Dyeing with a New “Stencil”

I really had fun on my most recent dyeing session. I did two things that were new to me.

#1 – I used a piece of garden fencing (I think that’s what it is) as a stencil.

It made a nice big bubble motif and, because of it’s size, it covered a lot of space quickly.

#2 – I used some new-to-me premixed dye colors. I usually work with just 2 of each of the primary colors, plus black, and mix my own colors. But, over the years, people have given me premixed colors. I decided to work with only these and to experiment. Coincidentally, they looked pretty good together.

This was my sampling swatch, above. It includes each of the 8 colors at full strength, 1/2 strength, 1/4, and 1/8. Very useful! The colors are mostly from Dharma and they are Raspberry, Terra Cotta, Pumpkin Spice, Bronze, Marigold, Deep Yellow, Palamnio Gold, and Grecian Sea. I decided I really liked the 1/2 strength version and I worked mostly with that.

This is what I got. Pretty cool, right?

My hope is to get 3 quilts from these (around 36h x 24w.) I hope I’ve got enough fabric to manage that! I did dye some other near-solids and light prints in these same colors, so we’ll see.

The first quilt is finished and I’ll show it to you soon.

Enjoying the adventure!
Ellen Lindner