Dyeing for Quilts

I dyed today. No, not that kind......we dyed fabric and some clothing. Lisa and I joined an established group of dyers from our quilt guild at Coreen's home. Coreen lives on a farm and guess what...she doesn't just have a room to do her quilting in, she has an entire house. On the farm there are two homes, one they live in as a family and the other is used for "projects" like long arm machine quilting, hand dyeing etc.

We started the day by setting up the gradation dye baths of dark red, orange and forest green. We then took our fabric that was already soaked in soda ash and squirted, sprayed, poured, splashed, dripped, painted, and stamped dye on it. We used all imaginable colors and created new colors. Some did the shibori technique of discharge dyeing with bleach. The bleach is used to discharge color or dye from fabric rather than adding color. We used trays, plastic bags, mason jars, foam brushes, salt, pvc pipe, stamps, string, rubber bands, texture plates, etc. to make designs and create our one of a kind fabrics.
Bottles of dye that were used to create some really cool looking fabric.
Paper towels were an important tool today.
We draped the tables in plastic and used lots of plastic bags too.
These containers were used to do the gradation dyeing. Coreen's dogs helped us all day long. I think we really tired them out.

An example of shibori discharge dyeing. This was started with green fabric.
Another example of shibori discharge dyeing. Commercial fabric from Jo-Ann's was used.
Shibori using stamps to mark the shapes.
Lisa hand painted and stamped this fabric. It was tough because the wind was blowing all afternoon.
A better picture of Lisa's creation.

No, this is not laundry. This was a type of tie dyeing. We all want to dye clothing now.
Some of the red gradation fabrics.
My piece that was hand painted, dripped with green and salted.
The clothes line reminded me of the scene from an Amish farm with all the bright solid colors.
The dyers gather for instructions from Coreen.

The gradation fabrics were hung to dry.
More dyed fabrics drying.
Again.
I think the oranges turned out the best. They were all very bright.
Can you see the subtle gradations.
Most of my created fabrics are still in plastic bags for 24 hours. Tomorrow they will be rinsed and then washed with a cup of distilled white vinegar to set the dye. I will show you my creations later. Stay tuned.

Oh, I managed to get really sun burned today. I know I should have put on sun screen, I even had it with me. The weather was threatening rain all day, we only got a few drops, and there were dark clouds most of the day, boy did I get fooled. Ouch!!