Thank you so much to everyone who piped in on Monday's blog post to express their love of blogs! Sharing ideas and projects is such a big part of crafting that I don't see craft blogs going anywhere anytime soon.
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| Some inspirational samples by teacher Dianne Robinson |
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| my favourite part of any fabric project… the ironing! |
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| My range - from slate blue to lemon yellow. All luck since I completely messed up my measuring! |
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| Mom's gorgeous parfait dyeing. My favourite fabric of the day is that mix on the left. |
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| Our hand dyed fabric stash. |
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| Big plans for this bundle. I did not dye all those blues! Only the two in the centre. |
This past weekend I had the chance to take a fabric dyeing workshop with the Beaconsfield Quilters Guild taught by Dianne Robinson. My mother is an enthusiastic member and I managed to sneak in and nab the last spot in the class alongside her. It was awesome! Mom laughed at me for being so excited about taking a dyeing class (after all, I literally dye yarn for a living) but dyeing cotton fabric is different. Though the fundamentals about colour theory are the same, there is a completely different process involved in dyeing plant fibers like cotton and dyeing animal protein fibers like wool. Which is why you see so few hand dyers doing both animal and plant fiber dyeing. It requires different types of dyes, different methods to set etc.
It was incredibly liberating to be able to sit back and play with dyes and colour with absolutely no pressure. Though I do have fun experimenting on my yarns in my own studio, this felt nothing like work, it was like I was back in art class. I'm really happy with the fabrics that we dyed, but I think the most valuable thing I came out of the day with is a renewed passion for my craft. Every time we would pour dye on fabric I'd feel this rush, the whole process of applying colour to undyed material (be it yarn, fabric or paper) is still so exciting to me. It makes me feel very lucky to have found my calling.
I don't do nearly enough sewing to justify my new fabric dyeing obsession, but I do plan to put a few of my hand dyed fabrics to good use soon. Remember these fabric swatches I had framed in the loft? Well, I replaced them with Liberty fabrics some time after we moved (and have since moved the liberty swatches to our bedroom) so all of these gorgeous blues have just been sitting in my stash, waiting for inspiration to strike. We're due for a new throw for the living room, and I think that with a few of my hand dyed blues thrown in I'll have a lovely palette to work with to make something really fresh and modern to snuggle under while I knit.
Here are a few inspiration images of quilts that I've pinned. Which one gets your vote?
1) This quilt could be pretty in all blues.
2) More squares framed by white.
3) Maybe all triangles?
4) This heart quilt is really sweet, but maybe not right for these fabrics.
5) Love this one.
6) Well, this one makes a lot of sense for these fabrics.
7) Or maybe just Ombre strips like this one, because I never can get enough of a good ombre look.