencils

I really don't have time to play with Christmas baking, gift wrapping and shopping going on, but I could not help myself.  I dyed some fabric and then played with some stencils.  Now I just need to heat set them and start playing!

What to do when it snows...

 We have gotten a bit on snow where I live and I decided to take advantage of it.  I had ice dyed fabric at the local library.  My dd joined me in my dyeing that day and we decided one piece needed more dye.  (Look at the end of this post.)  I added rust orange and pale yellow Procion dyes on top of the snow and waited to see what happened.


Soda soaked fabric





Snow covered-powdered dye added



Snow melting

Ice dyed-pre-snow dyed



After snow dyed



Ice dyed fabric

My favorite piece that I have done recently is the piece on the right.   Looks like Monet's garden.  Will I be able to cut it?  The redyed piece looks better in person, but it is very orange.  It will be for the back of a quilt some day.  Hope you find a way to enjoy the snow.

Snow Dyeing

 The local library was having a dyeing workshop and although I did not need any fabric, I decided to do some snow dyeing.  It was fun!  Now I have to think of a project so I have a reason to try this again.  My dd helped.  Can you guess which fabric is her's?

More Dyeing

This is no ghost, but me holding the back of my daughter's quilt. She wanted it to be tie-dyed.
Here it is in the dye bath.

My son is also working on a quilt. He is dyeing flannel for the back of his quilt. It was so big I needed a bucket to do it in . He thinks it will need more color-lime green. That may be a challenge....

This is why I have not been working on Serpentine. Hopefully I will have a picture of my completed Squaredance soon. Putting the little ultrasuede squares on is a pain.

Weekend Dyeing

I was downloading pictures before I realized that I forgot to take any of my finished product... Oh well.

The local library held a dyeing workshop and I do have a few things to show. These pictures are from experimenting with natural products to see how they dye fabric. We used beets, blueberries, coffee, tea, cinnamon...Fun stuff.

This is the only picture I have of what I dyed on Saturday and it doesn't show much. It is Joeblen, antique white that I overdyed for a project. Will try to get some better pictures tomorrow.

Dyeing Fabric

The Mississippi River Valley Chapter of EGA had an interesting challenge for the group this year. We were given a large piece of Hardanger fabric and challenged to make something with it. I knew exactly what I was going to do with it! My beloved sister-in-law is a minister and has been desiring a Hardanger stole. The fabric was perfect except for one thing-it was white and she wanted a green stole. (And I now know it is too short, but I will deal with that later.)

I did not want to use green thread on the white fabric so I needed to dye the stuff. The only problem was it is wool. (Very soft!) A friend had some dye but it was a cold water dye for cotton and linens. Here is a picture of it: I was given an extra piece of fabric to experiment with so I decided to try it. It took less than a teaspoon of dye to color the vat green:

I added 3 tablespoons of salt to activate the dye and allowed the fabric to soak overnight. Then I added baking soda to neutralize and set the dye. Then I rinsed the piece in cold water. To set the dye I heated my iron to high and while the piece was still wet, I ironed it. The kids said it stunk! (Think wet sheep!) Anyway, it seemed to work. I know my sister-in-law won't be getting the finished piece wet or dirty, but I did wash a small piece to make sure the color stayed. It did so I think I am ready to look for threads. Here is a photo:

I will probably use Impressions, but want to go to my LNS to check colors.