blanket|quilt|rug

Finally, here is the result of the wool-dyeing project! This was experimental in a number of ways - it was the first time I tried dying wool; I had no idea how it would look in the space I intended it for, and I still don't know how it will hold up to the rigours of family life.
Up till now I'm very happy with it. If it lasts for a few years, I will be extremely happy. A cost-effective floor covering until such time as we know better what sort of rug we would like to buy, and are prepared to spend money for it.

Bubble bubble

I am loving my new kitchen. It's a pleasure to be in. Would you like to see one of the first things we cooked up?A pot of red wool! This was the first time I'd dyed wool, and I was so pleased with the results. All my cotton dyeing is done using a cold water process, so it was quite different, and rather nice, to have a brew bubbling away on the stove top. There have been 8 more pots full since. It's all part of an experiment. I'll share more pictures soon.

Dyeing

We did some dyeing today. I realised I wasn't quite as ready to start making the golden elm quilt as I thought - I needed many more yellowish bits of fabric, including yellowy-greens and warm yellow ochres. I also needed more sky colours (ranging between light grey and light blue).
I had a big, happy helper today. She would have dearly loved to mix up some dyes and pour them over the fabric to help, so we had a discussion about how big she would have to be before she could do dyeing. She was very helpful in other things, though, like fetching things, and entertaining Caleb when he woke up before I was done!

Thanks to Phil there are some photos from while we were busy.Oh, I should also say, the WAFTA presentation went well the other night - at least, I was happy with how it went. There were way more people than I expected, but I ended up enjoying the experience more than I thought I would. I do have a list of things to improve on 'next time', though.

More pink

I had another go at dyeing reds last Thursday and Friday. Unfortunately all I got was more pink, much to Phil's amusement. I used Procion dye from a different supplier, in Carmine Red and Fire Engine Red. Some the fabrics shown are red dye over pink/orange fabric, but they still turned out pink. I would still like to try Red MXBG from KraftKolour (where I usually get my supplies). Unfortunately they have had to rebuild their business after the Victorian bushfires. I look forward to their business being open again!

Something else I may need to try is whether or not it makes a difference using synthrapol to wash the fabrics prior to dying. I'm very curious now whether it is my dyeing technique that is causing the trouble. I suppose the only way to find out is by more experimenting.

Elusive red

I am generally happy with the dyes (Procion fibre reactive) and dyeing method I use (from this book), however the one problem I have encountered is that I can't manage to get a 'fire engine' red. I have tried over and over using various 'primary' reds (Red MXB, Magenta MXB, Red MXGB,Red MX5B and Red MX8B) mixed with various proportions of blue and yellow, but end up with pinks or oranges - I have so many pinks now that I don't know if I'll ever use them all.

The other day when I dyed skin tones, I mixed together some of the leftover dyes to produce this colour.The colour may be a bit misleading on the computer screen. It is definitely not fire engine red, but it is probably about the closest I have come. Of course, as Murphy's Law would have it, this was the one time I mixed dyes randomly without recording the exact measurements, so now I still don't know how I got that colour...

So, if anyone has any experience dying cotton with Procion dyes, I would love to know how you go with red!!

Skin tones

I needed to boost my range of skin-toned fabrics so that's what we did this morning. Here they are, still wet, on the washing line.I say 'still wet' because the colours are usually a lot less bright when the fabric is dry. This is often disappointing, but I think that in this case the colours should turn out just right. I needed this fabric as I am hoping to start cutting out the pieces for this quilt (not shown in full) tomorrow:

Fabric stacks

Last week I spent some time organising my hand-dyed fabrics. I used to keep them in crates, and I would have to pull them all out and make quite a mess to see the full range of colours. Now I can easily scan them to see which colours I have and whether I need to dye new colours for new quilts... I love how they look on the shelf!