Fabric Dyeing For Quilters

I have returned from my 5 whirlwind days in Fall River at Pro Chem and have tried to debrief my brain. The amount of information that Carol Soderlund has in her brain and has accumulated over the years is mind boggling, and she is willing to share it all. I’m not sure where to start, so I will just begin.

I will try and recap the remainder of the 5 days to give you a feeling for the overall experience . At the outset, I want to say that this is THE BEST workshop I have ever taken and Carol Soderlund is the most organized, generous and knowledgeable teacher. That being said:

A bird’s eye view of the classroom which is also the dyeing room for us.

Including a washer and dryer, along with many sinks.

Every day, Carol would lecture at least part of the morning and usually again in the afternoon, and then demo what we were to do. Her explanations covered making up dye solutions, preparation of the fiber, dye setting, mottled, solid, low immersion dyeing, depth of shade, dyeing by calculations as well as dyeing using her charts and the most fascinating of all was the 3D Color Theory. We learned about dyeing to get the exact color we wanted as well as dyeing to achieve various effects and to explore.

The ultimate goal for most was to assemble the bible of fabric swatches.

This notebook contains over 1000 1inch color swatches. This can be used to precisely dye fabric to the desired color.

We would begin our day between 8:30 and 9AM. Before you knew it, it was lunch time. Lunch was included in the workshop fee. It turned out to be a wonderful cross-section of the ethnicity of the area, which has a very big Portuguese population. Lunch ranged from pizzas, subs, wraps,lasagna and pockets along with salads and chips and cookies. It was well needed energy and a respite. We often continued our explorations at least until 6PM when we were all told to GO HOME!. One night we did stay for dinner and another night we worked in the conference room at the hotel working on our books.

Oh the books. It would have been an insurmountable task to dye all of that fabric, cut it and create the book by your self. We were put into 3 teams to do the dyeing and cutting. Carol’s instructions for keeping the swatches in an ordered manner with labels and envelopes and pre-printed sheets was instrumental in compiling this compendium.

Carol is demonstrating how to prepare the dye solutions for gradation dyeing,

and the resulting fabric strips.

Here are some fabrics that were dyed during the week by various class members. Below are pieces dyed by my deskmate Angela. She’s a weaver and wasn’t as impressed with her exercise of 2 different shades of the same color as we were! She was showered with ideas of what to do with that beautiful fabric.

Anne, another non-quilter, produced a beautiful piece of cloth using low immersion dyeing. You may know Anne from her company that produces hand-dyed threads, only available through retail needlepoint stores. If you go to her website you can see the various threads and where you can buy them.

Gloriana Threads

Susan wanted to share with us what happens when you dye a shirt without soaking the dye in fixative! Oops!

And just in case you didn’t think we had any fun during the week – our fearless leader:

Thank you to ProChem for their hospitality. Thank you to Carol for sharing her knowledge and techniques in a format that all could learn. My recommendation is if you have an interest in dyeing cloth or threads, this is the place to learn and Carol is the teacher to learn from. Go to Pro Chem’s website and get on their mailing list. Once the class is open for registration, it does not take long before it fills up. I am planning on attending Part 2 next Spring.

And here are some snippets of other gorgeous fabrics:

Carol’s samples.

My rick rack and thread experiment:

A pile of dyed T-shirts.

And here is a piece of Brilliance dyed by Liz on the right. It’s a blend of cotton and silk. One side is shiney and the other side is dull. Look at the difference in color between the 2 sides. So rich! Jackquie has the other beautious purple cotton fabric.

And here’s a piece by Sally – a prof at Rhode Island School of Design.

Pure Eye Candy

For today, just some pure eye candy!

In the dye bath!

Oh the colors!

Ten Things I Learned In Dyeing Class Today

1. Pro Chem & Dye is the mecca for fabric dyeing. (It is housed in an old typical New England textile factory.)

2. Carol Soderlund presents the most organized workshop based on her 14 years of teaching dyeing and is extremely generous and knowledgeable.

3. Her handouts are amazingly detailed and informative.

4. The class is full with many students who have been dyeing with happy accidents and now ant an organized and systematic method. (Including me!)

5. Pro Chem offers about 140 different color MX dyes.

6. Of all those dyes, there are 16 pure dyes.

7. From 9 of these pure dyes, we will end up with 1042 color swatches. Along with the swatches, we will all go home with a notebook with the formulas, that everyone is lusting after.

8. It's deja vu all over again, back to college chemistry lab with the graduated cylinders.

9. Tyvek is great to use for labeling. It is inert to the dye.

10. Stirring the dye bucket for 15 minutes seems like forever.

Fall River Here We Come

We are going on a road trip. The dog, the husband and me!

We're heading to Fall River, Massachusetts to take a fabric dyeing workshop at
Pro Chemical & Dye with Carol Soderlund.
The class is full. It always is, so I registered on the first available day. The description says you go home with a binder of 1000 dyed fabric swatches and how to formulate them.
Sounds like fun to me.
I'm also bringing 5 yards of cotton, cotton threads and some dupioni silk to dye.

Yes, it is a family adventure - including Bailey.
A 6 hour drive for 5 days of fabric dyeing heaven.

The supply list included lots of office supplies and lots of empty bottles.
I also packed lots of black clothes.

I'm bringing my computer and will try to post as often as I can. Let me know if you have any questions that I can ask them for you.

Sew-A-Thon

Today was the sewing day for the reusable shopping bags for the upcoming baby shower. I had cut them all and they were ready for construction. My DIL arrived with my old sewing machine, a delicious mango cake and my son, ready for a marathon sewing session. She was determined to make these bags and become comfortable threading the sewing machine. (Remember those days when you dreaded that your thread would break or you would run out of bobbin thread?) My personal chef provided the Easter dinner.

We sewed and ate and sewed and ate.
She was a quick study as she sewed away. I included this photo as proof to her
family that O can sew.

And she finished her first bag. Yippeee!

(Please ignore my design wall, which is really my visual filing cabinet.)

14 down, 16 to go!

Now she's on her own. I know she can do it. You go girl!

"Green" Baby Shower Favors

I have a wonderful daughter-in-law (DIL), who I have been trying for years to get "hooked" on quilting. But, she is a practical and utilitarian sewer, who sews when necessary. I remember when her brother and his wife were pregnant with their first child. After prodding her for years about trying quilting, she came to me and said she was ready to make a baby quilt. I suggested a very quick and easy, flip and sew project. We went fabric shopping and she had so much fun picking out airplane theme fabric. I thought - aha! I hooked her.

A few years later - yes a few years, her dear friend from elementary school was pregnant, and she was ready to make another quilt. Last year we even took a free workshop at a local sewing shop during Earth Day and made a reusable shopping bag. She loves it and uses it. But it was one and done. And then her brother had twins. That time it was two rag quilts made from flannel. She still was not bitten.

Now her sister is pregnant. Time for another quilt? Yes! And what did I think of the idea of making reusable shopping bags as bridal shower favors? She even brought me a pattern. First I have to let you know that her sister is determined to reduce her carbon footprint. She has made an effort to have as little purchased new for this baby as possible. She has been trying to reuse and/or borrow or buy used what she needs. Then she will register for her baby shower. I really admire this. Sometimes I think there is just too much consumption in this country.

So I thought my DIL's idea for the shower favor was a great idea. And I had a brainstorm, thinking of too much consumption, wouldn't it be even better if we went through my fabric stash and used as much of my fabric as possible? How many bags did she need? Wow! 30, maybe 40? Decorator fabric was plentiful, so I thought, and my DIL chose a color palette. Then we picked some quilting fabric. The deal was that I would cut up the fabric for her and she would do the sewing.

I spent almost a day cutting up all of the fabric and experimenting. It looked like so much fabric before I started. It yielded enough for 27 bags. I made a few prototypes. First I changed the pattern so that the body of the bag was cut as 1 piece. I also added a bottom gusset, which is so easy to do, and really makes it a professional looking bag.

The first bag I made was the green striped bag on the right. I shortened the bag, but I thought it looked too small. So I used the dimensions from the original directions.

My favorite bag is the one on the left. I had bought that fabric a few years ago for an Autumn tablecloth. I wanted to try making a bag from it since it is a cross between an organza and a taffeta and I was concerned about its sturdiness. There was enough to cut 6 bags. The sample came out beautifully.

So now I am on a mission to not buy any fabric for this project. I just have to go through my stash one more time and then ask friends to come up with enough fabric for 13 more bags. And my DIL has a lot of sewing to do.

Happy Passover

Passover begins Monday, March 29th, at sundown. The Jewish holiday starts with a meal called a sedar. The sedar is a ritual meal that is guided by a book telling the story of the Jew's exodus from Egypt. It reminds us of how we went from being slaves to this wonderful thing called freedom.

To me, the Jewish religion is so much about tradition. I no longer have parents and have no siblings living near me, so the ritual of a sedar becomes my responsibility and my honor to pass on to my children. In simple terms, Passover lasts 8 days and during the holiday we are not allowed to eat leavened products and certain types of wheat and vegetables. This ban on leavening is symbolic of the quickness with which the Jews had to leave. There was no time for the bread to rise. So we eat Matzoh, unleavened bread.

As a child, I remember my mother cleaning the house of all types of bread and non-Passover products. She scoured the kitchen countertops and covered them with oilcloth. Then she placed a set of glass dishes that we only used for Passover on top of the counters. We were no longer allowed to open any of the doors. There was also a separate set of utensils and pots and pans. Then there were the special foods mostly made by Manischewitz that were placed on top of the counters. We were only allowed to eat food that was labeled Kosher for Passover. It was hard as a kid. No bread, no sandwiches for school lunch, none of our regular cereal, no pasta. So there was always some type of little treat that we never had during the rest of the year to make us feel a little less deprived.

Setting up my kitchen for Passover is not as rigorous a process as in my Mother's day. I do not follow all of the rules that she followed 40 years ago. My homage to my Mom are my glass dishes. Each year at the end of Passover, they are washed, wrapped in paper towels and put away in boxes. The day before Passover, I take them out of the box, wash them and lovingly place them on my kitchen counter. I think of my Mom.

I bought a beautiful handmade glass sedar plate that holds all of the symbolic foods for the sedar.

I take out my Matzah cover

that I made from a pattern I designed as OyVey! Quilt Designs.

I now have my own special treat that I make for my family called Caramel Matzoh Crunch.

And I am so happy to have my children and husband around my sedar table as we celebrate our freedom together.

A little treat for them to take home. And if you'd like to send a cute greeting to some of your family or friends that couldn't be with you, send a free e-card. (s0me of them are better than others.)

Happy Passover to all those that celebrate it.