Thursday, September 29, 2011

Hand dyed and crayola fabric fun!

I visited my cousin Paula last week,
so we could dye fabric together.

She is a very talented quilter,
and wanted to learn to dye fabric
to use in her quilts.
I'm not an expert by no means, but
  I enjoy dyeing fabric myself.

First we mixed up different colors of
Procion MX dye
that we bought from Dharma Trading Co.
Each color made up almost a quart jar.
We were sure to label each one,
but with the warm water inside,
(which was used to dissolve the dye and the urea),
the labels kept coming off, so here we have
masking tape to try to keep the labels in place.
Otherwise you can not tell what the colors are.
Be sure and label everything!

Paula's workshop porch was a great space to dye fabric.
 It kept us out of that hot Texas sun,
 yet gave us a bit of a breeze.
She also had a sink inside, for water rinsing.

This is awashi shibori, or pole wrapping.
It is curing in the hot sun.
We wrapped plastic around it so it wouldn't dry out so quickly.
 
Smaller pieces we just placed in plastic zip lock bags to cure.

Here Paula is holding up one of the shibori pieces.

Here are some greens that are cured, rinsed,
 and ready for the washing machine and dryer.
They didn't lose any more of their color when washing,
as we used one of those color catchers to find out.

A blue shibori piece done.

This piece was done by just mopping up dye that was in the bucket.
We didn't waste anything.

For this long narrow piece of fabric,
Paula started painting on the dye colors.
She was really getting the hang of it by then.
We used both muslin (pre-washed) and PFD fabric.

Below is what she did to it later after I left to come home.
She said some of the blue came out but it still looks good.
 She used kids coloring books for the patterns,
and then colored it in with crayons,
and outlined with a fabric marker.
Great job Paula!
Can't wait to see the finished baby quilt
and other projects.
I have a feeling Paula will come up with some
very creative things in the future.

Savor the Day!
Yvonne


 

8 comments:

*jean* said...

looks like such fun! thanks for the link to dharma, i may have to give this a try next summer!!

Lorraine said...

Last year I did some procion dyeing with my friend too..it was great fun..just love that blue shibori one

~*~Patty S said...

ooo you got some fabulous results Yvonne

Dyeing gives such satisfaction and you really don't have to wait long either! I always end up searching for more things to dye!

Love your photos...very inspiring!
oxo

Caterina Giglio said...

crayola fabric, now I have heard of everything!

Deborah said...

What fun and with great results!

CEDAR JUNCTION said...

That looks VERY addicting!

SMiles,
Teresa

Tammy@T's Daily Treasures said...

I love how your dyed fabrics turned out. Sounds like ya'll had a great time. I'm sure your sister is gonna create something fun and unique. Love those art pieces in your previous post; especially the one with cholla. My hairdresser and friend who is right now in New Mexico did a Sadu weaving last year and used a piece of cholla to hang it from for display. She gave me a piece of cholla that I've yet to do anything with -- guess I should try to making something fabulous to hang from it. Hope you are having a wonderful weekend. Tammy

Halle said...

What fun! I have 2 jars of natural dye in my freezer. I should really do some playing before the weather gets cold. Thanks for the inspiration!