Countdown to spring shows

Today is seven days before we hit the road for the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival in Hampton, VA. (We're leaving a day early to take a day's vacation in the Williamsburg / Hampton area.) I've posted pictures over on Instagram of a couple fabrics I ironed yesterday. I thought I had everything ironed - 43 pieces ranging from 1 yard to maybe 6 yards - most are 4 yards. Then I remembered I had 5 pieces of vat-dyed Radiance

Vat-dyed Radiance before soaping off

that had to be processed. I ran one through the pressure cooker to activate the dye, then all of them got 'soaped off.' That's when they go into a very large cookpot with 180 degree F water and Ivory bar soap, plus, around here, water softener. They're soaking in some vinegar & water right now to neutralize any remaining alkali.
I have a few quarts of dye that I haven't used, so maybe I will be dyeing and washing out more fabric. I will be vending at the SAQA conference in Philadelphia on March 31, so if I can't get the dye used now, I can do it when I get home later.

New this week

Got the other halves of these two samples in the mail yesterday. They're for a wedding dress, or gown may be a better term. The upper set is screened, painted and stamped paint, the lower set is dye with the same techniques. In this case wash-fast acid dye; both samples are on silk organza. I love the creative ideas Kathryn and her brides come up with!

The second picture shows some of the blocks for a quilt I'm working on. Started working on these 10 years+ ago, and they finally are all done - 257 of them. I did a test drive of the layout a few months or more ago, so when I did the layout this week, it only took a couple hours to fiddle with it. You can see some paper ID tags sticking off the corners. So now I'm assembling the top - four blocks in all 16 rows are joined. And I'm chaining the whole thing, unless it gets massively unwieldy, but I know that all the blocks, rows and columns are in the correct position that way. And I'm going to quilt it on the household machine, so I'd better get used to unwieldy!

The third picture shows the detail of another piece dyed with vat dyes - first in a purple bath, then printed with thickened grey dye. You need to enlarge it to see the coppery halo around the grey printing. I like it!

Now I had another idea to try . . . once I finish housework, anyway.

More vat results

Got some better results on Saturday with clamped resists. The first picture shows the fabric I started with. I tested it with deColourant and a decent turquoise color remained, which is the result of using Intense blue in the mix. There’s also a general blue halo that creeps out into the white areas of the original cloth.

The first piece I folded into an equilateral triangle and then dyed the corners and edges different colors. That went into the yellow vat first for a fairly long time. The other colors used were medium blue and violet. I spent the most time working the yellow into all the crevasses. That seems pretty evident from the fact that there’s fairly even amounts of yellow throughout. Also, that there are less even amounts of the other colors is evident, and is due to the fact that I didn’t spend as much time manipulating the cloth in the bath. The center still has the darkest area showing, like the original fabric did. The green/olive area in the center it the yellow dye overlaying (converging!) with the non-discharging blue.

The second one was fan-folded cross-wise and lengthwise into a rectangle. One edge went into the yellow vat. It was the second use, and did not remain as long, so there’s less yellow on the fabric. It also went into the medium blue and violet vats, then into a vat mixed from violet and red.  An interesting piece, and I did learn a bit from both.

About vat dyeing

A couple questions came through regarding 'what is vat dyeing - the process, the effects to achieve? Vat dyes are a distinct class of dyes that are applied at fairly high heat, compared to MX, at least. Temperatures between 120 - 150 degrees F at any rate, with Thiox as a reducing agent (no oxygen in the bath) and lye to raise the pH very high. Because of the Thiox, color is removed at the same time that the vat dyes are applied. Because the thiox creeps farther than the dye does, you can get halos around the new color. And you can over dye a dark color with a lighter color, because the original MX (in my case) color is removed. Vat dyes also work on other types of dye than MX, but I'll have to check my notes to be sure. I do know other fiber-reactive dyes will discharge. But because of the extreme pH, you can't use vat dyes on wool. With TLC, you can use it on silk. Here's a close-up of a section of the gold and purple fabric showing some haloing where the darkest color creeps across the slightly lighter violet diamond:

The process is a little more hazardous than working with MX - more safety gear is required because of the lye. But the results are worth it, and once I practice, practice, practice, I hope I'll be able to get results like the photos in my March 26 post. Nothing like wanting to achieve the work of the master on day 3 of class! Elin has another class this summer at Whidby Island - go there if you can!!

I hope to continue with vat dyes, as well as MX and disperse and to keep adding pictures here and at DippyDyes.com, where I sell my fabric. Thanks for looking, and for the encouragement!

Vat results

Well, I have gotten some work done with vat dyes since I got back from class. Here are pictures of the results, from worst to best. A couple were started in class and at the least were soaped out here at home.

This fabric was pretty poor to begin with. It needs more work. In person it’s very bright and cheerful.

This was a reject from Barbara of MXDyers. I like it better, except the right end. A class experiment.







A 42 x 45 square of broadcloth dyed charcoal (my own recipe.) Not the results I had hoped for, but a nice piece as it is.








A boring, solid green fat quarter improved by hand stitching and a medium blue vat dye.






Cotton-silk voile – you can see through it to an 8 1/2” x 11” piece of paper in the upper left corner.







A yard of black Radiance, run through a smocking pleater and discharged and dyed in multiple vats.






Four 21” squares of broadcloth. Each was folded the same way and dyed in several vats in the same sequence. Each one is different, and I’m quite pleased with them! The set is for sale here.
Thanks Elin!

More vat dye eye candy

Still on the road, and have time to post more pictures. Woke up with a better attitude about my own work. Current plan is to spend half the day on chores (i.e. filing taxes, shipping muslin) and mid-afternoon onwards dyeing fabric. But for now, revel in some pictures:
This is the orange and purple Radiance that I posted about yesterday (below.) After another sample that dyed only on the edges, I chickened out at putting this one into the vat. I need to start with smaller pieces first. The fold marks remain and will show where additional patterning will happen.




This is a piece of fabric that was dyed the fairly dark green that you see, then immersed in a light blue vat dye. It has not been soaped yet – we’ll see if the color or luster changes much.
One thing I would do differently would be to start with a variety of fairly interesting fabrics, rather than the mostly solid pieces that I took. That should be my starting point when I resume working with vat dyes. I also think I will stick more with analogous color schemes. They can be very arresting; classic and elegant without the jarring look most of my vat dyed pieces have. It's a plan, anyway! Thanks for looking!

Over far, far too soon

Sunday night, somewhat bummed out in the hotel room. C’est la vie. I’ve been transcribing my notes while they are still somewhat fresh in my head, but after an hour and a half, it has devolved into just a list of headings. Somehow, I hit that wall when I got to the dreaded chemistry notes. Also set up a Yahoo group for the class members, and added links there as items came up in my notes. That was fun!

Have a couple pictures to share. Of course, I used up my batteries and didn’t recharge them Saturday night, so there are many fewer photos than I’d like.

Have been doing some contemplation on dyeing and a real job. The serious number crunching has to happen real soon, if for no other reason than the IRS. At any rate, the whole class process has been rather humbling, especially after three shows’ worth of oohs and ahs. But yes, I still want to get better at all forms of dyeing, and get good at vat dyeing. Best idea I’ve had today – look at everything I’ve done with vat dye  and analyze what I like best. Pictures will have to follow!

The day I’ve been waiting for!

Vat dyes have intrigued me since I first learned about them in Carol Soderlund’s Dyeing to Discharge class, or maybe before. When I saw this class listed on Pro Chem’s website, I was so excited. Well, finally I’m here! The first three days were good, and I certainly learned a lot. But today we got into itajame (also spelled itajime) – resists with clamped shapes. Elin’s work is so gorgeous! Here are a few samples, and click here to link to Elin’s home page. Again, hover the cursor over the picture for a brief explanation.

We also got to look at everyone’s work from Friday – except mine, since I didn’t dye anything. More pictures:

And Elin gave us a demo using a couple different tools for holding fabric. Still more pictures:

She also showed us samples made with these sorts of tools:

And I also got some of my own work done – at least to a point:

This is a piece of cotton-silk Radiance from  Robert Kaufman. It was originally a purple – Amethyst. I had pole-wrapped it and gotten a little subtle texture on it before class.This improved version is striking, and it has also been re-folded, waiting for a vat tomorrow. Can’t wait!

Day three at class

Well, I got nothing into the dye today, but did prepare some work. Spoke to Elin about a piece of fabric I brought with me that is good, but not great. I"m not sure it's finished, but I don't know what else I'd do with it, or if it needs more. She asked me: "What is the fabric for? Why make it?" My first reaction was 'uhhhh,' followed by 'for it's own sake.' Not a question I've considered before - I"m not terribly comtemplative by nature. We spoke some more, and I have it on the wall and will consider it more this weekend and get input from the other studends.
Here are some pictures of the goings-on and some other folks work.i Again I have added captions that appear when you hover the cursor.


Here’s what I worked on last night. It’s three strips of a rather bland snow-dyed sateen. I braided them and put them first in a vat of hot green, then in a vat of violet. I got it rinsed, soaped and ironed. Then last night I clamped it as shown and braided it again.


Here the braiding is almost done. As instructed by Elin, I kept clamping it closer to the grab bar. Now it’s ready to go into another bath, probably blue.
Today I got the remaining length of it braided, this time in a 7-strand braid. Took a good portion of the day, in between watching demonstrations. A good day all around; now for a shower and some ironing, folding and clamping.

Catching up and moving on

Excited tonight (Monday) about going to class with Elin Noble, but still pooped from the Lancaster show. Taking the camera and hope to record every instant of class (ha!). I do plan to make some entries here for anyone who is interested.

OK, it’s now Thursday night, March 24. We’ve had two days of class so far, and it’s getting more interesting all the time. I have fabric to prepare tonight, so I’m going straight to the photos! I’m putting text on each that appears when you hover the cursor over the picture.