Lockdown Day 2

It's Friday, Day 2 of Covid-19 Lockdown NZ Edition. I set my alarm for half an hour before everyone else and greeted the day in peaceful seclusion. I think I'm going to do that regularly just to get some alone time.

I made a cup of tea. I stood on the deck and listened to the dawn chorus and the one solitary car that went past in the distance. I sewed a few quilting lines on my quilt. I watched the sky turn light, then pink, then blue.

And I thought about how I got up early to get some alone time, yet there will be other people who are dying to have some people time. Everyone's experience of this lockdown is going to be so different. Will it make our family stronger, or push us further apart? Will the kids remember this as an exciting fun time, or a scary one? Will we have positive things to show from this experience?

I guess we'll have four weeks to find out.

After yesterday's post I thought I'd show a better show of some of my napkins vs. normal cotton fabric. Remember, these are dry but not rinsed, so they will lighten and alter somewhat.

The top fabric is my normal cotton, the second is a damask cotton napkin dyed in the same batch. The third is my normal cotton fabric and the bottom is another damask cotton napkin. So they colour very similarly, but you do get a slight textural effect with the damask. (Click on the picture and I think it will enlarge.)

The top fabrics are the ones I showed you yesterday when they were still wet and scrunched and I've included that picture for reference. If I remember, I'll post one more comparison picture once I've rinsed them.

Lockdown Day 1

The first official day of lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It seemed to go a little smoother for us than yesterday. The kids had a bit more of a handle on doing their schoolwork online, Hubby started his building project that he organised before the supply shops shut down and I got some work done rather than just hover round the edges keeping an eye on everyone.

And one of the things I got done was some dyeing.

I haven't been doing any fabric dyeing lately because we've had such a severe drought that we are in the highest level water restrictions - essential use only. Dyeing the way I do takes little water, but rinsing uses a bit. So I'm dyeing the fabrics, drying them with the dye still on it and I'll have one big 'ol rinse session when the restrictions lift.

There are two pieces in the pic above, one is normal white cotton and one is a heavy white cotton napkin that I bought from the op shop. I've been worrying about my contribution to our consumerist society. I dye fabric so people can buy it. It gives me the good feels to know I'm making something beautiful that people appreciate, but it gives me the bad feels to add to our 'buy more' mindset. So I've started buying second-hand linen and dyeing that. It dyes up beautifully, sews well, and makes me feel very eco-friendly!

I'm trying to take the time to appreciate all the things that make me feel good. I think I might need them in the coming weeks.

A Dyeing Day

I worked a twelve hour night shift last night, and no matter my good intentions, it’s hard work getting motivated the day after an all-nighter.

I sleep till past lunch, but then I rub my eyes and yawn through the rest of the day.

So one of my strategies to still get stuff done is to pick something immersive but that doesn’t demand a whole lot of concentration. Something I can do while listening to 70’s music!

Today the dye studio won the lottery.

It was beautiful down there (my studio is a platform built under our house) with the sun shining through the ti kouka tree, and I got stuck in and dyed a whole stack of my variegated fat quarters. These will be for sale when I talk at Whangarei Quilters next Saturday.

I also tried a slightly different way of dyeing my embroidery threads. Usually I dye these in lots of two or three and carefully control the colour variegations. But today I put them on top of a white fat quarter to soak up excess and then just kinda went for it.

I’m looking forward to washing these out. They could be stunning...or they could be mud...

I’ll keep you posted!

Why it pays to test your dyes.

I received some old procion fabric dyes from a textile artist who longer needed them.  Unsure of their age or how they've been stored, I'm using them hesitantly and if it's for something important, I'm testing them first.

Here is a really good example why.

I made this blue dye up as per my usual recipe and added it to soda ash soaked cotton fabric as per
normal.

The top photo is the dye solution squeezed through the fabric.  I left it to batch for over 24 hours and then took the bottom photo after it was rinsed.  You always get some washout and lightening but the amount that I got is nowhere near acceptable and shows me that this particular dye has well and truly lost its potency.

I searched for Multicraft Manufacturing Ltd online and I found that it was dissolved as a company in 2009, so that gives me a hint as to just how old that dye might be!

The reason I was testing this particular dye was because I had been mucking about doing random serendipitous work with the gifted dyes and noticed that none of my pieces had turned out as blue as I expected after the rinse.  However, I also had a few pieces of silk organza in the mix and they are quite blue.  I've read somewhere that you can use old procion dyes on silk with vinegar (protein fibres work best with acid as a fixative whereas cellulose fibres need a base) and get good results.  So before I biff this jar of dye powder I'm going to run one more test on silk with vinegar.

Watch this space.

Dye a little every day

I've been using the hashtag #dyealittleeveryday on Instagram for about six months now.  It was my aim to dye little and often to build up my supply of hand dyed fabric without having to do marathon rinsing efforts (my least favourite part of the process).

No, I haven't managed to dye or post a photograph everyday!  But I have built up my supplies like I wanted.  And there have been other benefits to a regular dyeing practice.  I've honed my studio practice at the dyeing bench to produce fabrics without too much fuss and bother.  I also have worked out methods that suit me and processes to get quite different looks depending on what I want.  Basically, I've been increasing my skills.

There are lots of benefits to a regular creative practice.  I keep meaning to start a regular sketchbook practice but haven't quite got there yet.  I've seen people start daily photo practices or challenges, weekly mini-quilt challenges, printing, scrapbooking, painting, you name it - people will have done it.

Cynthia Morris, over on Original Impulse, wrote a nice blog post on regular creative practices.  She talks about how doing it can develop your skill, help you recognise your style, and learn to get pleasure out of the process.  It's worth heading over to read.

Do you have a regular creative practice?  I'd love to hear about it and how it works for you.  Or have you started one that fell by the wayside?  What do you think went wrong?

Happy creating everyone.

Shibori Folding Techniques - Tutorial

So after my Monday Musing yesterday (maybe I should call it Monday Moaning!) I thought I better post some actual content on this bog of mine.

And seeing as I was rambling about doing a creative practice project making complex cloth (and I still am considering doing that, I'm just nutting out the way I would actually structure it), I thought I'd post a little video tutorial for you on doing some basic shibori fabric folding to pattern cloth.

Shibori is a Japanese term.  It basically refers to the many ways of manipulating cloth - be it folding, tying, stitching, or clamping - that can be done before placing the fabric in a dye bath.  There are beautiful examples of shibori from highly skilled artisans that you can find if you do a little web searching, but this video shows you nine simple ways to secure your fabric using basic household items.

There wasn't time in the video to show how I actually dye the cloth.  So here is my basic recipe and technique:

Tie or fold your fabrics first and have them ready to go in a small container or plastic zip-lock bag.  Tie your bundles using DRY fabric.  Wear gloves, work in a well ventilated area, and use a dust mask when the dry dye powders are exposed.

This recipe will dye at least five fat quarters, maybe more depending on how small your tied bundles are:

700mls hot water

2 tablespoons non-iodised salt

1 tablespoon soda ash

1 ½ - 2 teaspoons of dye powder (the variance is to allow for when you are mixing colours, sometimes with a complex recipe it is hard to measure tiny amounts and it gets easier if you ‘upsize’ the total dye powder amount)

Remember to use hot water for best dissolving.   Put ingredients into a jug and stir well, or a capped bottle or jar and shake well.  Work quickly as the dye powder starts to react with the soda ash straight away.  Pour this solution onto your tied or folded bundles.  Slosh them around to make sure dye solution has covered them.  Leave to ‘batch’ in a warm place for at least four hours.

Rinse the bundles while they are still tied.  Once the water is clear then you can untie them, keep working in a bucket of water or under a running tap.  Then rinse again.

Enjoy!

Colour with Texture Workshop

I ran my practice hand dyeing workshop last Friday and thought I'd show you some photos.  I had six students, just the right number for me to test out my teaching methods and see how much we could get through in a day.

There were students who measured precisely and noted everything down, and then there were students who were true mad quilt scientists and just chucked a bit of this and a bit of that!

Some beautiful colours emerged during the day.  Luckily most of the students were part of my guild so I'll get to see the washed and dried fabric results, yay!

We worked in my local community hall, a great big space with very cleanable floors.

It was lots of fun and I can't wait to run another one.  I learnt a few things to change in my handouts and how I structured the day, so it was really useful for me also.  I also have a few more samples to dye, but that's no hardship as I love to dye and watching everyone else have fun with colour just whetted my appetite!

Colour with Texture

I'm running a low-water immersion fabric dyeing course on Friday.  It's a 'prototype' or test workshop with a group of my quilting club members to see how much info I can cover in one day, whether I've got all my handouts written correctly , and whether or not it's fun!

This is hanging on my design wall today.  It's one of my samples for the course.  Any guesses on how I made it?  Looking at the final product makes my mind whizz with possibilities.  

And I'm so looking forward to running this class, I love fabric dyeing!!  I'll let you know how it goes, and stay tuned for some more sample pics.

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.

Hand Dyed Fabric on the Warm Side of the Colour Wheel

Just a quick post today with some of my recent hand dyeing.  It's a quick post because I'm busy getting ready for beginners class tonight and sewing up samples and writing instructions.  It seems to take a stack of time!

I was aiming for some more 'ish' kind of colours - not pure hues and I also wanted some tints (colour with white added, which with dye is diluted dye).  The second photo was dyed light orange then folded and one edge rested in pure dye.  I love the effect the wicking action gave.

I also dyed some silk.  I expected lighter colours than I got because silk tends to dye a little lighter than cotton, but the colour I used as a base for all these (I was trying out a series theory) is a pretty tenacious colour.  I must remember that in future!

I wish you could see the lustre of the silk, just yummy.

Hand Dyed Fabric - lighten up

I squeezed in a little fabric dyeing this weekend.  I need to get some lighter colours, some tints, to round out my hand dyed collection.  I also need to get some shades, which are blackened colours, but I discovered I've run out of black dye so that wasn't happening today.

They are very clear and bright.  I think I need to muddy some of my colours up a little to get some more interesting colours, but these definitely add a lighter aspect to my collection so I'm not unhappy with results.  I could also do another round of dilution in the orange and fuchsia, but I ran out of soda ash soaked fabric.

A brief explanation of how I dye my fabrics:
I take my prepared for dyeing fabric and rip it into fat quarter sized bits.
I write a number on the corner of each one for record keeping purposes and then put them in a bucket of soda ash solution, roughly 1/2 cup soda ash to about 8 litres of water.
I use procion mx dyes and I mix about 1 1/2 teaspoons of dye powder to one cup (250 mls) of water.
Then I pull out a piece of soaked fabric, wring it out and squirt on my dye.
If I want to make a mixed colour or dilution, I aim for about 1/5 cup (50 mls) of dye solution per fat quarter.
Leave it sitting for as long as you can (I often leave it overnight), then rinse and wash etc.
REMEMBER: use gloves, a mask when the dye powder is exposed, and utensils and pots reserved only for dye use.

The rest of the weekend has been taken up by the never ending housework, baking for lunch boxes, stitching with my quilting group (if you listened to my podcast yesterday, you'll know I got in a bit of hand binding), helping hubby build a deck outside our back door and painting another window frame (second to last one!!).

And now I think I'll settle in for the evening with my hand binding on my lap and a cup of peppermint tea and my hubby to keep my company.