Ice Parfait Dyeing

The latest issue of Quilting Arts Magazine had dyeing instructions for 'Ice Parfait' dyeing, but it boils down to A. Presoak your fabric in soda ash solution.
B. Use any large container (mine is a clear plastic garbage can) to layer your dyeing 'parfait'.
C. place a fat quarter/half yard/yard of fabric(whatever fits and however much you want to dye) loosely scrunched in the bottom of your container.
D. Toss a layer of ice cubes over the fabric layer.
E. Sprinkle teensy selections of different colors of Procion Fiber Reactive dye powder over the ice.
F. Repeat, repeat, repeat, fabric/ice/dye until you get to the top of container or out of fabric!
G. Cover container and wait 24 hours minimum.
H. Drain container, rinse fabrics, toss them in the washer with a little Synthrapol or other gentle laundry soap, like Drift, etc. (no bleach, no whiteners, etc.)
I. Tumble dry and iron.
J. Admire your handiwork!
 I am totally sold on this style and the results you get! And since I was doing all that stacking and icing and mottling of cotton PFD yardage, the little light bulb went on in my head and I decided to toss in handfuls of white, bright Egyptian cotton floss. The fabric, and the floss to embellish that fabric, will be color coordinated! Great idea! Great colors! Not so great that even though I tied each skein in two places...well, I must have agitated too often and too violently when rinsing. And, okay, I admit, the skeins were taking FOREVER to dry thoroughly so I tossed them into the dryer without a bag to cradle their frantically flailing little bodies. I now have lots of time to repent, as I untangle and wrap each and every one, one by frustrating one. Sigh...sometimes my impetuosity drives me nuts! (But aren't they pretty!)

Oh, what a tangled web I weave, when I practice...

26 down and ??? to go?

Three and a half days later...

Is that a moose?

 Some are 'moody' pieces...

Some are celebratory!

I do so love to dye!

Saturday a friend came to play...

We tried the 'Sharpie/alcohol' thing (the top piece with the 'sun') But we were experimenting on cotton...which does not flow like the video I watched, which showed wow factor results on silk.

The only Procion Fiber Reactive dye colors I worked with were Turkey Red, Reddish Brown and Deep Navy and mere Lemon Meringue dust left in the empty baggy. Very interesting...surprises are the best part of dyeing!

More wool dyeing

Mostly Kool Aid* and food dye.

Procion fiber reactive dye, Kool Aid and/or food coloring.

 Wool takes color so well, so fast, so satisfyingly! I may not be able to stop dyeing until my wool runs out... A few more days and the sap will rise up enough for me to start following the recipes for vegetative dyeing. I have always wanted to do that with wool, because I get some nice color on my cottons, but the pix of wool are much more gratifying. It seems like most of the recipes out there say, "You can get this and this and this color with wool! Oh, and good luck with cotton."

Snow-dyed Results

I am thrilled with the results of my snow dyeing session...I only re-dyed one boring piece. But there is a tremendous mystery in this house. Where is my yellow piece? There should be a bright lemon yellow, nice and scrunchy. I see it in my photo of the bins full of snow and dye. I remember debating whether to run its own little bath to scrub the excess dye out of it, but decided that if the washer were agitating all the pieces with soap and lots of water, it should be okay, the dyes were 'dead', the chemical reactions had all taken place. I have checked and rechecked the washing machine, the drier, the garbage can for Pete's sake!!! I keep lifting the fabric thinking it may have clung to other pieces. I can only surmise that the soft pink piece may have been the yellow, but took on the red? Wouldn't that have made orange? Oh, bright lemon yellow! Where art thou?

Quilter's Snowcones?

My 3 bolts of PFD fabric arrived yesterday afternoon...

 

And it snowed during the night...

So, you KNOW I had to have a 'snow day' and dye!

I will post the results tomorrow afternoon!
I can hardly wait to see what I get...

Want to play in the snow?

If you type in snow dyeing in your search engine you will find a LOT of instructions. Since I buy my dyes from ProChem, I used that result/recipe from my search.