Line of dyes

I am continuing to explore dyeing fabric. In the Quilt University (QuiltUniversity.com) course I'm taking, this week we were given recipes for the 12 colours on the colour wheel.

That sounds so easy. I am discovering that dyeing is a lot more than recipes. Maybe once I've been dyeing for decades--like I have been cooking, it will be as easy and intuitive. Things just do not come out as hoped for many times. Lots of times the results are close but not quite what I wanted or hoped for.




I am learning NOT to answer the phone, or check my email while it is soaking up the dye, waiting to be turned. Distractions do not help at all!

Oh, this being a beginner again. Not an easy feeling.

Here are the results of my dyeing, drying on the line.

Working Water

I have finished a piece for the FibreArt Network's upcoming show "WaterWorks".

It's blue, of course! and entitled "Working Water". It's about 40" square.

my artist's statement:

It is as it runs downhill that water does its work, whether it is for us humans, or not. Water moving, whether down the stream or lapping on the lake shore, attracts us. We know, deep in our bones, that water is essential for life. Water works within us for our souls.

and here is a close-up of the quilting:

Dyed piecing

I did already use some of the cloth I dyed a couple of weeks ago... in an art quilt called Fields of Colour, referring to both fields of tulips, and the colorfield school of art.

It was fun to abstract the roads and fields into strip piecing... and here's what I came up with.

The quilting is subtle, and supportive of the colour choices. Here's a detail.

Dying cloth

My newest adventure is learning to dye cloth for textile art. I found out that it's a bit like chemistry class, what with measuring as accurately as possible, and getting the timing down right.

I'm looking forward to having fabric that has more nuance to it than the manufactured kind.

My first run of just primary colours came out pretty well. I've added photos of the dying buckets and the end result... So I have red, and pastel red (pink); yellow and pastel yellow (it doesn't have any green tinge that shows on my screen), and blue and pastel blue (well, not really pastel, but lighter). and the one on the left is what resulted when I poured the three dye colours together. it started out a mulberry mud, which I didn't want to go darker, so I pulled it out early--and the red washed out, leaving the blue/yellow mix--which gave a light teal green. lovely actually.

Now I can't wait to try them out on a piece of textile art!