Friday, July 7, 2017

Hand Dye Marathon - Off The Wall Friday




Summers are made for Dyeing - hand dyeing that is!!   So I decided to take the long holiday weekend and do four straight days of hand dyeing.  Why 4 straight days?  Because for me to hand dye, I have to shlepp out all my dyeing paraphernalia  out of the closet, put away all projects in my studio, clutter up my kitchen AND have some major time to get it all done!  Its better just to prioritize it and do it all at once.  And that's exactly what I did.  To the tune of 33 yards!!

It was an exhausting, colorful 4 days!!  I had a plan - 1 day of gradations of 4, 1 day of more gradations plus red solo cup improv dyeing, 1 day of just red solo cup dyeing and 1 day of thicken dye surface design.  Sighhhhhhhhhhh but as usual things didn't go quite the way I planned!

On Day 3, I tried a new method of Red Solo Cup dyeing putting the dye water in and then adding the soda water to it after.  What resulted was a bunch of VERY dark fat quarters.   Now don't get me wrong, I'm a equal opportunity hand dyer, but I did need more than a big bunch of dark subtle shades!  So my day of thickened dye was postponed for another round of improv dyeing the right way.

By the end I had literally dyed every piece of pfd cotton (and any other dyeable cotton), I had in the house.  Not to mention, it was all washed 3 times and ironed and neatly put away.  Mission accomplished!!!


I'm super pleased with the results too!   There is a good range of colors plus a really big selections of dark fabrics (really can anybody ever have enough dark-darks????)   I now have enough fabric not only to take to QBL but enough to last me the year.



And as always, if you never dyed before and want an easy, fun tutorial on improv dyeing, I suggest you try my Red Solo Cup Dyeing.  You'll be surprised what great results you can get for such a little investment.


So What Have You Been Up to Creatively?

12 comments:

Jenny K. Lyon said...

33 yards? I'm impressed! I think even I could do Solo Red cup dyeing-I need to try

The Inside Stori said...

What a gal!!! I'm as impressed with your energy as I am with your results......perhaps that will give me the nudge I need to get out the red solo cups myself!

Lynda said...

Beautiful results! There's nothing like dyeing in the summer and 33 yards!! OMG! I've been working on converting my mandala drawings to stencils. I've made lots of stencils, but making them out of my mandalas have been a challenge. Looking forward to using them on some of my dyed fabric.

Windy Hill Happenings said...

Absolutely gorgeous, yummy fabrics.....You'll be itching to use them.

LA Paylor said...

beeeeutiful! What fun to be at your house during the reveal!

Norma Schlager said...

Beautiful results! I also spent the weekend dyeing, shibori vintage napkins.

Andree G. Faubert said...

Hi Nina Marie, what a wonderful stash! I'll be doing some dying for the first time this summer. Looking forward to it!

Jo Vandermey said...

Beautiful fabrics. Sometimes I like the casual approach... sometimes the serendipitous approach. I do think I will try the 3 colour approach on some. And I like the multi day idea! Do you ever just soak the fabric in soda ash first and then add the dye colour? I like making the dye concentrates and being able to postpone dyeing for a day if something comes up I put it in the outdoor fridge.
Thanks for sharing!

Shannon said...

what a fabulous set of fabrics!!!!

JOY @ http://joysjotsshots.blogspot.com/ said...

Thank-you so much for hosting. I really enJOY seeing everyone's quilt projects.

Marianne said...

Beau travail, prendre 4 jours pour teindre c'est génial. Je vais programmer ça pendant les vacances de mes petits enfants, et mettre mon mari en pension :)))

Margaret said...

WOW! That's a lot of fabric -- in Canadian prices $500 or $600 worth -- but we do have a bit more as we use metres up here... ;-) Your results are clearly worth your hard work and the $$ involved! Good for you!