Musings on quilting, sewing, fabric and dyeing by Janet Smith ( www.textileart.com )

I’m pumping out units for Total Eclipse - 20 small ones and 14 large ones - just chugging along and decide to lay out these pieces to see how the blocks will look.

MID QUILT CRISIS !

Did you ever carefully select fabric for a project and then start it and then go YUCK ? Well, that’s where I’m at. Of course, the problem is with the large units (14 of the 19 completed).

I pondered this for a while and came up with a solution or so I thought. I made some more large units with a different fabric (I’m glad Judy Niemeyer lets you make more photocopies so I’m not in trouble with the copyright police.) I laid these out and said: “This is better, but . . .” I’m still not satisfied. I need to change more of the large units.

The light was bad here today (it’s snowing now) so I wasn’t able to take good pictures. Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to illustrate my dilemma.

Update: Here’s the before and after -

Posted under Quilting

How about step by step instructions on dyeing with Procion MX?

I am thinking of posting a ‘how to’ series. Any thoughts?

Posted under Dyeing

Well, this is interesting. From the top: Dylon^®, Tulip^® and Procion MX

I’ll be back with more on this later.

I’m back.

Comments on the colors – The Tulip^® kit and the Procion colors I used are similar: Turquoise, Lemon and Fuchsia. The Dylon^® colors I purchased were different in the Blue (Cobalt) and Yellow (Golden). It made a difference in the result, but not the test.

I was quite surprised that the Tulip^® lost so much of the blue. It really faded away. Also, the red didn’t dissolve very well and left dye marks.

After seeing what happened with the Tulip^®, I strained the Dylon^® and the blue still wasn’t completely dissolved. Go figure.

The Tulip^® is marketed as a direct dye and fails in this application. It is not very vibrant and the blue virtually disappears. It may do better on a t-shirt due to the density of the fiber, but I wouldn’t waste my money.

The Dylon^® is marketed as a vat dye, but does, o.k. in direct dye application. I would try the Dylon^® with less water, perhaps halving it to 2 cups to enhance the vibrancy of the colors. I really like the how these particular colors reacted with the fabric – the dye ‘traveled’ well and enhanced the folding/swirling of the fabric.

What I also found interesting was how these dyes performed on silk – especially the raw silk and silk/rayon velvet. You can actually see the Tulip^® blue!

So the bottom line – If you want to try dyeing to see if you like it, I would get the Dylon^®. You get more dye for your money and you can adjust the intensity by adding less water. Plus, it is simple and easy to use.

These pictures show the results from a different technique: pouring the dye over the fabric, squishing it, squeezing it out, scrunching up the fabric, putting it in a container and pouring the remaining solution over the fabric in the container. The top row is the Dylon^®, the middle row Tulip^® and the bottom row the Procion. From the right, the fabrics are: silk Jacquard, raw silk, rayon and pimatex cotton.

Try it out and have fun!

Posted under Dyeing

The Tulip^® dye is packaged to be used in a direct dye method, i.e. you squirt the dye directly on the fabric. Dylon^® dye is designed to be used as a vat/tub/bucket dye, i.e. you submerse the fabric in the dye and move it around to get an even color.

To make my unscientific experiment even more unscientific, I will use the Dylon^® dye as a direct dye and use the left over in a LWI (low water immersion) like the Tulip^®.

The Dylon^® makes 4 cups and requires 4T (tablespoons) of salt. It wasn’t easy to dissolve. I put the package of dye in a 4 cup measure with 1/4 c. salt and started with 2 cups of water. I could tell by stirring it, it wasn’t dissolving. So, I ran it through a sieve (permanent coffee filter) and broke up the chunks. I should have added the dye to the water, but this being the first time out with this dye . . . I figured it should be ‘idiot proof’ . . . silly me. The red Tulip^® didn’t dissolve all the way. When you see the results, you will also see the dots/splotches from the undissolved dye.

I could tell from the direct dye application, the Dylon^® will be lacking in intensity. The Dylon^® test is on the left and the Procion MX test is on the right.

You may say, “I like the softer color”.  That’s fine, but what if you woke up some moring and said, “I WANT TO GO BOLD!”  It doesn’t look like you could achieve it with the Dylon^® (and maybe the Tulip^®?).

Stay tuned . . .

Posted under Dyeing