Dyeing at Home: Palliative Care for Fabric

Let me show you my little set up for dying at home. I use Procion MX dyes. They are cold water dyes that use salt and soda ash in the process.  I got them locally here in Vancouver, BC, at Maiwa on Granville Island.  I'm pretty much following Malka Dubrawsky's instructions from her book and workshop.  Check out her great book "Color Your Cloth: A Quilter's Guide to Dyeing and Patterning Fabric" for her complete instructions and great project ideas.

First there's the waxing.  I had started outside on the colonnade, then I moved into the kitchen under the stairs beside the hot water tank to be closer to the sink and less cold.  I use Kona PFD (prepared for dyeing) fabric.

You can see the electric frying pan with the melted wax, my potato masher stamp and the fabric pinned over a cardboard box.  Since it's a big box, I keep the rest of the potato mashers and cardboard stamps in it.

Then the table gets set up for dying.  The cooled wax in the electric fry pan goes into the box and slid under the table and the dye vats (by Rubber Maid) come out.  This one has about 2 yards of waxed fabric soaking up the grey dye before the soda ash gets added.  The soda ash has been dissolved in that container with the blue spoon in it.

 Here's a turquoise vat getting fixed for a couple hours after the soda ash has been added.

Then the fabric is rinsed well until the water runs pretty clear, then hung up on a curtain rod in the hall at the top of the stairs.  I put plastic sheeting on the floor and up the wall to the rod height and an old towel on the floor to catch the drips. There seems to be great air flow up the stairs because the fabric is dry in 90 minutes.

Here's the grey ones drying
Next I waxed what I wanted to keep grey, then discharged most of the grey out of the rest of the fabric so that the red dye that I did next would be bright.  If I hadn't discharged, the red over the grey would have created a very dark maroonish colour and I wanted bright red.

Then I boil the finished fabric in a big pot for an hour, then let it cool outside so that the wax floats to the surface and solidifies.  I pull the wax off the top of the pot and give the fabric a quick last rinse and hang it up again to dry.  Here's the finished red and grey fabric.  I made 4 16 inch strips that all coordinate.  On these I stamped them with: a cardboard diamond stamp, a potato masher, a paint brush, and sun glass frames.

Here's a shot of the discharging process.  The two vats are diluted bleach and diluted vinegar. You soak and agitate the fabric moving it from one bath to the other bath.  The star fabric was all royal blue and the blue discharges almost completely.  Here it's just a light grey and once it dried it was hardly coloured at all.  The yellow does not discharge much at all.

Red discharges a bit and is quite slow.  Turquoise discharges very slow, and ends up a light light-blue.  Brown discharges to orange, which makes sense as it's the red and yellow in it that stay.  I made a nice dark plum colour with red and royal blue and it discharged to red, the blue almost completely came out.

So the process is pretty much Wax, Dye, Discharge, Repeat, then Boil out the wax.  The discharge is an optional step, but without it, you'll have to always dye from light to dark and the second colour will usually be a mix of your first and second colours.  For example red after yellow will be orange, blue after yellow will be green.

The fabric that I used three colours on usually didn't turn out that great.  They end up dark and muddy.  Two colours and one discharge give you great results and that limitation actually makes me more creative and gets me thinking about what will work out and look great.  

Fabric Dyeing

I haven't posted anything since QuiltCon in February.  It's not because I haven't been doing anything, it's because Ive been dyeing.

I got into Malka Dubrawski's batik dyeing workshop.  I was on the waiting list and got the call just a week before the convention saying a place had opened up.  YEA!

 

I was so sick that day and arrived late, but it was great seeing the process she uses.  I had bought her book last year, so I already had all the instructions.  It was great to work through it all with her there and although we waxed the fabric for most of the day, we did get it all in dye baths and picked it up the next day.  Since we didn't have time to dye it and get it dry so we could add more wax and dye it again, we all ended up with white and one colour on each piece of fabric.

When I got home from QuiltCon, I went to Maiwa on Granville Island and bought Procion MX dye, soda ash and brushes.  I got some Pima Cotton from Maiwa and some Kona PFD from Spool of Thread.  I added wax and more die to the 6 pieces from the workshop and waxed and dyed lots more.  From each piece I cut some off and made a Shoo Fly block.  I've seen it listed as Monkey Wrench too.  Here's the quilt top from my first month's dying frenzy.

 

Here's what I started for the back of the quilt.  Paula and Arita took a Hexie workshop at QuiltCon and shared the technique at the last guild meeting.

Most of the fabric is waxed using potato mashers for stamps.  I found 9 different mashers with great patterns and have been using them all the time.  I also made some cardboard stamps and have used the bottoms of candle holders as well.

VMQG Workshop - Gees Bend Style Blocks

I gave a day long workshop on Feb 3 for the VMQG where we all made some Gees Bend style blocks.  The group of 12 was great, everyone brought very unique fabric with very unique colours and patterns.

We started out looking at three quilts done in this technique and I put 2 blocks up on the wall showing examples of how to make the square bulls-eye and what level of wonkyness and strip width to try, then we all got started.

Most people brought several options for fabrics so I went around consulting on what could be used as background and what could be used as the colour strips.

Here's what the first block for each person turned out once they were cut in quarters and put back together.

 

Then we all started making the blocks 3 or four at a time.  Here's what they looked like once another block or two had been made.

Elsie's blocks

Victoria's blocks (Jo)

Heather's blocks

Gaye's blocks

Loretta's Gees Bend blocks

Arita's blocks

Terri's blocks

Anna's blocks

Michelle's blocks

Nikki's blocks

Michelle's blocks

I love how everything comes together so nicely with this technique.  Each block that is made and cut up ends up very different from the previous.  As you mix and match the blocks throughout the quilt, you get a very graphic effect.  Depending on the background and contrast of the coloured fabrics, you can end up with a very calming effect like Heather, Arita and Gaye or a more jarring excitable effect like the rest of them. 

Thanks so much, Terri and Arita for taking these pics throughout the day.  Just because we're only showing 1 block for some people, doesn't mean they are slackers.  We just didn't get a shot of their entire production.

If I have some mis-identified, let me know and I'll fix the names.

UPDATE:  Arita finished her top!

Mini Bento Boxes

I started sewing up these little quarter log cabin squares.  This idea is from Modern Quilts Illustrated issue 2, a mini magazine with patterns, design ideas, quilty information all from Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr.  They are amazing designers and have great ideas to share.

The blocks end up at 3.5 inches square.

I sewed a 3/4 inch white strip to the sides and made an 8 x 8 square

Then I made more and added them along two sides with a white inclusion running through.

I think I'll make a whole bunch more and keep growing it bigger.  Perhaps as the "back" for this quilt. Curvy on one side, blocky on the other.

Low Volume Quilt

I got the top of this quilt mostly put together at the sew-in in Surrey.  Amy arranged a sew-in with the Fraser Valley Modern Quilt Guild and the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild in Surrey, half way between the two guilds.  I made the blocks months ago.  I got Felicity to show me her technique for sewing blocks together once you have decided on the layout order.  You end up sewing blocks together and not cutting the joining threads.  Eventually you end up with the rows connected, but dangling below each other by the threads, then you iron the seams, then sew the rows together.

I used one fat quarter of the featured print, a matching blue, and 3 coordinating neutrals. It's a very low volume quilt except the blue.  Maybe I should have gone for a lighter blue.  I generally improvised each block, going with either blocks or strips, making each different.  Not all blocks have the featured print.

I have extra of most of the fabrics, so I may just make 3 giant blocks in the same style for the back.

It's a companion piece to this quilt that I blogged earlier.

I got off the waiting list and am now going to take a fabric dying workshop with Malka Dubrawski, the designer of the yellow print, at Quiltcon!  I'm so excited.  How am I going to travel with a cardboard box, a paring knife, a potato, a carrot, a green pepper and a stick of celery?  That's what's on the supply list for the workshop!

Finished my Gees Bend style Dirty Laundry Quilt

I actually made a back, then quilted and bound the jeans quilt.

Here's a look at the process.

I did a square overlapping stipple and tried to go over as many seems as I could to stabilize the fabric and hold those thick seams down.

The back is a warm flannel in a brown and cream hounds-tooth pattern.  I included a pieced strip of jeans off centered for a graphic punch.

It's really heavy with all those jeans.  The flannel back helps to soften it up and I think it's the perfect compliment to the front.

I'm giving a workshop on this technique this upcoming weekend to the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild.  I've made some demo squares in green, gold and black - trying out a circuit board look.  We'll see what it looks like when I cut the blocks in quarters and rearrange them.

So, what should I call this quilt?  The two name I've been trying out are:

• Dirty Laundry
• Dirty Hippies

What should I go with?

Gear Block Cushion

I figured out what to do with the gear block I made last month.

This was a challenge where we picked up a zip-lock bag of scraps that another guild member had put together and make anything at all for her.  The name of the owner of the scraps was hidden in the bag, so I didn't know who's bag I got.  Unfortunately there was a mix up on my part and I thought this bag of blue scraps was an extra so I didn't get it done in time for the meeting.

It's 24 inches square, so I made it into a really big cushion for Heather, the guild member who's bag of scraps I got.  Once it was quilted and put together, it's about a 22 inch square cushion.

The back is an envelope style back with a built in tie to keep it together.  Once I had sewed the front and back together, I bound the edges like a normal quilt, so I didn't turn it inside out. 

I used up all the scraps of blue in the zip-lock bag - even the ones I didn't like - and had to add in some of my own scraps of blue to have enough for the binding and ties.  I added all the white fabric.  It's all white on white prints from my "traditional quilting" days.  Now I just use solids, so this was a great way to use up fabric that was just sitting in my stash.  The gear side actually has 3 different white on white prints and I added in some blue scraps on the back in the lower left corner.

The lining is a poly-cotton (!) from my days working at a bias tape factory.  Really, I did one summer making bias tape and piping in a sweatshop off Main Street here in Vancouver.  I could take home the triangle ends of all the ugly fabric we used.  Now I sew a diagonal seam in it to get it back to a non bias square that I can use.

QuiltCon Charity Quilt

VMQG volunteered to put together a charity quilt for QuiltCon with challenge blocks supplied by Quiltcon.  Our blocks arrived and seemed to be very odd in that they were really hard to figure out a nice layout.  Here's my attempt at laying them out on my white duvet which is about the exact size that the finished quilt is supposed to be.  First, a blob

 A tee shape

 Horizontal stripes

 Vertical stripes

I tried some colour blocking for the background with 12 inch strips of solids

 Cross shape with colour blocking background

 Exploded layout.  I think I like this one the best

I really liked these two blocks with the thin strips of colour through them.  Especially the green and grey and orange strips.

 So I made some strips with green and orange and grey to include in the solids.

Here's the first quarter of the quilt coming together.

Karen supplied the fabric for the back of the quilt and had a block she made but didn't submit for the challenge, so I put it in and made one myself too to include.  That filled out the top much better.

Here's the whole quilt

 I think I ended up with such a busy background, that the blocks sort of blend in rather than stand out.  I purposefully made sure that the background colour blocks abutted a block that had that colour in it so that the blocks appear out of and disappear into the background.  I'm not sure that it works completely, but you can't deny it is a very colourful quilt.

It certainly isn't what we'd call a twin size quilt either.  This is most definitely a queen size quilt up here in Canada.  I actually made it the minimum size allowed!  But as they say everything is big in Texas, so I guess it's a twin size quilt down there.

I got it done 10 minutes before leaving for the VMQG meeting, so I didn't get the back done.  However, Karen did supply just about enough of the blue fabric for the back and I added in some extra grey in case more fabric was needed.

I handed it off to Joan to quilt on her long arm quilter.  She'll then get it off to Liz to put on the binding (bright orange) and Amy is doing the label.  It should be ready for our next guild meeting, then it's off to Texas for QuiltCon.

Here's the quilt top being shown off at the VMQG meeting.  I don't know who took the picture, but it's posted on Flickr by VMQG.  I'm pointing to Karen's block.  This is considered a twin size quilt in TEXAS.