Hi friends!
Last week was a busy week for me! How about for you? On Thursday, I went to my local quilt guild meeting and was part of Demo Night. It was great! We had 6 stations with demos on machine embroidery, thread painting, proper binding techniques and what judges look for at quilt shows…
And there was Ice Dyeing with me! It was fun. I am by no means an expert. A few years back, I did a bunch of precise fabric dyeing with a friend. We dyed a ton of fabric. Ice dyeing is less precise which means you never know what you are going to get!
I did not take any pictures that night (I was busy) but here are a few shots of how I dyed some fabric at home so I could show it off. I even created a quick handout – click here to go to my Tips and Tutorials page – the handout is at the bottom.
Ice Dyeing Technique Tutorial
Ice Dyeing Set up.
Soak fabric in soda ash. Wear a mask when adding soda ash to water to make the solution.
Place a rack over a plastic bin- the bins catches the melted ice and dye; make sure the rack is far enough away from the bottom of the bin so the fabric does not sit in the melted dye solution.
Folded fabric. I folded my fabric different ways to see what would happen.
Cover fabric with ice.
Apply dye- wear a mask when applying the powder dye.
Let it sit- up to 24 hours.
Rinse in cold water till the water runs clear. Wash in the washing machine in hot water with Synthrapol or other soap meant for dyeing. I also include a color catcher- that way I know if the fabric is ready to use. Sometimes it takes a couple of washes.
And that’s the basics. There is more information on my handout.
Here are some of the fabrics I dyed. These were from the pictures above.
For this one I used just 2 colors of dye- I did not get as much blending as I wanted- partly due to how I sprinkled the dye and partly due to not enough ice.
I used just one color for these.
If you decide to try this ice dyeing technique, I would love to see what you get! Have fun with it.
happy quilting,
Kate
p.s. Did I tell you that on Friday I got to film an episode of Quilt Remix for QNN tv? I was the guest for one episode! My friend Jenny Kae was the other guest that day and Kelly is the host of the show. We had a lot of fun!
I can’t show my project yet… but here is a sneak peek! Guess what tool I used? I am totally in love with these Pixie Dots fabrics by Ink and Arrow.
I will let you know when the episode airs! I think it will be in May.