Low water immersion dyeing

As a family we eat about 5 (organic whole wheat) loafs of bread a week. Those 5 bread come in plastic breadbags and I keep those bags for second use. We all take our bread in breadboxes, so those bags accumulate. Last night I did need a breadbag, so I looked in the closet and found two breadbags filled with breadbags. That is a ridiciulous amount of breadbags, and I still had a lot of white fabric and a lot of mixed dye, so I decided to do some "low water immersion dyeing", which took me all morning.  This are the fabrics I dyed:

This is what I learned:

1. It might environmentally more friendly to use recycled breadbags, it is not advisable, because almost all bags leak, resulting in a terrible mess.
2. Plastic bags melt if you microwave them too long.
3. I meant to make series of different colours, but because I added the dye directly to the fabric without mixing it first, the colours didn't mix properly and I eded up with four series of quite similar looking fabrics.
4. Because of the leaky breadbags, I couldn't squeeze the bags properly which caused quite uneven distribution of the dye which resulted in quite busy fabrics.

My dyeing results

I wasn't sure if I should be posting my dyeing experiments here, so it is on my blog. I am in my early learning stages, but have already found out I don't like to do gradations :)
Too much work and I rarely need graduated colors anyway.

Hi from Carol B in NH

I am a textile/fiber artist living and creating fabric art in southern New Hampshire. I have recently taken up my needle again after a 13 year hiatus during which I made and taught others to make metal clay jewelry.
Camera in hand, I began to explore my world and then reproduce those photos into fabric art.
With the new direction came fabric dyeing and I am now thoroughly immersed (pun intended) in this world of fiber, color and texture.
I am a member of two art groups, Dunstable Artisans in Massachusetts and the League of NH Craftsmen in New Hampshire, both inspirational and exciting to belong to.

Photo of Yellow Asiatic Lily

My interpretation of the lily in fabric. I  post this as an example of my work. More can be seen and my progress can be followed at my blog.

Chris Daly - Dye Candy Fabrics

I am a textile and stained glass artist with a passion for vibrant color.   I love to hand dye the fabrics I use in my art quilts.  As long as I can remember, art has been an important part of my life.   I studied jewelry making, pottery and drawing in school.  Stained glass has always intrigued me.  In the early 1990’s I was introduced to the architecture of Greene and Greene and their organic depiction of nature in glass.  I knew I had found a new outlet for my creativity.

In 2002 our family left city life in suburban Chicago for a 76 acre farm set in a valley in Southwestern Wisconsin.  It was at this time I took up quilting because my stained glass studio had yet to be completed.  I learned to sew my own clothing as a child and wanted to make at least one quilt for our farm house.  I soon learned how flexible fabric was for design and this new medium took on a life of its own in my hands.  In 2007 I completed my first art quilt, titled "Marina was a Mermaid".  I couldn't find the fabrics I needed for this project at our local quilt shops so I dyed my own  fabrics to to create the color pallets that I wanted.  After that there was no turning back.  I had become addicted to color and fabric dyeing was the only way to satisfy the craving.  

Walks in the wildflower meadows and woods of our farm inspire my creativity.  Vibrant greens of springtime set against all the colors of the sky make my heart sing.    I love to watch the play of light and shadow against the landscape.  

I am forever striving to push my design ideas further.  I feel as if I am about to step on the path I am to follow as an art quilter.  I am anxious and impatient waiting for the journey to begin.

I am a member of the Art Quilts Around the World Group and Lazy Gal Liberated Amish Get Together.  Both of these groups force me to get out of the dye studio and focus on using my creativity.  

I invite you to visit my blogs and my Etsy Stores: 

ShadyGroveStudios.blogspot.com is a snapshot of our rural life.  

ShadyGroveStudios.etsy.com Is where you will find my quilt block jewelry and stained glass items for sale.  My jewelry contains miniature quilt blocks that are machine pieced using hand dyed fabrics.  My jewelry and stained glass items are available at art galleries through out the Midwestern US.

DyeCandy.blogspot.com Is a blog where I and other guest bloggers show our adventures in fabric dyeing, sewing and quilting.  

DyeCandy.etsy.com is home to my hand dyed fabrics and occasionally you will find my art quilts for sale here too.  I am addicted to fabric dyeing so it was natural that I would eventually have to sell some of my favorites to make room for others.