I also spent the weekend piecing a quilt top. Last weekend we started tie-dyeing squares for a quilt we're making Fiona for her third birthday. The kids did most of the tying and dyeing and lots of the ironing. For some reason I didn't generate too much interest in the sewing, so I did most of that with Fiona's (un)help. I haven't opened the whole thing up for Fiona to see and don't intend to. Most of the rest of the work can be done in secret. We've been talking about working on her "Q - U - I - L - T," and she is delightedly talking about how we're all sewing her "Q - U - I - L - T," not having the slightest inkling (we hope!) of what that is.
Both are just brilliant Miranda!.. I especially love the colors of Fiona's Q-U-I-L-T~~ the children have a wonderful sense of color... are those the veggie dyes?
ReplyDeleteLea
Hi Lea, we use Procion fibre-reactive dyes for our tie-dyeing. Real chemicals (though pretty darn non-toxic, at least once they're in liquid form). We get them from Dharma Trading. I mix up turquoise, magenta and yellow, and then mix these basic colours together to get the intermediaries (orange, purple, green) and just let the kids go to town with the little squirt bottles.
ReplyDeleteWe've also done a fair bit of vegetable dyeing, from natural sources we've grown. Here's a link to a blog entry that includes a photo of some of the results. This is so much more challenging, and really not suitable for tie-dyeing (eg. 24 hours in the dye-bath would mix the colours rather than keep them isolated).
Miranda
Thanks Miranda for the links, I use Halcon dyes for my natural fibers or I have dabbled in naturals~ which I would LOVE to do more of this in the near future...do the colors from Dharma hold the color fairly well? we did some tye dye in the past with the olders but just used RIT with a vinegar bath and had fading problems...
ReplyDeleteThanks for the time.. I enjoy the reads...
Lea
Oh Miranda the quilt is gorgeous. Fiona will be thrilled, I'm sure:-)
ReplyDeleteOH