Okay, I finally got it done and here they are.

I think the yellow is good, but the red(in the bottom left-hand corner) and the blue(in the bottom right-hand corner) could be deeper. I'll pick a deeper shade the next time I try this.

The colors don't show the slight color changes in this light. I'll try taking another picture during the day.

What beautiful fabric!

I love them! I just dyed about 70 yards of fabric today. Getting ready for the Quilting Expo in Oshkosh, WI in March.

I love the colors :mrgreen: What are you going to use them for ?

What I was gonna say!

These are beautiful. How do you do this??? Sure wish I was closer to WI.

They are very pretty!!

Beautiful! The colors you achieved with this are outstanding!

You should do a tute on fabric dying!

I love color, color, color!!!! These are gorgeous!! :D :D :D

I'm in Michigan, Clinton Township

LOL ***googling mapquest to see how close we are *** Maybe I can come get lessons :wink:
hhhmmmm about 4 hours 8-)

I would love to learn this also. Very pretty.

looking good, I love to dye my fabrics, what do you start with? I tried some white muslin, it doesn't come out real clear, has a muted / dulled color, but for some applications that's just what ya want.

Lovely! I'm sure it is going to be well worth the time....

I actually have been using Kona Bleached muslin, after washing it.

My first couple of batches turned out awesomely bright, but these didn't.

I was so afraid of the colors running together, even though I washed them afterward in "same colors". I put in a dye grabber and that's why I think they turned out muted.

I'm going to try this again, with a deeper red and blue and see how it turns out.

I think when I get done with all of this, some of the fabric is going to make a quilt of my hand dyes only. Just need to figure out what pattern to use, maybe a pinwheel pattern?

What are you using for your base fabric? These are yummy!

I'm using a Kona Bleached Muslin

Marvelous! They all look fine to me. You are very ambitious making your own. The satisfaction when they are put into a quilt will be even greater.

WOW!!! awesome. I've wanted to hand die for awhile now, but I'm scared... how do you do it? you should post a tute... Beautiful fabrics...

They look beautiful to me! I'd love to try it sometime. Is it a really messy process?

Is there a tut somewhere you followed?
The gradations are inccredible. Very nice.

I think they look incredible! I love color and I so appreciate the subtle differences you've got going with this group. Simply fabulous!!!

I knew you were in Clinton Twsp. You had mentioned you were dyeing them for the expo in WI. If you held classes in fabric dyeing, I'd be first in line to attend. Maybe online tutorial???
Wendy

try using Retayne. it doesn't 'catch' the pigment. it re-absorbs it back into the fabric so you don't lose as much intensity.

No, that was someone else that had posted a reply.

But then won't I have to wash each of the FQ's separately?

Well, I actually got this recipe from another forum and that was a couple of years ago. I contacted the person that had figured all this out and she shared it with me.

Years later, I finally got around to trying it. I had to figure out how much dye concentrate to make and all I did was take the 2/3 oz. bottle and add it to about 2 1/2 cups water. (I went back to the forum to find out more info on that but she was no longer active)

A couple of you have posted a suggestion about a tutorial.

I am just starting out doing this, I am definitely a newbie to this, and would love to explain it to anyone that wants to try it. But I think there are others out there more experience than me in hand dyed fabrics.

Thanks to everyone for your wonderful comments!!!!

i made a quilt with a lot of red and a lot of white that hadn't been washed. after it was finished i washed it in the machine, gentle, cold water with retayne. i had no red bleeding at all. i think if you use cold and gentle the retayne will do it. you can do same-values at one time if you're nervous. btw, will you always do 1/4's?

Cool, thanks for the info. I'll give that a try with the next batch.

My next project, I'm going to try doing a rainbow. That's only 12 colors and I have 3 yds. of 90" wide muslin left, so I'm thinking that I might be able to do double FQ's(18" X 44", instead of 18" x 22")

I'm definitely leaning towards doing some craft shows in my local area and I would love to do this 36-step gradiation with full yards. Thsn I could just cut them down into FQ's afterwards. The only problem with that is, this batch was done in gallon freezer bags and for full yards, I need something bigger. I'm thinking that I might be able to fit a full yard into a plastic coffee can, but I need to get more of those and maybe only do 6 colors at a time. Maybe in the future, I will have enough to do all 36 at one time.

I purchased some 2 gallon freezer bags at Aldi's last year. Maybe those would work for you...Fabric is terrific...

I love your fabric and what an accomplisment. What type of dyes and fabric did you use?

I use PFD fabric. It has no treatment and takes the dye the best. I dyed some muslin earlier in the week and I ended up with a few spots where the dye didn't take. Then you have some white spots. Grrrrrrr............

I think it was me who was dyeing them for the Expo in Oshkosh, WI. I am teaching a "Marbled Table Runner" class where each student gets to pick his own yard of fabric and we make the table runner.

But, if you are close enough to Oshkosh and are interested in learning to dye the fabric, Diane Lapacek is teaching an all day class on it at the Expo.

Check out the details:

http://www.fvtc.edu/public/content.aspx?id=1801&pid=11

This Expo is March 19 and 20, 2010. It isn't a real big Expo but very nice. This will be the third year I have taught there.

Barb

I have stacks of ice cream buckets. They are easy to store and easy to wash. You can do three yards per ice cream bucket easily. One yard works fine, too.

I also use a lot of the large flat tubs when I am doing variation dyeing. This is what I do the most of.

As you can see, I haven't read the forums for a couple of days. I dye a lot of fabric so this topic really interests me.

I don't teach it because Diane Lapacek, my sister, does and we often teach together; she always teachs the dyeing workshops so there is no reason for me to reinvent the wheel.

Paula Birch has the best information available already online. I use it a lot. It has everything you could possibly want to know about dyeing fabric. Her is the link

http://www.pburch.net/dyeing/howtodye.shtml

How this helps some of you.

Barb

Ooooo I LOVE your fabrics!!! They are beautiful!!!
Good Job :thumbup: :D:D:D