I took a couple days last week and dyed some fabrics, t-shirts, and beach sarongs. I love dyeing fabrics and usually just mix up some colors and go for it. I'm not a planner when it comes to dyeing. I love washing the fabrics after they've been batching and pulling them out of the dryer to see what surprises I've got.

I did a two-color run using Better Black and Bronze and I absolutely love how it turned out. My photos do not do any of the dyed fabrics justice. They are very deep colors and very color-saturated!


Another two-color run using Lapis to Black Cherry. I love these colors! Honestly, I need to dye some medium and light shades, but I just can't seem to force myself to do it. :)


This photo shows all the fabrics I did. I haven't taken photos of the t-shirts or beach sarongs yet, but will do that soon! Two of the t-shirts are gifts so I don't want the recipients to see what I've done just quite yet!


Lastly, I did a two-color run using Olive Drab and Sun Yellow. I didn't realize that I was using a different fabric than I normally use and that it has a flaw running through it too. You can see the flaw in the photo - it's a lighter line across each piece of fabric.

Since I can't sell this fabric and I have a LOT of this color in my personal stash already I thought it might be fun to give-it-away. It's really quite mottled and lovely in person. If anyone is interested in this fabric - eight 1/2 yard pieces (that's 4 yards) - just leave me a comment and I'll pick a random winner sometime next week. I would love to hear what you might use it for.


Take care,

I'm so excited! I want to show you the gorgeous color palettes that Vicki created for me using these two photos that I posted on March 7th. I'm really quite thrilled with these as it was a revelation to see some of the colors that were generated. Some are obvious, of course, but others were a complete surprise.



Vicki is another one of those very creative, very high-energy people that I so admire. She does a lot of color gradient dyeing and tie-dyeing which just fascinates me. She makes soap and lotion. She does needlework. She sews clothing. She does long-arm quilting. I'm telling you she does everything. Visit her blog and you'll be following Vicki too!

Thanks for the palettes Vicki...I love them!

THANKS Terri! I followed Terri's lead and used IDye to dye the chenille I purchased to make a robe. Here's the before...


After several washings and MANY trips through the dryer to get rid of all this...it's done! At least it's dyed and ready for me to start sewing. I used Crimson and even though I had no real idea what color it would be when finished, I didn't care because dyeing this much fabric with IDye was way easier than using Procion. Actually, I LOVE this color and am very happy with the whole process! I highly recommend using IDye for simple projects like this. I got mine at Dharma, a site I love, but there are other retailers listed on Jacquard's website.

I even over-dyed some of my hubby's black jeans and it worked really well. Anyway, won't I just be a vision in a robe this color? It certainly won't be easy to miss me.


Just a note....I don't recommend washing or drying this much chenille at home. It "sheds" way too much fiber and it's really heavy when wet and takes a toll on the transmission of your washing machine...ask me how I know. It worked fine the first two washings, but the third time (when I was dyeing the fabric), the machine would not spin. I was stuck with a load of 7 yards of unrinsed, DYED, HEAVY, WET and dripping fabric that I had to get out of the machine so I could take it outside to dry on the lawn.

Over here on Wanda's blog, I saw this quilt that she had just finished binding. I'm always so impressed with Wanda's color sense, her incredible energy level, and well, her "stick-to-it" attitude. Anyway, it struck me that I have a load of batik fabric very similar to the one that she used for her border except mine looks like this.


I found this fabric a while ago and bought a whole bolt thinking it would provide wonderful opportunities for overdyeing. And it did. The photo below shows just one piece that I've done and I love it. I love it so much that I haven't been able to cut into it yet. Doesn't it look very similar to Wanda's border fabric?

I have to share this with you although it's somewhat silly/funny.

I bought 7 yards of white/cream chenille with which to make a robe. I'm going to use IDye (thank to Terri at StegArt for her posts regarding IDye) to dye it in the washing machine. But, in the meantime, I decided to wash it and dry (shrink) it before the dyeing process. I knew it would "shed", but this is shocking! LOOK at that dryer lint! This stack is 9 inches high! I've had to stop the dryer ever 20 minutes or so to de-lint it! It's still drying as I write and I'm sure I'll have another good stack of lint before I'm done.


I know a lot of people use this for their art, but I haven't figured out exactly how I could use it. I guess I'm crazy, but I usually just throw my dryer lint away! The only reason I like this particular lint is that 1) there's so much of it, and 2) it's pure white/cream and I think there are lots of possibilities for it. Would it make good handmade paper? Anyway, if you want some (or all) of it, just email me or leave a comment and it will be on it's way to you!

Some more of my recent hand-dyed fabric to show you. It's always when I'm playing around that I get the most interesting results, I think. I've got many more of these to get listed...I wish I could hire one of you to help me. :)) There are only so many hours in a day, ya know?


I love this one and I'm keeping it. I keep very few of my hand-dyed's but every now and then one just "grabs" me. I don't yet know how I'll use it, but it will look great sitting in my studio until I decide!



This one is fun and was truly unplanned. It just happened. That's what's so fun about dyeing fabric.



And this last one is very color-saturated. I can see a flower in the upper right-hand corner. With the perfect quilting and maybe some beading, couching, etc. it could be exquisite!

Here's a second batch of fabric I recently dyed. I guess it's pretty obvious that I'm ready for fall. September rolls around and I'm usually tired of the hot weather and ready for something cooler.


But, the weather usually remains beautiful and warm, sometimes even hotter, until well into October.


These last three are 1-yard pieces. All the others were half-yard size. Both sizes are fun to dye, but half-yards go further!









Take care,

I've managed to do a bit of fabric dyeing recently. The first of this season...I can't believe I've been too busy to dye fabric before this!!! Anyway, I was playing around with color and got these...



















and these. The second batch are commercial fabrics I overdyed...just for the fun of it!

How fun!

I've got a huge pile of hand-dyed fabrics that I need to get listed on my website, but I thought I would show you a few first. Every time I dye fabrics, it's a thrill because I never really know how they will look when completed. Even as I wash them it's not obvious. Only as I iron them do I see how absolutely gorgeous they are. I don't mean to be immodest, it's just that I think every piece of hand-dyed fabric is gorgeous no matter who does the dyeing. Anyway, here are just a few...




This last fabric is an overdyed commercial fabric which was originally black and white.

For all of you who enjoy dyeing your own fabric, here is something fun to try. It's called the Dye Mixer, provided courtesy of Olli Niemitalo. The general idea of the dye mixer is to allow you to try various combinations of dye, lighting conditions, and canvasas before you ever get to your dyeing studio and real dyes/fabrics. I've never developed recipes for dyeing from using it, but it's been fun playing with the colors anyway. It's actually quite a good learning tool for working with color.

Ok, I promised pictures...

These fabrics were created using dye powder right from the jar. The colors we used were: Pewter, Black Cherry, Dusty Rose, Claret, Deep Yellow, Lapis, Olive Drab, Marigold, Amethyst, Aqua Marine, Periwinkle, Chinese Red, Maroon, Red Wine, Turquoise, Cerulean Blue, and Seafoam.



These fabrics were created by mixing. I don't think I can repeat these since I was just playing and not keeping track of what I was doing. I LOVE the third one from the top...it's GORGEOUS!!

We dyed and went to heaven....yes, it's cliche, but in this case so true!!

Oh...I LOVE dyeing fabric!! It's so creative...it's so messy...

My friend, Carol, came over again for a day of dyeing. She was given MANY old, probably 10-15 years old, dye powders so we decided to see if they were still viable. We chose 17 colors to work with and went to town. We picked Pewter, Black Cherry, Dusty Rose, Claret, Deep Yellow, Lapis, Olive Drab, Marigold, Amethyst, Aqua Marine, Periwinkle, Chinese Red, Maroon, Red Wine, Turquoise, Cerulean Blue & Seafoam. Several of these we've used before but we still had to "test" them to make sure they were still "active" dyes. :))

I made dark and Carol made medium colors and we'll compare once they are washed out. It's so much easier to get an indication of what the colors might look like when you are doing medium colors. Dark colors all look black in the dye pot!

Anyway, after we did each color straight, then we started to play. I'm anxious to see these color combinations. I documented as best I could so we could "sorta" be able to create them again!

I'll post pictures of all of them soon!

More fabric dyeing...

I have been playing around with 2-color runs. Today I will wash out Bronze to Scarlet but I will have to post that picture later! Here's Fire Red to Sky Blue...



and Deep Yellow to Avocado...



What do you think? I think I need an intermediate step in between the 1st and 2nd steps since there is too much contrast between the two.

I can't believe how fast this summer has passed. And yes, we'll still have some very hot weather but I'm ready for fall.

I guess that's why we decided to spend a week at Mammoth. Hopefully, we'll have some cool evenings/nights and some lovely breezes during the day. We plan to do some hiking/walking, fishing, reading, cooking, quilting, and just generally relax! Oooooh, I can't wait!

I've been dyeing fabrics lately! It's so much fun and so rewarding since it's such a surprise to see "what you get" when it's all washed out and ironed! What a treat!

I realize I have much to learn and have found several yahoo groups that are filled with very experienced and sharing members. It's a whole new world! This is just a sample of what I've been doing!

Happy Labor Day!!

I finished Harry Potter on Wednesday night! I was reading in every spare moment I had and I was torn between wanting to finish it quickly and wanting to take my time and savor every moment. I was just too worried that some idiot would feel the necessity to spoil it for me. I loved it! But, I didn't actually love the ending. I guess it was necessary but it didn't feel right somehow.

I spent Friday dyeing fabrics with two friends, Jane & Carol. These are Jane's fabrics in the picture! We did 48 half yards each and spent the entire day at it. It's really a lot of work, but it is so rewarding and that makes it FUN! I just finished ironing the last piece! I messed up with the muted set but am basically happy with them anyway. I learned a lot more about mixing dyes this time. Great fun!!