Last Batches

I finished dyeing the last of the pfd fabric I got from Dharma this week. It was quite hot the first several days of the week, and I knew it might be my last opportunity for awhile. Since it's supposed to be over 70 degrees for at least the first 4-6 hours when you dye (for the color to interact and set properly), it's not going to be feasible much of the fall, and probably not until next summer. I was getting a bit tired of it, anyway. It's harder work than it seems it would be, what with carrying all the supplies out to the patio, carrying them back in to clean up, rinsing the dyed fabric (and rinsing, and rinsing...). I'll look forward to doing more next year.

Here's what I got done this week:

On the right, a blue/grape mix, and on the left, the same dye mix with a lot more water.

Another attempt at olive, mixing deep orange with turquoise. It came out mostly deep rust, with these spots of blue. Not what I was going for at all, but still interesting and hopefully useful.

Greens made with golden yellow and increasing amounts of turquoise, then a cerulean blue. These were all 1 yards of Kona PFD cotton, as opposed to the half yards of cotton print cloth I had been using previously. I wanted to see what differences there might be. The Kona seemed to take the dyes in the same way as the print clotth, but because it's a heavier cloth and bigger pieces, it was more work to get it thoroughly rinsed out. It also seemed to be stiffer once it was dried, but some of that went away with ironing. I will probably mix these with some solid Kona cottons.

Some of the best patterning in one of the greens. There are areas of relatively solid color too, but I wasn't trying to get solids. You can buy almost any solid color you want these days, so why spend all the time to dye and have it look purchased?

Patterning in the cerulean blue. How to best feature this in a quilt is something I'm trying to figure out.