Low Immersion Dyeing

Low immersion dyeing is the technique I use for dyeing my fabrics.  Last year a local artist was kind enough to teach her dyeing method to Lori, myself and a few other quilters.  After her introducing this method to us, Lori and I experimented with different techniques and came up with a method that works for us. So I am not saying this is the only way to do low immersion dye, just our way and I thought I would share some of what we have learnt over the past year of our dyeing journey.

Supplies.  To be honest it is a bit of an investment at first to get all the supplies needed but well worth it if you plan on doing a lot of your own dyeing.

I purchase my Procion MX dyes from G&S Dyes in Canada.  They also carry the Sodium Carbonate (as known as Soda Ash), Raycafix and TNA soap that is also needed.   You will also need salt and in the beginning I was told to use non-iodized salt but I now use regular salt as it makes no difference.

You will also need measuring cups, measuring spoons, containers for dyeing, rubber gloves and a mask.

Fabric.    100% cotton fabric but be careful as some cottons dye better than others. Our first batch of fabric that we purchase did not take the dye well and we ended up with white patches.  Then we discovered Wazoodle and buy our white cotton from them. It takes the dyes beautifully. 

* Edit on Oct 2012 - Wazoodle no longer carries white cotton so we now buy it from Sew Batik *

I have also experimented with white on white prints.  The print resists the dye and stays white while the background takes the dye like in this snowflake fabric that I dye with Royal Blue.

Safety    Always were gloves and a mask when working with Procion MX dyes! ALWAYS!

Procedure  I will go step by step to show you how we dye a 1/2m piece of fabric to get one color with some texture using two powdered dyes.  For this sample I used Hot Pink and Cerulean Blue to make purple.

Step 1.   Pre wash your fabric with TNA ( Synthrapol) soap to remove all the sizing and residues on the fabric.

Step 2.   Cut a 1/2m piece of  pre-washed fabric, width of fabric.

Step 3.   Crumple the fabric into a jar, I used a glass Cheez Whiz jar.  I like to crumple but if you want to play with folding techniques to get different patterns that works well too.

Step 4.   In a 2 cup measuring cup mixed 3/4 tsp of Hot Pink and 3/4 tsp of Cerulean Blue together and then slowly pour in 1 1/2 Cups of hot water while stirring.  Add 2 tsp of non-iodized salt into the mixture and stir until all the dye and salt is dissolved.  Some dyes need more stirring than others.  The salt is used to brighten the colours, we have tried salt and no salt experiments and the fabric with the salt always turned out much brighter.  The general rule for salt quantities is 1 tsp of salt for every 1 cup of water used.

Mixture of Hot Pink and Cerulean Blue in 1 1/2 cups water with salt ready to be added

Step 5. Pour dye mixture over the fabric in the jar. I like to poke and stir it a bit with a stick to make sure all the dye gets to all the fabric. The more you stir the less texture there will be. 

Step 6.  Mix 2 tsp of Soda Ash (Sodium Carbonate) in 1/2 Cup of hot water.  Stir until dissolved.   We usually wait about 20 minutes from the time the dye is poured onto the fabric to the time we pour in the Soda Ash over the fabric.  Soda Ash is a fixative and we like to let the fabric have time to absorb the dye before pouring on the fixative if you want a more even texture with your fabric. The general rule for Soda Ash quantities is 1 tsp for every 1 cup of water used.  We used 1 1/2 cups of water with our dye mixture and 1/2 cup water with our soda ash mixture for a total of 2 cups of water.

Our water quantities are based on the amount of fabric your dyeing so in general we use 2 cups of water for .5m fabric, 4 cups water for 1m fabric, and so on.

Fabric in 1 1/2 cups of dye water ready for 1/2 cup of Soda Ash mixture to be poured over top.

Step 7. Let the fabric sit in the dye/soda ash mixture for at least one hour. If you want a solid colour fabric then after a few minutes take the fabric out of the dye jar, gently squeeze out most of the dye and then place it in a ziploc baggy for an hour.

Step 8.  Pour out dye water. Fill a tub with warm water with 1/2 tsp of TNA soap or Blue Dawn dish soap (works just as well) and place fabric in water. Agitate fabric in water to wash off excess dye.

Step 9.  Squeeze out fabric and then place in a tub full of hot water with 1/2 tsp Raycafix ( Retayne). Raycafix is a fixing agent that will prevent the fabric from bleeding.  Let the fabric sit in the Raycafix for 5 minutes without touching it.  Squeeze out fabric and rinse under clean water. If colour still runs soak in Raycafix again.  Pinks seem to need more Raycafix to set.

Step 10.  Put fabric in washing machine on rinse cycle and then dry in dryer.

The result is this fabric.

Procedure 2   I also want to show your how to dye a 1/2m piece of fabric that gives you more colour variation.   I used the same two dyes but did not mix them together dry. Instead I put 3/4 tsp of Hot Pink in a measuring cup then added 1 cups of hot water, and then added 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp soda ash to the dye mixture.  In a separate measuring cup I added 3/4 tsp of Cerulean Blue, 1 cup water, 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp Soda ash.   I mixed until all the dyes and chemicals were dissolved.  I then poured both dyes over the fabric at the same time.

I waited an hour and then followed steps 8 to 10. 

The result was this fabric.  

The addition of the soda ash in the dye mixture allowed the dye to set very quickly resulting in the the multi coloured fabric.  So how your mix your chemicals will produce different results.  

I hope this helps those of you that asked how this was done.  If you have any questions please don't hesitate to email me.  There are so many ways to experiment with this process so if you give it a try please let me know how it goes for you, I would love to see pictures of your fabric!!  

Meandering Feathers

So here it is, my first attempt at meandering feathers on a real quilt.  I have done this once before on a solid coloured fleece throw that I posted a tutorial on and loved how it looked but I was worried that when I try it on a pieced quilt I would have trouble seeing were I was going.  It went much nicer than I anticipated and I now have the confidence to quilt this one someone's quilt if asked.  This is my Hopscotch quilt and I have no idea what I'm going to do with it, I just liked the fabrics and thought it would be a good practice quilt to try something new.

I love how it looks on the back!

I still have to bind it but couldn't wait that long to post pictures. I am going to use the purple fabric in the tiny border for the binding.

It has a great wholecloth feel when you look at the back.

Mystery Quilt #7

Here is Evelyn's Mystery quilt and she asked for custom quilting.  I really like how I custom quilted Rae Mystery which also had the black sashing but I wanted to make sure they looked different.

I thought maybe I could be a bit bolder with my thread choices as the colours were so bright and bold in this quilt. I usually play it safe with my thread choices and let them blend in. But when I discovered I had the perfect Rainbow coloured thread I just had to use it.   I also had the right turquoise and purple threads for the stars.

I also decided to be bolder with the back as I usually like to match my bobbin thread to the backing fabric but not this time. I used the purple thread that I used for the star on top for the bobbin thread!  The quilting design on the back makes the stars look like flowers, I love that.

I didn't want to densely fill this quilt, it was going to be used so I still wanted it to have a soft feel so I left some areas open. I quilted my molar feathers in the outside border and in the stars.  I did loops around the sashing of the squares and I echoed two lines in the printed border and pulled them into the triangles for a different effect on the back.

I tried Quilters Dream Black Poly batting for the first time on this quilt and I just loved quilting with this batting, it is so soft.  I ordered 4 packages so have three left and if any of my local quilters are interesting in purchasing some please let me know. It would be great for hand quilting too.

I only have one quilt left to do this month and then I am taking the summer off so I won't be posting as frequently as I usually do.  I have a few of my own flimsy's ready to quilt and a few quilts ready to start piecing so I'll be posting those when they are done. I have my Mystery quilt to quilt but I think I'll wait until August to tackle that one :)

Mystery Quilt #6

Here is Eileen Mystery Quilt and she wanted a simply pantograph design.  I recently ordered some new pantos and this one is called Starlight by Jodi Beamish.

I used a soft rose coloured thread to match the pink in the quilt.

Last night I was dyeing fabric for the background for a quilt I want to make this summer using a Bali Pop.

The colour turned out very well, I wanted a soft blue with a hint of green.

Bargello Done...and a bit of Drama

Yesterday was guild day and we were knee deep in fabric with our Touch Quilt's but also managed to finish piecing our Bargello. Lori was determined to get his one finished and not even a trip to the emergency room could halt her determination.  Yes that's right, she added a bit of excitement to our guild day and here is the lesson learnt in her own words "Stop sewing when turning your head to make a smart remark to your friend.  If not you can sew through your finger and have said friend take you to emergency for an x-ray, an extraction of the broken needle and a tetanus shot!"   We were only at the hospital for an hour and she was a very good patient. :)

And I know your all wondering...no she didn't even get a drop of blood on the quilt!

When we came back to the guild meeting she got back at the sewing machine and FINISHED the quilt!  

I told you she was determined!

Here it is all pieced...now for my part but I'm not sure how to quilt it?   I'll happily take any suggestions you have as they made a motion to have me custom quilt it.  

This is our Quilt Show Raffle quilt for April 2012 so we want it to be special.

Bargello Tips

Last Tuesday I had a few guild members over to my place to start working on the guilds Bargello raffle quilt.  We were all surprised at just how much we got accomplished in 6 hours. The pattern we are using is called Surf Song designed by Eileen Wright.   I had all the fabrics cut into 2 1/2" strips before they came over and all labelled Fabric 1 to 24.  The pattern suggested making a sheet with all the fabric numbers and a sample of the fabric for a quick reference. That turned out to be very handy.

We had 3 sewing and were able to get all 7 tubes with 24 fabrics sewn together fairly quickly, once we all passed the quality control test and had everyone using the same weight of thread so the fabric tubes were coming out the same size.  We had two irons going and one person organizing.

Then I started cutting the tubes in widths according to the pattern but I came up with the idea to first printed out labels (yes I have to use labels or I would be lost).   Each label had the row number, the width the fabric strip that needed to be cut and the number of the fabric that will be at the top of that row.  I would grab a label and cut the 2 strips according to the size on it and then pin it to the strips. Our pattern called for two strips to make on complete row.  It was then sewn into a tube and picked apart ( looping and de-looping) at the top seam of the fabric numbers on the label.  Ta da....a row done.  I only cut one wrong and we only had a bit of picking to do when sewing the rows together. If you have made a Bargello you know how easily it is to make a mistake.

Here is a close up of the labels and rows 44 to 48 sewn together.

So a big THANK YOU to Audrey, Eileen, Gail, Robin and Lori for helping with the Bargello quilt.  I really enjoyed the day.

I kept 11 rows to loop and de-loop and probably to no ones surprise I have all the rows sewn together.

I can hardly wait to see this one finished!!!

Back from Camp Whitney

I just spent three days at Camp Whitney on Lake Athapapuskow with Daniel's Grade 6 class.  This is an annual trip that all the kids in Grade 6 and Grade 8's do each year.  I volunteered to help in the kitchen, my third time as I volunteered to cook when Andrew went to camp too.  But this time things went much smoother that the last time, you can read about that camp here. We had 5 other volunteers in the kitchen so that lightened the work and we all shared a cabin so we didn't have to bunk with 12 year old girls. We actually got some sleep!  We had time to play with the kids too. The picture above it of the kitchen and dining hall and the kids getting ready to play baseball.
The weather was cloudy with rain off and on but that didn't stop any of the activities as it was warm out.  Last time I went it was cold and rainy so I was glad to be in the kitchen by the wood stove that time.

The kids get to go fishing, canoeing, learn orienteering, go on a nature walk, and a good number of them when for a swim ...a very brief swim in the cold lake. 

I was able to join in on the kids nature walk, in the rain.

Saw a tree that had marking from a bear that had climbed it years ago.  The slices from his sharp claws scarred into the bark. It was really neat to see.

The kids had a sports night and played baseball, volleyball and soccer.

Then the next night was the Lumberjack competition.  Here is Daniel, in the red and black jacket, in the Sawing competition

and in the Log Pull competition.

The building behind them is one of the original building from the camp and it was the Nurses station. 

I really enjoy going to camp with the kids and had a great time with the other parents and teacher too.  Amazingly there were no injures, no one got sick and no one got lost or sent home for bad behaviour.  The mosquitoes and sand flies were fierce but that didn't stop anyone from having a good time.  We are a hardy northern bunch!

Winter-Wear Quilt

...but first my new bags are here!!!

The simple things in life make me happy and ordering new coloured 'thank you' bag for my customers is one of those simple things.

When I got my first set of burgundy bags I was in a silly mood and wrote a poem. I didn't get that same inspirations this time so if your interested you can read the original one here

Now to the quilt.

At our last quilt show we asked our members to make a Winter-Wear block and had everyone that visited  our show to vote on their favourite block.  We finally got around to sewing the blocks together into a quilt and I think I turned out to be a really fun quilt.

The winning block was Gail's 'Child on the toboggan'.

This is the block that Lori and I made together.

You may be wondering what a close up of a lady's legs in slippers and a flannel nightgown has to do with Winter-wear. Well we like to have some artistic play with our blocks, you know a little creative interpretation.

This maybe a Canadian thing...with the winters last so long here and no one ever seeing your legs for months.

Here is a close up.

Yup...those are hairy legs!!

*giggle*

And yes I stitch all those hairs.

(I used invisible smoky thread.)

A Secret About Raffle Quilts

If your part of a guild you know how much of a pain fundraising is but it is a necessary part of keeping a guild a float.  Our guild has discovered something that I thought I would share with you and hopefully this can help your guild.   Every November our town (population 5,000) has a craft sale weekend with two venues packed with local and out of town crafters.   I started renting a table at one of the venues with a friend years ago and we sold our crafts...my fabric cards and quilted totebags and she made beautiful scrapbooking style cards (long before it was popular).  We had a lot of fun (even won best decorated table one year) but then my friend moved away. The next year I did a table by myself but it just wasn't the same.  The following year the guild decided to rent a table and sell tickets on our quilt show raffle quilt that would be drawn in April of the next year.  The ticket sales went okay.  The next year we were asked if we wanted to come back but we didn't have a raffle quilt but thought why don't we make a quilt to raffle at the craft sale.  Little did we know how brilliant this idea was.  We were not expecting the word " DRAWN TODAY" to have such an impact on ticket sales but it did.  People we more willing to open up there wallets knowing that that draw was that day then if it was drawn months away.  So that is my advise to other guilds, try a one day quilt raffle at a high traffic event and see how it goes.

So that brings me to this quilt, our next November Craft Sale raffle quilt made using the Perfect Ten pattern and Makin' New Friends fabric.

Anything with a snowman theme seems to sell well at these sales so I thought we could combine quilts and snowman and see if that came improve our ticket sales even more. I love this fabric collection.

I quilted it using the pantograph Flurry and off white Highlights thread to give it a bit of a shine.

Solid Kona Butter for the backing so you can see the quilting.

Mystery Quilt #5

Here is Marg's Mystery quilt and she used mostly batik fabrics.   Her colour choices really worked well on this mystery project and the focus stars in gold just shine.  This one has a masculine feel so we decided to go with the Whirlygig pantograph.  The batting is wool which give the quilting wonderful definition.

Last weekend our town hosted The Northern Juried Art Show and I entered one of my snow dyed fabric. I had Tim frame it with the hope of it selling and I had no idea what to price it at so asked $100 and it SOLD!! It actually sold before the show even started so I know I didn't over price it.

I found out who bought to so I could thank them and was happy to find out it was my son's Kindergarten teacher from years ago who we both adore!!  I'm so glad it found a good home.

This is the piece.

Hooked Feathers

This is Melba's Sampler quilt and my first attempt at Hooked Feathers in the outer border. I am use to just backtracking on the feathers so I had to practice drawing this one out until I got the right rhythm going.  It was fun to stitch so I think once I get my purple Hopscotch quilt pieced I'll try it as an all over meander.