I had some friends over for a "natural dyeing weekend". Windi and Becky camped in my back yard, and the others went home at night to sleep. Friday night we mordanted the wool. Saturday morning we began. First cochineal....
great raspberry colors.
Pam did a nice graduated color scheme.
I believe this was onion skins.
All of natures colors go together.
While the dye pots brewed hand work was done. Pam working on a appliqued quilt block.
Becky with the beginning of her "Fairy tale" quilt.
She's hand embroidering and appliqueing the story on different wool blocks. The first is the castle.
She had a lot of light blue wool that she played around with over dying. They took pretty well. They will be the back ground blocks in her quilt.
While Windi's fabric simmered she played around with natural henna on t-shirts.
Great turtle designs.
On Sunday we played with indigo. What a fascinating dye. This is the color in the pot, yellow/green.
As I carefully pulled it out of the pot so no air bubbles got in, the fabric began changing to blue.
Jody dyed 6 pairs of cotton socks (bundled up) for gifts. We kept dipping and then hanging a few minutes then back in the pot until the desired blue was reached.
Becky's hand spun wool yarn.
And Pam's wonderful collection of blues.
Becky tie-dyed some light red wool with indigo. This will be the middle of Windi's quilt, with henna designed blocks pieced around it. Beautiful.
Pam over dyed some cochineal to a beautiful plum/purple.
And yellows over dyed with indigo make green.
There was a lot more, here's a picture of Pam's dyed collection packed to go home. Isn't this beautiful?
By Sunday evening everyone was exhausted.
Windi and Becky loaded up their tent, tied the poles on top of the car and headed home, or should I say back to the real world.
And the party's over!
5 comments:
BEAUTIFUL!!!!! BEAUTIFUL colors!! looks ike a great weekend!!
It's wonderful that you share your talent and knowledge with those around you. I love how some of the colors you get are a surprise in the end.
Is there an issue with running or fading once they're in a quilt?
Before I use any of my dyed wool fabric, I wash it in the washer with Ivory dish soap. If it won't hold up to that I won't use it.
As far as fading some does a little but with proper premordanting and not leaving your fabric sitting in the sun you don't have a problem. My first wool quilt,(the fabric was dyed 15 years ago) still looks beautiful. I've dragged it all over the country, quilting it as we traveled inside and out.
The main thing I'm careful about with all my quilts is not to leave them in front of a window!
Looks like a great weekend! Beautiful flowers and beautiful wool everyone!
I wish I could've played there too, as always. I miss you.
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