Mixed dye results

My fabric folding for dyeing is in the beginning stages of experimenting. I’ve mostly done some loose pleating and some accordion folds for tray dyeing. This time I tried some pressed and folded hunks of fabric with mixed results.

The loosely tied fabric on the top gave me predictable results, with soft blending of the colors.

Accordion folds were also kind of predictable, but I like this result with these colors.

I simply rolled up a 1/2 yard piece to see if it would give me a gradation. Well, it did, but too pale to be useful to me by the innermost part of the roll. If I had used a fat quarter, it would have been fine.

Triangles gave mixed results. I like the design of this piece but I absolutely detest the color!

This little piece says ‘daisy’ or ‘sunshine’ to me!

And this one I’m not too sure if I like or not!

Crumpled up and crunched tightly together worked to give me some fun fireworks or flower shapes and I really like the way the colors blended.

I used mostly the same colors on this next one, plus blue, but it was a large piece of fabric and very tightly packed.

Many dyers would call this a failure because of all the white space, but I like it this way! Perhaps it will get another fold up and dip, simply to add more lines of color to the design. That could be lots of fun, but I don’t dye that often so it will wait for another time.

(Okay, I couldn’t wait! The detested green piece and this piece are folded differently and are soaking in darker blue dyes right now. I absolutely could not make the green piece worse, but I may be sorry on the other one!)

Mostly now I need to use up a bunch of fabric, both hand-dyed and commercial. I usually resist piecing the backs of bed quilts, but in order to use up what I have, that is exactly what I will have to do. I’m trying very hard to start using only the fabrics I’ve created in my art pieces. That is so, so hard, because I love so many commercial fabrics–and they keep on making more every day! Obviously I need to spend more time at the sewing machine and less time on the computer, so I am on my way down to the studio. There is work to be done!