Technique:Dyeing : Serendipity and the Art of the Quilt

A little dotty

August 8, 2010 | Filed Under Technique:Dyeing | 4 Comments

Hmm…

I’m not sure quite what I expected would happen when I overdyed yellow fabric with coin resists with blue dye but if ever I want to make a Dorothy the Dinosaur quilt…

Quilt Commission: First Dye Your Fabric

August 3, 2010 | Filed Under Technique:Dyeing | 1 Comment

My client has decided to purchase a couple of works and commission another in the Desire Lines series. I have my design parameters. The first step is to dye the rich brown fabric:

A Shiny Rainbow

August 2, 2010 | Filed Under Technique:Dyeing | 3 Comments

When I visited Diane before Christmas, she kindly presented me with some cotton fabric for dyeing that is shiny on one side (that’s as technical as I get on this one). I heard that it takes colour a little differently so I decided to throw some small samples in with my latest round of Pimatex dyeing. Here are the combined results:

These are the Pimatex cottons. I don’t care for the blue-red transition but the citrus tones will work in my lorikeet piece(s):

These are the small samples. They have a lovely sheen. Let’s see how slippery it is to sew:

Rainbow Shibori

July 3, 2010 | Filed Under Technique:Dyeing, Twelve by Twelve | 3 Comments

Shibori dyeing was one of the techniques that I demonstrated at the Textile Art Festival at Brisbane last weekend. Figuring that you can’t go wrong with three primaries, I grabbed some yellow, red and blue dyes as I packed. Here are some of the results:

As it happens, rainbows were also the inspiration for Lorikeet palette that I have set for the next Twelve by Twelve challenge which is due on 1 September. I feel an urge to dye some greens but that will have to wait a while.

Incidentally, for anyone that attended the photo transfer demonstrations using orange power, Orange Power Sticky Spot + Goo Dissolver is the only Australian product that I have found works reliably with this technique. Check the Orange Power website for where to buy, including at Coles, BILO and larger IGAs. Australian Purchasers - You can purchase Orange Power online.

Creative Fire

April 23, 2010 | Filed Under Technique:Design, Technique:Dyeing, Twelve by Twelve | Comments Off

The good news is that a week or so out from the next Twelve by Twelve Colourplay reveal day, I have at least one piece completed. Just the same, every time I walk into my studio, I see this shibori with the Kilauea palette on my design wall and I keep thinking I should do something with it!

At first, I decided against using this shibori for the challenge as I didn’t want to cut into it - don’t we all get that feeling sometimes? Now I can see some potential in cutting out a 12×12 square for a wholecloth work and using the leftovers in another 12×12 piece.

It’s all a question of time and priorities and I don’t know that I can fit this in over the weekend before I head off to the Australasian Quilt Convention in Melbourne. As Heather Bennett has recorded on her blog, even small-scale art quilts take many hours to design, construct, quilt and finish. I may need to keep the creative fire burning a little longer…

Buttoned up

April 12, 2010 | Filed Under Technique:Dyeing, Twelve by Twelve | 5 Comments

OK. The latest shibori experiment worked. I couldn’t find many suitable stones on very sandy Copacabana Beach so instead I raided the button jar and spent sometime yesterday afternoon tying them up in orange cloth.
After my recent shibori failures, I was concerned to ensure that the cotton ties created a proper resist. (The Laundry King was wondering where the dental floss had disappeared to!)

I wasn’t sure whether I was too heavy handed with the dye but I needn’t have worried…

Now I know it works, I may make another piece for the next Twelve by Twelve colourplay challenge. Then again, I may go off in a completely different direction.

You never know

April 4, 2010 | Filed Under Gadgets, Technique:Dyeing | 3 Comments

In the years since I lived in Warkworth, several cheap import and variety stores seem to have popped up. I was dismissive but look what I found when I delved further. Plastic clamps, perfect for some shibori and they won’t rust or oxidise in the dye and soda ash solutions:

Book Review: Fabric to Dye For

March 26, 2010 | Filed Under Technique:Dyeing | 3 Comments

If you’ve ever seen the colourful work of Freida Anderson, you will know that she hand-dyes all of her fabrics. And if you read Freida’s blog Walks in the Woods, you can pick up all sorts of dyeing, fusing and design tips that she shares from time to time. But now you don’t have to go scrolling through her blog to find this information because it can be found in one useful book - Fabric to Dye For: Create 72 Hand-Dyed Colors for Your Stash; 5 Fused Quilt Projects.

This 80 page book published by C&T Publishing is squarely aimed at the first time dyer. About a third of the book is devoted to the basics of dyeing including:

sourcing supplies and equipment;
setting up your dyeing workspace;
preparing your dyes and fabric;
dyeing 12-step colour wheel gradations in dark, medium and light values;
dyeing 6-step gradations in complementary colours and colour family sets;
flat dyeing and using resists;
washing and drying your fabrics.

This is followed by a six page quilt gallery; a ten page section of fusing and finishing basics (fused binding, pillow-case finish, pleated sleeves and labels) and five fused projects with increasing complexity (Jack in the Pulpit, Irises, a dog portrait, Autumnal Trees, and Amish Leaves.) There are lots of bright photos to get you in the mood (who can resist the lolly-like appeal of colour gradations?!) although several of close-ups suffer from the streaky interference lines of the moiré effect.

Frieda uses a method of pre-soaking fabrics in soda-ash solution and then applying dye solutions made from simple formulae using cup, tablespoon and teaspoon measurements. It’s not rocket science, it’s not hard and it’s not novel but that’s the point. For someone who is new to the wonder of dyeing, the book presents clear step-by-step instructions to get started.

Yes, similar dyeing resources are available online for free including:

and there are other excellent books that cover similar, but not identical, territory. Just the same, I wish Frieda’s book Fabric to Dye For had been available when I first started dyeing fabrics.

PS: Frieda is a fellow tutor at the Australasian Quilt Convention from 29 April - 2 May in Melbourne.

Overwhelmed

March 25, 2010 | Filed Under Technique:Dyeing, Twelve by Twelve | 6 Comments

I’ve been thinking about the next Twelve by Twelve Colourplay Challenge - Kilauea. I even got as far as shibori stitching some orange fabric with various coloured polyester threads - the idea being that the stitching resist would create lines of lava and I could leave the stitching in if I got tired of pulling out threads, which I often do with this kind of shibori. However, I was clearly too heavy-handed with the black dye and overwhelmed the entire piece - only the faintest sign of stitching remains. What’s more the rich brown fabric that I’m left with doesn’t even fit within the designated palette…Time to start over.

Blue White Black Shibori

March 1, 2010 | Filed Under Technique:Dyeing | 1 Comment

In less than 24 hours, the Twelve by Twelve blog will be displaying the work we have created for the Colourplay challenge - blue & white with a dash of black. Here are some results from my last shibori dyeing session that might have been a foundation for a 12×12 quilt if I had allowed myself more time.