Hand Dyed Fabric is Fun

Here are some pictures of my results at hand dying. These are the fat quarters that came out of my taking the class from Joyce Hartley, owner of Quilting Adventures, at the VCQ meeting.

I've picked a few of my favorites to show closer details below.

                       

These pieces were painted with a brush.

I used rubberbands to create the cool texture in this one.

This one was created by folding the fabric and binding it with clothespins.

I brought home my leftover dyes from the class and tried a technique my instructor called "parfait" dyeing where you layer dyes and fabric in a jar and let them sit for a while. The process is also detailed in the book I picked up this weekend on dying with fiber reactive dyes, Color by Accident by Ann Johnston.

I dyed some more fabric on Sunday using the parfait technique.

Here are fat quarters that resulted from Sunday's Parfait dying.

I wrapped several fat quarters around some dowels my hubbie cut for me and put them in "Parfait" jars. The effects were interesting.

 

These are details of some of my favorites from Sunday's dyeing.

On Tuesday I went over to my sister-in-law's house. I showed her and my mother-in-law my new fabrics and we played some more with the leftover dyes. J-, my sister-in-law, is a spinner and dyes wool often. I knew she would want to experiment with my leftover dyes. I can't wait to see how her wool comes out. I tried a piece of silk I had bought for sun painting earlier.

My kids couldn't resist helping me with the process. A- "helped" me rinse out the fat quarters from the class on Sunday. She had a ball playing in the water and kept trying to get into my half of the sink.

M- saw me dying on Tuesday and immediately said "Mommy paint" and wanted to get involved right away. Aunt J- gave him one of her "fingers", aka rubber glove, and he stirred my soda water for me. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of him with his "fingers" becasue the glove had fallen off into the water.

I'll by washing out the silk piece and Tuesday's fabrics tomorrow afternoon. I can't wait to see what they look like. All in all I've dyed about 11 yards of fabric in less than a week! This is addictive and fun. I'm now thinking about what type of quilt I'll use the fabrics in.

I'm currently entertaing the idea of a combination Mariner's compass and Lonestar quilt. Like I'd ever get either one done! But I can dream and imagine. :)

Comments

[Joyce]

Um, so, like, are we kindred spirits or something? Lone star and mariner's compass? Have you been poking around my personal website, or is that "Twilight Zone" music I'm hearing? Well, okay, must be twilight zone, because there's only one on my website, even though I've done several.....
http://www.joycehartley.com/mcls.htm
Maybe sometime you can come to the shop and take my mariner's compass class. :-)
AWESOME fabric, by the way. Are you having too much fun?

[catnapping]

The results are beautiful. I've dyed fabric before, but haven't quilted with it. I used it instead to make a blouse, and curtains for my sewing room.