Getting the family in on it!

I recently had family in town and as part of the fun festivies of the week, I did a dyeing project with the nieces and nephews.  Each kid did a tshirt and pillowcase.  I had everything scoured and pre-soaked in soda ash.  My daughter and oldest niece helped me tie everything up. 

Some action shots

The items batching....

Modeling their new shirts

 These will make for a fun bedtime...

And we made some for the cousins that could not be with us!

New Surface Design Toy?

 I was at Home Depot last week when I came across this new toy.  Not really sure what it is called, but it is a metal panel insert of some sort.  It is a coated aluminum, and it wasn't cheap, so I figured I would start with just one of the patterns before I got carried away.  There were several to choose from. 

I took a soda soaked piece of fabric and layer down a water based resist using my new toy as a stencil.  It didn't go down very uniformly, my resist was a little thin, and it sort of ran through some of the holes.  The panel is a little thicker than a typical stencil, so I really had to load the foam roller up. 

Once the resist was dry I painted it with thickened dye in raspberry, strong orange, and fire red.

Here it is batching.

It got its first washings last night.  I think it needs more.  It is calling for some screened on math equations in black. 

The Leftovers

Never one to waste any dye, I had some thickened dye from painting left over.  I put some of the yellow in the bottom of a cup, shoved a piece of pre soda ash soaked fabric in, and dumped some of the blue on top and mushed it around a little.  I love the result.  It is a scrap piece, but I don't think I am going to cut it.  It will turn into a long panel whole cloth piece, definately with some beads.  Stay tuned in the future for the finished result!

This first photo is the whole piece, and the rest are closeups.

ugly fabric challenge

Ok, so when I started this blog, I intented to post more often than I have.  Life gets in the way.  I have been busy dyeing recently, playing with lots of fun techniques.  An online dyers group I belong to had an ugly fabric challenge. One of the member sent out fabric to anyone who wanted to participate, and you had to modify the fabric in at least one way.  The first photo shows the fabric I started with.  (I didn't think it was so ugly, just a little plain).  It was a nice orange, almost a full yard.  My first step was to discharge the smaller circles.  I then printed larger circles with thickened dye in a light brown, and lastly scribbled on the quilt in fucshia.  I love the end result.  I can't wait to figure how I will someday use this piece.