Magnolia Workshop ~ Kate Themel Teacher!

Look what the First Duchess Quilters created! The fabulous Kate Themel taught another group of students her unique layering technique and as you can see they had fun and created beautiful fabric art. 

Kate and I often collaborate and I dye all of the fabric kits used in her workshops. Please check out Kate's gallery of her personal work ~ you will be blown away! 

Fun with Fabric Folding!

I was playing with folded fabrics this week and then dipped them into the dye here and there. It was unplanned and evolved as the dyes were mixed. Next I mixed up some bleach and water for a little more fabric dipping. It was a fun and playful session! 

Black and Bronze!

Yellow over dyed with red! 

Yellow over dyed with blue!

Black & bleached!

 

Red & bleached... where did the red go - a bit too long in the bleach! 

It's very freeing to have an unplanned color-a-thon in the studio! There can be lots to learn when experimenting that can be applied towards a more planned project later. 

HAPPY CREATING! 

Layering Fabrics for Dyeing!

I was showing my son the layers of painted fabric I recently created and he suggested the same technique using dye... mmm... would it work? 

I settled on the 3 primary colors just to see how they would interact. Using Procion MX dyes I put a yard each into red, blue and yellow. Wringing the fabric out slightly I laid the red down on a covered surface. Next came the blue and then the yellow. 

The yellow background is super pale but the soft blue/purple colors seeping through are interesting. I plan to over dye with the same yellow to get those blue/purple colors to pop a bit more. 

Snooze alert... boring... same-o... same-o!

The blue bleeding into the red was kind of fun. It created a soft purple hue meandering around the fabric!

I would try this technique again but perhaps with just 2 layers. If you try it yourself let me know what you learn and how your project came out! 

Happy Experimenting!  

4 Layered Fabric Painting!

I love the look of layered fabric painting especially the last fabric in the pile. I stacked cotton, silk, silk organza and rayon organza on a plastic covered work surface and misted with water. Due to the texture of the rayon organza on top of the pile I'm not sure how much moisture actually got through the other layers but I went for it. 

4 layers of translucent Seta Color ready for their reveal!

Peeling rayon organza

There goes the silk organza

Off comes the silk

The final layer of cotton.
I like the voids of white and the "misty" look of the colors. 

I'm not sure if the layers should stay together or move on and become separate projects... it will be lots of fun deciding! 

It's All About Black!

Finally... I discovered a black dye that I love! It's called, Silk Black made by Pro Chemical. Traditionally dyeing with black requires twice as much dye as you would normally use for other colors. I would do this and still be disappointed with the blue/black results I was getting.  The Silk Black has a greenish influence vs the blue influence and somehow that just feels better to my eye! I thought I'd share with you in case others out there are in search of a better black! If you hurry Pro Chemical is offering 10% off MX dyes through May 31st!