My name is Charlotte, sometimes known as Ms Lottie, occasionally as The Slightly Mad Quilt Lady. This is my blog, where you'll find me writing a lot about my quilting and textile arts and a little about my family's life in a small seaside town in New Zealand. Haere mai!

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Tea Dying

This is a little bit of what I'm doing today.  I'm participating in a Round Robin at the moment and we're onto the first border around the central block.  It has to be three or three and a half inches wide, pieced and use only two main colours (and tones of) with a third colour at 10% maximum.  The theme is "What do you love to do in your local area?". 


I've been fiddling round with designs and think I'm finally happy.  My main colours are pink and green, which are the major colours used in my partner's central block.  But one of my pink fabrics is just a smidgen too pink.  I wanted it more a burgandy/brown pink.  So a little modification is in order.


There is nothing in this world that a good cup of tea can't fix!!  Tea dying has to be the most simple of procedures.  Make up a brew, dunk in your fabric, rinse when desired colour is reached.  If you want it more precise, do a little experiment with swatches of calico or your fabric you want to use: one teabag/250 mls water for 10 minutes; two teabags/250 mls water for 10 minutes; two teabags/250 mls water for 20 minutes......and so on.

Warning:  don't drink the tea once you've finished!

2 comments:

  1. What a good idea to use a maths grid book as your doodle book. I have an old lined notebook which I write in the front that I want to keep, and do measurements/scribbles in the middle so I can rip out the pages as they become obsolete. But a grid would be so much more appropriate. Oh yes, I do like your block design too, so can't wait to see the real thing.

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  2. Love the warning! ;-) And cool to see kids being kids in the last post.

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