Did you know you can dye quilt batting?

Sorry!  More hand dyes.  Are you getting sick of them yet?  But I wanted to show a few experimental bits and pieces that I threw dye on.

So, clockwise from front left: cotton stranded embroidery thread, really cheap and nasty wool batting, cotton batting, my usual high-thread count cotton sheeting, woollen blanket, silk, repurposed linen.

What I learnt:

1. Wool does take non-acid dyes, just not as strongly as cotton, although cerulean blue just seemed to wash straight out (i.e, that orange wool was a tangerine and blue mix to make turquoise).  More experimentation needed.
2. Cheap, nasty wool batting is still cheap and nasty.  It felted a bit, which helps it's structure but it's still too soft to use in a wool appliqué project.  Yummy colours though and I could used it for a little hand-stitching art project I have in mind though.
3. Cotton batting takes the dye really well, but I should try and find some without scrim because this shows through a little on one side.
4. I need to find a thinner, finer wool blanket than the one I had.  Two pieces were from a thinner one and the rest were a much courser weave - big difference in the hand of them.
5. Old linens take the dye beautifully.  Must keep my eye out at the op shop!
6. I love dyeing, I already knew that, but I just confirmed it again.

I know I'm never going to be the best photographer, but I'm trying to improve and practice my skills.  Here I was trying for bokeh, or blur, by increasing the distance between my foreground and my background.  I like the look, what do you think?

And I'm so pleased with my deep purple.  Been hanging out for my black dye, and it finally arrived.  It's makes the best greens too.  Those greens are all made with black and yellow.

Loving the dye on the cotton batting.  It looks like watercolour paintings.  Now I just need to make something with it.