Shibori II Homework

Results from the board clamping lesson in Marjie's Shibori 2 Class @ Quilt University.

I'm having a blast. This class has me dreaming in color....

And waking up at night ready to dye more fabric.

Jackie from Canton Village Quilt Works is offering die cut fabrics for sale in her Etsy Shop of the same name. You can choose from items in her shop or request custom cutting services.

Connie was the first one to claim the selvages I gave away in early July. Click here to see her work in progress.

Same Technique Different Texture

I dyed these two scarves with Procion Mx dyes in very similar ways. The scarf on the left is Habotai silk and the scarf on the right is silk chiffon. I was surprised to see such different results. I really like the way the dye penetrated the chiffon and spread out quickly. It was hard to make the dye move through the Habotai. I wish the chiffon was softer to the touch. I will be trying other fabrics to see if I can get these results. If you have a recommendation please leave me a comment.

Giveaway Results

Here is the beautiful embroidery sampler I won from Maya's "Million Little Stitches" blog giveaway. Read more about it in this post

Because of my good fortune I decided host a giveaway on this blog.

Thanks so much to everyone that entered for a chance to win and to all of you that posted about my giveaway on your blogs. I've gotten to meet many new people and have found some great blogs to add to my reading list.

The winners of my Dye Candy giveaway are:

Bindu of Transient Lives

and Simone from the Art Quilts Around the World Group and Art for 12

Congratulations to you both!! Chris

Preparing to Dye and One More Day for the Giveaway

I am enrolled in the Shibori II class over at Quilt University taught by Marjie McWilliams. Marjie is a great teacher and makes her classes lots of fun. Lesson #1 is drying on the line above. The closest piece of fabric was an experiment I tried. I love the results!!

I am cramming two weeks of dyeing homework into one weekend. On the left you see the Plexiglas templates I cut out to be used in Lesson 2. I am so glad I took this class. I've been wanting to try to board clamping techniques for 2 year but never made time to get my supplies ready. I have to tell you this thick Plexiglas was a bit of a challenge to cut. I used a jigsaw which cut the plastic like a dream but... every 4 inches or so the metal saw blade would overheat causing the Plexiglas to melt. I had to keep stopping to let the saw blade cool. The cutting took at least twice as long as cutting wood. I'm pleased I took the extra time. The Plexiglas will make durable and long lasting templates.

There is one more day left to enter my Dye Candy Giveaway. Go to my last post for a chance to enter. Please be sure to have your e-mail address enabled or include an e-mail address with your comment so I can contact you if you are the winner. Good Luck!

Chris

Giveaway Day

All of my newly dyed fabrics are ironed, photographed and ready to be added to my Etsy shop! Believe it or not I love to iron these fabrics. I get a chance to explore the dye reactions close up. There sure are a lot of great gadgets available on the Internet. I created a slide show of my new fabrics at the bottom of this post. Hope you enjoy it!

A few weeks ago I won a beautiful needlepoint sampler from Embellisher. To celebrate my good fortune I decided to host a giveaway. Next Sunday evening, July 19th, I will choose 2 winners. Each winner will have a choice of one of my hand dyed fabrics from my Dye Candy Store or a piece of Quilt Block Jewelry from my Shady Grove Studios Store....both shops are featured in the left had margin of my blog.

Triple your chances to win and double your prize by copying the Dye Candy Giveaway logo and creating a post including information about the giveaway on your blog along with a link to this post.

Please leave a comment here with your e-mail address enabled so I can find you again if you are a winner. If you have added a link to this post on your blog be sure to let me know so I can add two more chances for you to win.

If you are new to my blog, I invite you to take a look around and enjoy. Wishing you all good luck! Chris

Fresh Fabric and Shibori Skirts

I finished these dye lots last weekend and have finally listed them in my Etsy shop. The golden browns are favorites in my stash and remind me of summer flowers. The browns are made with a combination of dark brown, ivory and golden yellow. The blue greens are a mix cobalt and golden yellow. I never realized how nice all of these colors looked together until I saw the pile of selvages sitting on my worktable. I set aside a small bundle of these colors so I can play with them soon.

I purchased a rayon "Tulip Skirt" blank from Dharma Trading with my recent fabric order. I marked the bottom of the skirt with a washaway marker and then stitched on the lines, rinsed the marker away and let the skirt dry overnight.

In the morning I gathered the stitches and bound each group to form a diamond pattern around the bottom of the skirt. I debated using rubberbands or synthetic sinew to block out more of the dye but did not. After 6 hours of stitching and binding I overdyed the skirt with 1/2 strength cobalt dye and just a touch of gold.

The dye was added to dry fabric and penetrated quickly. I am pleased with the results and will wear it tomorrow when I volunteer at the art gallery.

I will be ironing and photographing the one of a kind dye lots I completed tonight. Check back for a Dye Candy fabric giveaway this Sunday evening.

Selvages

I have been dyeing fabrics for my Etsy shop again. Today I'm dyeing hues of brown, greens and cobalt blue. One of the byproducts of this process are the selvages from the fabric. I remove the selvages by tearing the fabric along the grain line just before drying the finished fabrics. This decreases the chance of threads tangling together and wrapping around the fabric. It also allows the fabric to dry relatively flat.

Here is a great tip I learned when I first started dyeing fabric. Clip your selvages at a 45 degree angle to the grain. The thread that wraps around the selvages is continuous and by clipping here you stop the threads from unraveling.

I have 1 gallon freezer bag full of selvages from my latest dye lots. The selvages are 3/8 to 1/2" wide. If you have any use for these please contact me. I will ship these for the cost of postage.

Recently I was the winner of a beautiful stitch sampler from Maya at Million Little Stitches. To pay my good fortune forward I will be hosting a giveaway here next weekend once my one of a kind dye lots are finished. In the mean time Karen is hosting a giveaway that ends this Wednesday.