Oh, Fransson!

Sunshine Quilt Part One: Dyeing the Fabric

Sometimes I have an idea that I just cannot get out of my head.  A lot of times these ideas aren't particularly sensible.  Sometimes they're kind of odd.  My recent obsession with making a tie-dye-like fabric work in a mod quilt is a good example.  This isn't the kind of fabric I would normally use, but I can't help but find some beauty in the way the dye process turned out.

I've done a lot of fabric dyeing, but this was the first time I intentionally applied the dye in a more improvisational manner.  I was fortunate in that the first method I devised ended up creating exactly the effect I was going for! 

The rest of this post gives an overview of the steps I took, but it isn't intended to be a tutorial.  If you're new to dyeing, I recommend checking out a book or two on the subject to familiarize yourself with techniques, safety precautions, and dye "recipes."  My favorites are Malka Dubrawsky's Color Your Cloth and Katy Widger's The New Color Wheel Fabric Dyeing.  When I was learning to dye, I also found that my local library had a large selection of books on this subject.

I started with a big piece of Kona PFD Solid and a bird print from IKEA.  I used the Kona PFD for its white color, not because I think using fabric tagged as having been "prepared for dyeing" is important.  I prepared my fabric for dyeing by washing it with Synthrapol and put it into the dye bath straight from the washing machine (so still damp).

I started by putting the solid fabric in a plastic tub filled only very shallowly with salt solution (so the bottom, but not the top, of the fabric was submerged).

I then mixed up some Lemon Yellow dye and put it into a condiment container.

 

I added the dye directly to different areas of the fabric, trying to distribute it more or less evenly.

I then used the same method to add Golden Yellow and Chartreuse dye. 

Note: The colors I'm referring to are Procion Fiber-Reactive Dyes from Dharma Trading Company.

I'm usually very careful not to pour Soda Ash solution directly onto my fabric but, in this case, I went ahead and poured it right over the top!

I used the same method to dye the bird fabric in another tub.  You can see that, unfortunately, the IKEA fabric ended up a little darker and muddier. 

Here's a picture of the bird fabric after going through the washer and dryer.  Even though I don't think it looks as nice as the solid, I still plan to use this on my quilt back.

And here are strips cut from the solid fabric.  I LOVE the way these turned out!

I'll post tomorrow to show how I'm using these to make blocks.

I Made an Improv Block!

 

To be fair, it's probably more like an Improv Block, twice removed, but still awesome!

 

I used hand-dyed fabric and scraps of a few coordinating quilting prints.

I was inspired by the (Not So) Crazy Quilt in Joelle Hoverson's Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts to interpret Denyse Schmidt's "paper bag technique" with a loose plan.  I didn't follow Joelle's pattern, and I added a step to integrate a print fabric into each block component, but my general approach was similar.

I really need to re-cover my design wall.  It's covered in strings!

The dye process used for these solids was inspired by the Sequenced Overdye System in  Katy J. Widger's book, Color Wheel Fabric Dyeing.  (A great introductory dyeing book for anyone interested in creating a lot of different colors of fabric from just a few colors of dye.)  

I wanted to dye a similar array of colors on a smaller scale and without overdying, so I turned to a process that I've used many times over the years: beer cup dyeing.  My idea was to dye 12" x 11" squares in 25 plastic beer/keg cups.  I set the beer cups up in a grid and created a formula to add different amounts of Golden Yellow and Light Red dye solutions to each column and row.  This process resulted in 25 different colors that, while not as beautiful as what might have been produced by overdying in general and Katy's process in particular, were perfectly serviceable for this project. 

Please let me know if there's any interest in a more detailed post about beer cup dyeing.  Like I said, it's not a very professional approach, but it can be a fun introduction and is great for people working in a small space.  (I used to do beer cup dyeing in the bathtub of my tiny apartment!)

 
You may have noticed a lot of references to books in today's post!  Besides being inspired by great books, I was inspired by Rebekah's new-ish Flickr Group, Putting Idea Books to Use. 

I'm pretty happy to have come up with a viable (for me) improv block process.  I'm going to use it to finally, FINALLY, finish my Project Improv quilt for Jacquie!

Quilt Noir is a Go

Yesterday's bleaching and dying experiment had mixed results. 

My goal was to alter black and white prints to create a range of grays with which I could make a quilt inspired by the look of classic film noir.  I did figure out how I'm going to do it so, despite a big misstep, the experiment was a success.  Here's what happened . . .

I started with three identical sets of fabric scraps.

I soaked two of the sets in separate bleach baths.  I alternated with a vinegar bath, as described in Malka Dubrawsky's excellent new book Color Your Cloth.  One group was soaked for three cycles of five minutes in each bath.  The second was soaked for six cycles and, consequently, discharged quite a bit more.

Next, I re-sorted the fabric so that each set had one of each print, but a variety of different amounts of discharging. 

Now, here is where I did something totally bone-headed.  I had figured on the black discharging to brown and caramel colors, so that wasn't a surprise.  Unfortunately, I went into the next part of the experiment thinking that the gray would overdye darker on the printed parts of the fabric.  This, of course, didn't happen.  (Because the ink that had been used to print images on the fabric protected it from the dye.  Duh!)

Anyway, I put each pile of scraps into a different dye pot.  Two were the iDye that I posted about yesterday.  One was a regular fiber-reactive dye.

I'm used to using fiber-reactive dye, but I was pleasantly surprised by the iDye.  It was definitely faster and less labor intensive and it resulted in dark, even colors.  My guess is that it wouldn't stand up to years of washings like fiber-reactive dye would, but it worked fine for this experiment.

Note: Don't use your regular kitchen equipment to dye or discharge fabric!  These pots used to be my husband's.  When we moved in together, I kept all of his inferior household stuff (pots and pans, iron, blender, etc.) so that I would have them for projects! 

So, here's the fabric that was discharged and then overdyed.  It has kind of an interesting, rusty look, but it's definitely not what I was going for!  (Again, duh!  I can't believe it didn't occur to me that the printing would mask that part of the fabric from absorbing dye.)

Here's a comparison of, from left to right: original fabric, overdyed fabric, and discharged then overdyed fabric.  I'm not a fan of the way the overdyed then discharged fabric looks, but I think it's interesting, from a purely academic standpoint, that it resulted in a kind of "photo negative" of the original fabric.

Check out that gorgeous overdyed fabric though! 

This is the black and white fabric (none of which was discharged first) that was overdyed with the Silver Gray iDye.  It's kind of pretty, but both too dark and too blue for my project. 

 

Here's the really beautiful stuff!  This is fabric that was overdyed with the Gun Metal iDye.  (I suppose it makes sense that the color I like for my noir project is called "gun metal.")

 

And here's the fabric overdyed with Mist Gray fiber-reactive dye.  (If you look closely, you can see how sloppy my dye job was.  I didn't properly dissolve the dye powder before adding it to the bath, so there are lots of ugly magenta flecks!)

Apart from the sloppy dye job, the color is beautiful!  I plan to use this color, and a fiber-reactive dye that matches the iDye Gun Metal when I dye the fabric for the actual project. 

Here's a side-by-side comparison of overdyed fabric and the plain black and white prints.  (The two overdyed prints on the top-left are Gun Metal.  The two that are near the bottom are Mist Gray.) 

 

And here's a sample block.  I'm in love!  I wasn't actually planning to use this block style for the quilt, but I like the way it looks.

 

Here's another sample (this one with the grayscale pieced in the reverse order).  I'm definitely going to includ that stripe in my final quilt.  It reminds me of venetian blinds!

 

I had originally planned to do some kind of sequenced overdying to create a big range of different grays for this quilt but, given the variety I got from the different fabrics' reactions alone, I think I'm just going to prepare the fabric for this quilt using just the two grays on a variety of prints and use them with undyed pieces of the same prints (like in these sample blocks).

More Fun With Yellow and Gray

 

This picture of Maeby was not posed!  I was working this morning and saw that she was laying with her paw on this pile of solids, so I grabbed my camera and took a picture before she noticed that I was watching her.

I've been thinking for a while about a grayscale quilt -- something inspired by the look of classic film noir with some bright white, deep black and lots of grays in between.  The problem, of course, is that the gray fabrics I have aren't varied enough to achieve the look that I'm after.

I do, however, have tons of black and white prints.  I pulled them all out today and am going to try some bleach discharge and overdying to try to create a range of grays.  I have a pile of squares with pinked edges in the washer with Synthrapol right now.  When they come out, I'm going to try a few bleaching and dyeing experiments.  Hopefully some good grays will come out of it!

 
I'm going to try out these iDye packets that I found at Fabric Depot yesterday.  They had some samples in the store of fabric dyed with this stuff and I was pleasantly surprised by how intense the results were.  These probably aren't the best choice for something that's going to be washed a bunch of times, but I'm just playing around with color, so I'm going to take a chance and try them. 

In other news, I'm trying to learn how to use this fancy camera.  My mother got a new, even fancier, camera for Christmas, so she gave me this one to use, which was incredibly generous and awesome.  It has a telephoto lens and everything.  I feel like Veronica Mars! 

I'm pretty intimidated by the camera, but I will master it!  I will also make a cool patchwork camera strap.  If you know of a good tutorial, would you please tell me about it in the comments?

Fabric Alteration Experiment 2: Overdye

I've dyed fabric before, which is why I already had all the supplies handy.  I used fiber-reactive dyes and other supplies from Dharma Trading Company. 

 

I started by cutting 12 fat eighths from each of these two fabrics (The bird print is from the Soiree collection by RJR and the white and gray print is from Amy Butler's Midwest Modern 2.)

 

I followed the instructions in this book, which I bought at Fabric Depot years ago, for dyeing a 12-step color wheel.  The directions have you mixing dye solutions in primary colors and then mixing them to create a color wheel in 12 dye pots.

 

Here are my dye pots out on the deck. 

 

And here's a close-up of one of them.  The original directions suggested using one gallon of liquid to dye a fat quarter (in my case two fat eighths) which seemed like a waste of water and supplies to me, so I ended up throwing several other pieces in there too!  (This is something I've done successfully in the past.)

 

My dyes had been sitting in my garage for several years.  I'm not sure how long you're supposed to keep dye, but this stuff didn't work nearly as well as it did when I used it several years ago.  The fuchsia red in particular didn't seem to "take."  I need to order some new dyes so I can try this again!

 

These colors came out a little deeper, but I suspect that's because I was dyeing over an already-colored background.

 

Here's some of the fabric I threw in partway through the process.  (It's Alexander Henry's Chitra Floral.)

 

And here's another throw-in.  This one is Alexander Henry's Livingston Seagull.  The Alexander Henry fabric has a very fine weave, so it just soaked up the dye, even though it went into the dye pots after the bulk of the dye had likely been exhausted.

 

I threw in some Essex cotton/linen too, just to see what would happen.  I really want to dye some more of this properly, with new dye and for the prescribed amount of time, to get some deeper colors.

 

I decided to use some of my overdyed fabrics for a little project and decided that some simple hourglass blocks would look nice.  I made mine with six inch squares.  I cut 24 white squares and 24 squares from different overdyed prints.  I then cut all of the squares along both diagonals, creating four triangles from each.  For each block, I used two white triangles and two matching print triangles, as shown above.  (So, from each print square and white square, you get two identical blocks.)

 

To make the blocks, start by sewing each of the two white triangles to one of the two print triangles.  Then sew the two pairs together to make a square, aligning all points in the center.

 

The finished blocks are about 5 1/8 inches square.  Because this is an odd size, and because the seam allowances needed to be trimmed at each corner anyway, I squared up each block to five inches square by measuring out 2 1/2 inches from the center on all sides.  This was tedious, but resulted in "perfect" blocks that are very easy to join.

 

Here's a finished block.

 

And here are my 48 finished blocks together.

 

And here's a detail of the blocks.  I really wish the colors had come out deeper, but I do think it's an interesting look.  I love seeing the overdyed prints together.

 

As with the bleach discharge, I really enjoyed overdyeing.  This is the first time I've ever tried dyeing non-solid fabrics, and I thought it was really fun. I'm definitely going to try it again once I get some new dyes.

ETA:  I should have mentioned that Rossie is having a contest to get the new Flickr group going.  Check it out here!

Fabric Alteration Experiment 1: Bleach Discharge

 

Saturday morning I had an e-mail from Rossie about her new Flickr group,  take charge DISCHARGE! give it a try OVERDYE!  (You may know Rossie as the founder/moderator of the awesome Fresh Modern Quilts pool.)  The new group was inspired by Malka Dubrawsky's article for Quilting Arts (Malka has a book coming out soon too!) and is for showing off photos of commercial fabrics that have been altered with bleach or dye.  I had other plans for Saturday, but was intrigued and ended up spending the entire day altering fabric! 

 

My first experiment was with bleach discharge.  I mixed two quarts water and two cups bleach in a plastic container, added some random pieces of Anna Maria Horner's Garden Party fabric, and let them soak for about seven minutes.  I stirred a few times during the soaking process to make sure the fabric bleached evenly.  When the fabric was done soaking, I ran it through a wash cycle to get all the bleach out.

 

The results were pretty cool!  That red fabric on the top came out a bit mottled, but all of the others were nice and even.

 

I noticed that (with the Garden Party fabric anyway) reds, oranges, pinks and greens discharged quite a bit, but blues and cool dark browns didn't change very much at all.

 

Here are some samples with a lot of orange and green.  You can see how much they changed!

 

Just for fun, I made up some square-in-square blocks using some of the discharged fabrics with the original versions of the same print. 

 

Here's a close-up of one that I really liked.

 

And another.

 

I thought the blocks were most successful with fairly plain allover prints like these.  I would love to do a whole quilt this way someday!

So, my takeaway from this experiment was that bleach discharge is really fun and really easy.  If you're looking to experiment with some of your print fabrics, I definitely recommend giving it a try!