Seeing Red : Serendipity and the Art of the Quilt

Seeing Red

December 4, 2008 8:47AM | Filed Under Technique:Dyeing |

I dyed several metres of fabric yesterday. Alas most of it is useless to me due to a severe case of RED-SPECK-ITIS:

Lisa, Annie and others have previously shared helpful tips for combating RED-SPECK-ITIS and I have been a faithful whisker and pantyhose filterer ever since. However, these dye solutions seemed to separate AFTER the whisking adn double-filtering.

I believe that pre-mixed dye powders are the cause of my problems. Normally I only use pure single-hue Procion dye powders but recently I was seduced by some yummy mixed colours. Never again! the results are just too unreliable.

5 Comments

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This is beautiful. I’m sorry you don’t like it, but it is really beautiful.

Comment by Lynda Thompson — December 4, 2008 1:48 PM#
Hi! Brenda,

How annoying I agree with Lynda they aren’t unattractive, however when that was not your aim -Like you I’d be as mad as hell.

Comment by Judy — December 4, 2008 2:53 PM#
Same thing hapened to me earlier this week,i was trying to dye orange and yellow and I wasted quite a lot of fabric even though i used magi mix and a stocking…dont know if over dye woud work?

Esther

Comment by esther aliu — December 5, 2008 11:14 AM#
Oh NOES!! Oh what a shame, especially with the lovely ‘fractals’ you had going on. Dammit. At the very least, they are all the same…

I have had occasions where I’ve had to (gulp) toss the rest of a dye. That flies in the face of my Scottish heritage and miserly-ness with my dyes, but sometimes ya just gotta do it.

Either that or save that particular dye for painting, (or ye olde salt shaker down hanging wet fabric then blast with more soda ash) where it’s not going to do so much harm.

Sigh.

Just fold it up, and one day you’ll find that it’ll be perfect for a particular project, or that someone else will adore it. Ask me how I know …

Comment by Annie — December 6, 2008 12:42 PM#
Print on it, you’ll never notice the spots! Ask me how I got started printing on fabric - LOL.

Comment by rayna gillman — December 15, 2008 10:54 AM#

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