I recently watched Quilting & Dyeing Serendipity with Ana Buzzalino - a Quilting Arts Workshop which aired on PBS. After watching I could not wait to reach for a bottle of dye. Ana uses Procion Dyes to dye her work - I didn't have any to hand (yet!) so I reached for a bottle of Tulip Liquid Red dye that I had sitting in the back of my cupboard.
Procion Dyes are interesting as they only dye natural fibers. My bottle of Red Tulip Liquid dye is supposed to dye both natural and synthetic fabrics. I didn't know if this would affect the Sulky variegated rayon thread I had used to quilt little areas.
Time to put together something to experiment with. I literally threw some scraps together in a mad rush, cut into them and added some solid curves. Practised some free motion quilting.
Here is my piece before I dipped it into the red dye. I didn't like it when I jammed it together and I don't like it much better now - although the quilting certainly did add a little interest to it. I do however like how dyeing it makes all the colors blend much more. It evens out the color values/tone. I'm eager to take this experiment (the dyeing not the rushed random piecing!) to a larger piece.
The variegated thread did change a little but not too much - and who ever labeled the green fabric as cotton was telling very big porky pies indeed!
You can see my free motion quilting skills are coming along nicely.
I was so interested in Ana's workshop as it now gives me infinite possibilities when recycling clothes into quilts. I can't wait to see where this new technique takes me.
Oh I like that after dying. As soon as the holidays are over, I hope to experiment with color.
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