LEARNING TO DYE - DAY 2

Today is the lighter version of the Clear Rainbow.

I didn't mention it yesterday, I'm using Lemon Yellow, Fuchsia and Turquoise.

Here they are in the baggies where they'll spend the night.

Voila, the light Clear Rainbow:

And, here are yesterday's darks with today's lights.  Same colors, different values.

LEARNING TO DYE FABRIC - DAY 1

With Linda Johansen's fabulous book Fabric Dyer's Dictionary in hand, I set out to learn to dye.  I am beginning with the Rainbows at the beginning of the book.  They didn't seem interesting, but I was pleasantly surprised.  They are great fun!

First I armed myself with the basics:

a bolt of PDF fabric, 32 yards to be exact, yikes.

the dyes, a clear and a muted of each basic color, yellow red and blue :

Lemon Yellow

Golden Yellow

Fuchsia

Chinese Red

Turquoise

Cobalt

I made enough dye to last me the week, I put them in squirt containers and will keep them in the refrigerator in the studio.

I pre-washed the fabric and tore it into fat quarters.

Using a pigma pen I marked each piece with the corresponding color number from Linda's book, hoping the numbers will survive the process (which they did).

So, I measured the required amounts into the little baggies, put the fabric in, massaged it and put the little baggies into a plastic box, where they will spend the night in their dye bath.  

Oops, I think I must have been tired and or bored towards the end, the last two fabrics came out the same.  I will have to re-do the 12th one tomorrow. Notice the two on the left, don't they look strikingly the same!

Here's the Clear Rainbow after I got the last fabric done correctly:

Aren't they gorgeous!

DYEING FABRICS FOR A NEW QUILT PROJECT

I got a strong urge to dye some fabrics for a new quilt project.  I saw a quilt pattern in a book recently, and I really loved it, but wanted to make it with my own fabrics. 

Mixing the different dye colors up first.

Smaller pieces of fabric are in plastic bags.

First day, two purples and gold.

Clean-up.

Plastic bags of fabric, dyeing overnight in the sink.

And a big chunk of fabric in a bucket.

And here they all are:!

The colors are not right on here, you'll have to come see them in person.

ICE DYEING

There was an interesting article in the latest issue of QUILTING ARTS Magazine about Ice Dyeing.  That's the August/September 2011, Issue 52.

I have a large tray that I used for wetting paper for printing, but I had a hard time finding some kind of screen to put on top of it.  We ended up taking apart an unused baby-gate and I used on side of it over the tray.  It worked okay, it's major downfall being that the ice can fall through the large holes.  I would suggest a window screen or a shelving rack with smaller holes.


So, first you soak your fabric in a soda ash solution.

Then the art here is in how you fold the fabrics.  I tried several different ways, even just bunching it up.  Then I put them all on the screen close together.

Then pile on ice cubes.

 

Then sprinkle on the dry dye pigments.  I used three different colors.

 

 

Isn't that beautiful!

I found myself sitting there staring at the beautiful colors as the dyes ate into the ice and started to melt onto the fabrics.

Then I realized I was sitting there watching ice melt and I got up and went to do something productive.

The next morning, the ice is melted.  I rinsed out the fabrics and hung them up to dry.

Depending on how you fold them, you get some interesting results. 

Great fun!

RE-DO!!

Okay, if you read the previous post, you know I messed up.

So, here's the re-do after actually reading the directions.

Much better, and the fabrics on the left are more what I had in mind, next to the mistakes on the right:

And here are the fabrics shown with the quilt top in the background.   

Now I just have to make the back.

FABRIC FOR BACK OF DENVER QUILT

I got this great new book  a while back-

 So, when I decided I was going to dye some fabrics for the back of the Denver quilt I've been working on, I pulled it out and looked through it for the colors I wanted and set out to dye them.

I tore up some half yard pieces, got the dyes and other stuff out and started measuring.  It seemed like a lot of dye, but hey, its been a long time since I dyed any fabric.

When I put the fabric into the bags it looked really dark....hmmm. 

Maybe I should look at the book a little closer and actually READ it.

Oops, I did do it wrong.  Don't get me wrong - it's a great book.  I just didn't actually read all that I should have before I dove in.

I did use waaaay toooooo much dye.  I tried diluting it, but it was too late, the dye was already into the fabric. Oh, well.

But, it turned out beautiful, but it's darker than I wanted.

DYEING IN THE BACKYARD

I really want to make that 'Weed' painting into a art quilt.  My major hold-up is the fabric.  I just don't have the right colors, and I know from experience, if you're looking for something specific at fabric stores you'll never find it.  That left only one alternative - I must dye the fabrics myself.

I remember reading an article in a magazine about dyeing...and I had flagged it.  All I had to do was search through my magazine pile.  Jeez.  Actually, it didn't take long, I had an idea where it was, and after a little thumbing through other magazines, I found it fairly quickly.

The magazine is Art Quilting Studio Magazine, and there was an article entitled "Flat Dyeing" by Robin Ferrier.  It shows how to dye on a flat surface so you can get more even, consistent coloring.  I know how to dye in a container, tub or bag.  It would entail alot of constant swishing around to get the color to be even.  I've actually never had color come out even, so I wasn't even going to try that.  Robin's method looked pretty easy.  The weather has been great so I was excited to try it!

I stopped at Home Depot and picked up a roll of painter's plastic.  It's thinner than she recommends, and I probably won't be able to re-use it.  But it comes in a huge roll, so I'm all set.

I realized once I got started that I'm missing some essentials.  I'll have to scrounge at garage sales for things like stirring spoons, buckets and large Tupperware type storage containers.  I don't want to use anything that I need from the kitchen, because it can't go back to the kitchen after this.

Here's where I really regretted having hot water in the studio.  I had to bring a tub of hot water out from the house, so I decided to bring all my dyes and stuff down to the back yard.  Everything more or less met in the middle, out on the picnic table in the back yard.  

I had had the fabric soaking in soda ash since early morning.  I mixed the dyes by guess and by golly.  It will be a surprise if I get what I was after!

Here's what it looked like after I got done, I left the fabric there all night.  I was amazed at how hot to the touch it all was.

Needless to say, it dripped on the grass.  The grass is now red, green(er) and brown(er) in places - of course!  Grass is a cellulose fiber too, isn't it?

The next morning, after everyone was finally up, I rolled everything up and took it down to the washing machine.  I separated plastic and fabric, rinsed and rinsed and rinsed out the fabric, then tossed in the washer with Synthropol.   

They didn't come out exactly like I envisioned.  I was having a hard time trying to figure out how to mix the right blue.  But, this is okay.  I can work with this for my Weed project.  Oh, and I should mention, this 100% cotton fabric is a soft, loosely woven fabric that I recycled out of some old curtains that were at our new house that I didn't want to use.  It will be a very soft look.

Here's how they came out:  

That pile of threads came out of the dryer with the fabrics. I'm thinking about saving it because of another  article I just read in someone's blog who mentioned that she keeps odd threads and uses them in her projects occasionally as surface embellishment.  Anyway, her little basket of threads looked pretty cool!  I know, I'm screwy, but I can't help myself.