More Parfait Style Snow/Ice Dyeing

Well we had so much fun and were so happy with the results of our first efforts at this method of dyeing, that we decided to do it again the second day. These are our results.

 You can see some of us changed our color palette.

 But we didn't change our method.

 And we were just as delighted with the results.

 Aren't they beautiful?

 And just as much fun to do.

Snow/Ice Dyeing Parfait Style

Last week I had a wonderful three days with two friends. We have been wanting to try ice dyeing fabric but it takes longer than a day so we planned a retreat.  Here we are setting things up.

Judy is all decked out in her dyeing/painting clothes and getting water for a bucket of soda ash solution to soak our fabrics.

This is our extensive selection of dyes, thanks to Judy. Don't all the possibilities look exciting?

These are more supplies for our projects.

This is the set-up I used for ice dyeing. It is an upside down dish rack in a kitty litter pan.

 Here is the set-up for my friends.

 

First we soaked fat 1/4's of the fabric. Then we placed two of them on the racks, scrunching the fabric to fit.

 

We were trying to decide whether to do snow or ice dyeing. I have an old ice crusher and we started crushing the ice and it took quite a while. It was very hot and we were afraid the crushed ice would melt before we had a chance to get enough crushed, so we decided to lay a thick blanket of the "snow" on our fabric. 

Then we placed a large quantity of ice on top of the "snow".

Next we sprinkled our dyes on the ice.  Some of it fell onto the fabric.  Look what the "Stormy Gray" color did. It separated into the different colors comprising the gray.  Not many of these dots of color were visible in the end product.  Somehow they combined to form the gray after all the ice had melted.

This is a lot of dye, at least 2 teaspoons. 

We wore masks to avoid inhaling the dye. It blew about easily. We sprinkled it on through a sieve to avoid clumps of dye. We used a few different colors of dye.

 

I love to parfait dye fabric.  So we figured why not try that? So another fat 1/4 piece of soda ash soaked fabric was placed on top of the dye and ice.  We then repeated the process with just ice and a few more colors of dye.  I stuck with analagous colors so that we didn't get muddy colors.

 

Then I noticed that there was some nice color falling to the bottom of the pan.  Well, I don't like to waste dye, so I slipped another piece of the fabric in the bottom of the tray.

Mary also added lace to the bottom of the tray.

 

 Then we thought we would try a different way to layer our parfait ice dyeing. This is a large bucket with a wire basket from the $ Store on the bottom and a plastic  paper plate holder on top of it. 

 All 3 of us did this parfait. So the bottom fabric was a wool for Mary with her ice and dye. Then Judy placed her fabric and dye. On top was mine. Then I saw all the dye particles on the table, mopped it up with my soaked "clean-up" cloth. I put it in a plastic cup and placed it on top to batch in the bucket. Then we put the lid on the bucket.

We covered the dye and buckets so the rain woudn't cause trouble.

 

We also covered our trays with plastic to let the ice melt and "batch" overnight.

 

 Can you see the ice in the bucket? We couldn't believe it when we checked 18 hours later!

 This is what the pan looked like.  So, next we rinsed all the fabrics until the water was clear and then hung them to dry.

These are mine. On the left and fourth from left are the first layer in my tray.  The middle one was the top layer. The second one from left was from the bottom of the tray-probably my favorite.  It is a very different texture from the others.  The far right is my clean up cloth.

These are Judy's.  Isn't it rich and wonderful color?  She was very liberal in applying the dye.  I especially like the 2nd from the right as it has a little "Robin Egg Blue" color

 Here is Mary with hers.  The left one is wool.  We all love the 3rd from the left. The color is really beautiful, like a nature scene.  I think it was in the bottom of the tray.

 These are the parfaits from the bucket. They are lined up in order they were in the bucket. The left one is Mary's wool.  It looks lighter, probably because there are some artificial fibers in the wool that did not dye as well.  It was still really lovely.  You can see that the middle layer collected the most color variation, as it got color from below and above as well as what Judy put on it.  It is darker because more dye was applied.

Be sure to visit Mary ("The Inside Stori") and Judy's ("Windy Hill Happenings") blogs to see their photos of our snow/ice dyeing fun. Links are on the right-hand side of my blog posting under blog lists. Mary's is

Scrappy Quilts for Soldiers

In 2003 I learned that the Quilters Guild of Southern Maryland was collecting quilts to give to injured soldiers as they arrived at Andrews Air Force Base. This was something that really struck a chord with me and I made about 3 dozen quilts that year to donate. 

I started by making these 2 quilts made with the friendship star blocks. I had won the blocks a few months before in my quilt guild.  Notice the 4 tiny star blocks in the corners of the first one.

 

Then I made 2 denim quilts with my favorite Raggy pattern. The lower one had flag button emblems, stars and a pocket from the jeans appliqued on the denim fabric.

 

The yellow pinwheels in the corners of the next quilt didn't photograph well.

 

 

These are some more scrappy style quilts.

 

 

 

 

These next 2 quilts were so fun and easy to construct and quilt in waves and stars.

 

 

Theis next one was made with a small "cheater" panel in the center of the star.

 

I had a lot of fun collecting patriotic fabrics and making about 3 dozen quilts. Doing a big series of quilts like this was really a wonderful, creative learning experience. It also helped me to feel I was doing my part to support our troops.
My quilting bee decided to help me and several people in it also made a quilt. In all, we donated over 40 quilts for this good cause.

Guatemalan Fabrics

One of the nice things about traveling is the opportunity to check out the local textiles. A few years ago I went to Guatemala. I loved the textiles there.  They are hand woven cottons with a lot of bold color. Here are some of the fabrics I bought.

 

 

They are woven in different lengths and sold to be used as clothing or carriers, as seen below.

 

 

 

Shown above is a top, made by a Guatemalan woman by weaving three narrow panels of the handwoven fabric together and then sewing them together and cutting out an area for the neck. The fabric looks like it was embroidered but it is part of the weaving.

 

These are some trims on the left, used as belts or ties. On the right are some drawstring bags made of the cloth which were sold containing Guatemalan coffee. Don't you just love the little doll figures on some of the bags?  On the bottom are some exquisite hand woven pieces that look embroidered. I am not sure I could bring myself to cut them.

 

I found most of the fabric to be much thicker than what I like to use for quilts. So I planned to use the fabric for bags or jackets.  It was very hard for me to bring myself to cut the fabric. But last year, I made a set from one length of fabric to make a tote bag to use when I travel with a matching duffel bag. I love the duffel and use it often. The tote bag has not enough body and I find all my pens and stuff fall out of all those pockets I spent so much time planning and making.

 

 

 Last week I finally cut into another length of fabric to make myself a new purse.  It is from a pattern I have made twice before and really like, with a few modifications.

 

There was plenty of fabric left to make a new wallet to carry all those member/store cards.  This is a quick and easy pattern that I really like.

 

 

The one on the left is my old, well worn one.



Scrappy Quilts - Monochromatic Color Schemes

I think monochromatic color quilts can be very appealing, especially if many different fabrics are used for each color. In the quilt below, I used only two colors -blue and white. But it has dozens of different blues and dozens of different whites in it. I limited the range in hue and value of each color, which gives the overall monochromatic look.  By adding a few darker blues and darker whites (beige) and a few lighter blues and pure white, there is more for the eye to look at. I call it sparkle when the eye wants to move all about the quilt. So take a look at all the different fabrics/colors used to represent blue and white.

Midwinter Blues

 

Next let us look at two different red monochromatic quilts I made.  The one below is just two fabrics, chosen to blend with the border print used for the border. 
 

Morrocan Floor

 

Whereas, this next one uses similar shades of red and beige but in 20 different red and 20 different beige fabrics, also chosen to blend with the border print used for the border.  Which one do you prefer?  For me, the quilt with 20 different shades of each color is more interesting. I think it sparkles, gives the eye more to look at.  While when I look at the 2 fabric piece I can see the whole thing with one glance.  It is really nice, but doesn't hold my attention quite the same way.
 

Red Wind 

 

 The next quilt is not monochromatic, but look at the sky area. There are many different shades of blue pieced together to give some sparkle or movement in the sky.  Similarly, the grass area has many shades of green.  

 

3Egrets

 





Imagine if it was simply one blue fabric for the sky. If the fabric is a solid or even, overall print, the sky would look flat. If the fabric is an uneven print or hand dye with several shades of blue/white, the sky could look similar to what I put together. Would you prefer one of the fabrics shown below?

Even overall commercial print

Hand dyed with movement of colors

Hand dyed with some variation in color

 

I might like the 2nd fabric and the 3rd one is better than it looks in the photo.  But neither piece of fabric was large enough or quite the right color. I could always try dyeing another larger piece of fabric, but I really like digging into my stash and cutting up fabrics to create my own cloth.