Meet the family

No, not the relations, the "family" of dyed fabrics I made at the Festival of Quilts. The task was to dye a range of values using just two colours. I chose lemon yellow and black and my fabric was some basic cotton. We used fifteen fat quarters in all. Twelve were used in the first dyeing using the black dye;  sorted into three groups of four with three different strengths of dye solution, light, medium and dark.

In order to get a flat colour without texture we had to manipulate the fabric in the bath and exclude all the air bubbles. This did not prove to be so easy and my fabrics do show quite a bit of unintended texture. Never mind! So left overnight the next task was to rinse thoroughly. This proved very difficult partly because we had to share the sinks, but also it proved very hard to shift all the excess dye. Had I been at home, I would have put it all in the washing machine.

The next job was to  resort the black and grey fabrics into four groups, each one containing a light, medium and dark. One group was set aside and not overdyed. One of each of the three undyed fat quarters was added to each group of three. Each set of four was then dyed as before in a light, medium and dark dyebath but this time using lemon yellow.

More manipulation, rinsing etc and here they are, but now having been thoroughly washed, dried and ironed.

Unfortunately, the light lemon yellow did not take too well and I think was contaminated with some excess black that hadn't been washed out.                

And here they are in black and white showing the range of values.

Not 100% successful, but a start nevertheless and next time I will do better I'm sure having learned a lot. One thought occurred to me was what difference, if any it would make to dye the yellow first and then overdye with black. the possibilities seem endless, but will have to wait until I have a permanent home where I can make a mess with dye that won't matter.

In the meantime we are enjoying walking the cliff path and just chilling out while we wait for the dream home to come on the market!