Hand dyed fabric

Our own MaryAnn Ead does. As a matter of fact, for round 1 of the your pick swap, we all got to work with some of her fabric, it was awesome! Her finished quilt from the your pick swap can also be found on the gallery at her website:

Her fabrics are hand PAINTED not hand DYED according to her site. To me, there is a big difference.

I'd have to agree! I've been known to paint fabric on occasion, but have never done any dyeing.

EITHER WAY, her work is still wonderful!

Absolutely!! I think it's gorgeous!!

Howdy!

From RCTQ ng to the Baseball Swap, Alice is one of us.

She was at the Dallas Quilt Show this year so we had a nice face-to-face meet-up, and then I shopped. Whew! Beautiful fabric. Beautiful!

Then there's this machine quilter chick who has sent me a few samples, possibly still trying to bribe me to come paint at her house:

even wrote a good set of directions for us on that were to Dye for.*snort*

Ragmop/Sandy-- who has one of Alice's fabric postcards now

me again....I plan on doing it again sometime in the future...but one afternoon I did dye a bunch of small pieces of fabric. They basically all turned out like this one:

were blues and some were greens also. I did photograph them, but the pictures turned out horrible. I used the shaving cream method for dying, and it was really fun to do!Teri

Somewhere I have the dyeing in jar recipes that were posted here years ago. Can you search old postings on Google? They work great. Otherwise, I will look for them when I get home from helping my daughter move to La Plata. It's a move she's suddenly gotten nervous about, but I'm sure she'll be fine.

L>Our own MaryAnn Ead does. As a matter of fact, for round 1 of the your pick

No pictures, but when I think of hand-dyed fabric, I think of color that has a bit of unevenness about it, similar to a lot of the Bali fabrics. Sometimes they may have more than one color, sometimes only one.

Julia in MN

If you go to my webshots..I have a folder of hand dyes I did last summer. I haven't done any yest this year. I dye in canning jars - quart and half quart sizes

I did't have time to get these photos up before... The only hand-dying I have done is some tie dyed fabric. We go to a family week at a Bible camp every summer, and tie dying is always a favorite craft. Last year, I took 2 yards of plain white fabric, tie dyed it, and then cut it up to make a quilt to donate to the camp auction this year. I used the Minnesota Hot Dish block; the border is my own "design". It's machine quilted in variegated thread. I used all but some very small scraps of my tie-dyed fabric. :)

Julia > TerriLee >> Doesn't one of you (or more) do hand-dyed fabrics? Can you tell me

Oh Julia! That is exquisite. Just beautiful. How can you bear to part with it?

That is so lovely Julia. Well done.!

That is a strikingly beautiful quilt! The fabrics are wonderful. We go to a family week at a Bible Carole in Northwest GA - Retired and loving it! Homepage -

It was my intent from the beginning to donate it; for me, much of the enjoyment for me is in the making, and I know it should sell well at the auction. Most of my quilts are made as gifts or to ultimately donate to charity, and since that is my intention from the beginning, it isn't a problem for me. I know that someone else will probably enjoy and love my quilt; if not, they're the losers, not me :)

Julia in MN

Beautiful. Thanks for sharing.

Love it!!!

This is quite old, from about 10 years ago. Also, if you search Google Groups for the name Kathy Applebaum, she posted a lot about dyeing fabrics back when I first tried it. I believe she still posts here and perhaps will step in. She used to have a website I would refer to, but my old computer with that saved is long dead.

This is very old and I don't even know where it came from. I know that I did try it and was happy, but not thrilled with the results. I thought that the blues came out too turquoise.

Linda PATCHogue, NY

================================================== Canning jars (16oz capacity) Two or three 4 to 5 gallon plastic buckets Measuring spoons timer old clothes and towels, rags, etc. for clean up.

Procion MX Fiber Reactive Dyes from Dharma Trading Company (800)

542-5227.

Fabric - 100% cotton

You can use muslin, or tone on tones if you like. I used dyers cotton from P&B, which has not finishing on it, this means no prewash.

Soda Ash

Otherwise known as sodium carbonate. This is the active chemical that sets the dye molecules in the fiber molecules. It is caustic, and should be handled with a mask, gloves and goggles. Use 1/2 cup per gallon of soaking solution.

Synthrapol

Used before and after dyeing. Strips grease from the fabric before washing. When used on freshly dyed fabric, it removes the excess dye that has not bonded with the fabric, to prevent bleeding.

Urea

This is a fabric wetting agent, keeps the fabric damper, longer during the dyeing process. Use 1/4 cup per quart of dye solution.

Water Softener

If the water is hard, adding water softener to the batch is helpful. Use pure sodium hexametaphorsphate from a dye supply house or Calgon. 1/2 teaspoon per 8 oz of dye solution.

Dye

Procion MX fiber reactive dyes. Powder has a longer shelf life. Can be purchased in 2 oz, 4oz, 8oz and 1 pound quantities. As a rule, there are approximately 3 tablespoons of dye to an ounce. Dye particles are very fine, thus a mask and goggles should be worn when handling.

It is possible to make just about any color from the basic set of dyes below:

Yellow - Dharma Bright Yellow #2 Red - Dharma Fuschia Red #13 Blue - Dharma Turquoise #25 Black - Dharma Better Black #44

Dyeing Fabric - Jelly Jar Method (directions for 1/2 yard cuts)

1. Wash your fabric in Synthrapol on the hottest wash. Use 1/4 cup Synthrapol for a large machine load. If you do this just before you dye the fabric, there is no need to dry it.

1. (Note: this is for 12 yards fabric, so adjust accordingly) Make a solution in a bucket of 1 1/2 cups of soda ash in 3 gallons of water. Use gloves and a mask when mixing this. Soak the fabric in this mixture for at least 15 minutes, no longer than 30 minutes. If you don't use the fabric you have soaked, wash it again in Synthrapol as soon as possible. Fabric that has the soda ash solution left in it will rot and become weak. Take the fabric out of the soda ash solution, wring it, and place it in a bucket in a separate balls.

2. Make the dye solution base in a bucket: (quantities are for 1/2 yards)

2 gallons warm water

2 cup urea granules 8 teaspoons water softener

Mix well, until everything dissolves - don't worry if using Calgon (brand of water softener) made this solution blue - it will not affect the dye process.

1. Fill three half gallon containers with 10 cups of the dye solution base each. One is for the yellow dye concentrate, the next for the red, and the last for the blue. Mark them yellow, blue and red respectively if you desire. Add dye to these containers in the following proportions:

For a dark batch:

16 teaspoons yellow 10 teaspoons turquoise 6 teaspoons fuscia red (this is the one I did in the class I took)

For a medium batch:

10 teaspoons yellow 6 teaspoons turquoise 4 teaspoons fuscia red

For a light batch:

4 teaspoons yellow 2 teaspoons turquoise 1 teaspoon fuscia red

Jelly Jars

1. Arrange the jars in a way that you can work with them (this depends on how many jars you are dyeing at a time, I did 24). You will need to be able to remember the sequence of the jars when you pour the dye. You can mark the sides of the jars with masking tape and a number to more easily tell them apart.

1. Add salt to each jar as follows:

Dark batch: 2 tablespoons uniodized salt to each jar Medium batch: 2 teaspoons uniodized salt to each jar Light batch: 1 teaspoon salt to each jar

1. Add dye to the jars following the chart below. Stir the dye well with a kebab stick or spoon, rinsing between colors. Stir until the salt is almost completely dissolved.

1. Scrunch a piece of fabric into each jar, being careful not to spill out the dye. Screw the lid on tight, and give the jar a good shake.

2. Shake/turn the jars over every 20 minutes or so for the next two hours. (After the first turn, check the tightness of the lid, they usually have to be tightened again).

1. Let the jars sit for a minimum of 24 hours, maximum of one week.

2. Open each jar under running water and rinse the fabric out. Do not let the fabric touch each other or you will trade colors. Start washing machine and as soon as the agitation begins, shake the fabric into the washing machine.

Wash the dyed fabric in a long, hot cycle with Syhthrapol, approximately

1/4 cup for each load.

Similar colors can be washed together. Yes, you can wash reds and yellows together. On dark batches, it is advised to run an extra wash cycle with Synthrapol, especially blue/violets.

1. Dry the fabric.

1. Iron the fabric.

2. Enjoy the fabric.