Snow day is DYE day ... part 3

Here is my final February post of recent snow day Dyeing exercises for February. I was away last week visiting Winnipeg and didn't have any access to my fabrics and dyes ... although they did have some decent snow! I spent my quiet time checking out social media and reading articles and watching videos on dyeing, snow dyeing especially.

When I got back I did a quick experiment based on some of the social media posts I saw. As a result, I've come to a conclusion about my snow dyeing experiments.

My experiment consisted of 1 yellow dye through out and 4 different blues.

In the images I've shown 3 FQ in each dye tub. 2 FQ in the top as I found with my last dye exercise that I didn't get as much texture as I wanted with only 1 FQ in the top basket. I had 1 FQ in the bottom to use up any dripped-though dye.

I also experimented with a pre-soak in Soda Ash solution, using dry fabric and sprinkling Soda Ash over the dry fabric before adding the snow, and wetting the fabric with plain water and sprinkling Soda Ash over wet fabric before adding the snow.

Yellow & Slate: I pre-soaked in a Soda Ash Solution. There are some nice dye splitting and texture as the dyes moved into the fabric.

Yellow & Royal: I pre-soaked in a Soda Ash Solution. It appears the yellow interacted much faster than the blue dye as the results are quite on the yellow/green side of the colour wheel.

Yellow & Cerulean: I used dry fabric, sprinkled Soda Ash over the dry fabric before adding the snow and liquid dye. There is some separation of the yellow dye and the blue dye, but mostly green comes through.

Yellow & Marine: I used wet fabric, sprinkled Soda Ash over the wet fabric before adding the snow and liquid dye. The Marine blue is an almost purple dye and resulted in a fair bit of blue separation before mixing with the yellow to give a green.

The yellow dye was mixed fresh and the water was still a bit warmer than the blue dyes. I think the warmer yellow dye solution may have melted the snow faster than the blues and as a result the yellow dyes fixed before the blues.

I'm not a fan of snow dyeing with liquid dye. I've concluded that the liquid dyes mix together in the snow, not in the fabric and the resulting colour separation, splitting or mixing isn't as clear as I want. The whole idea behind snow dyeing is creating some fantastic colours and textures as the snow melts, the dye powder interacts with the wet fabric and mixes with the other powders sprinkled over the snow.

I don't think I'll through FQ in the bottom tub again. There is hardly any colour separation and the tubs were too big to really scrunch the fabric. Maybe more fabric or a smaller container next time.

Check out my Fabric Dyeing Classes if playing with colour and creating your own fabrics interests you.

I'm currently on a personal challenge to use up as much "scrap fabric" this year as I can. I've promised myself to only purchase wide backings for the quilts and white bolts for dyeing. Any of these recent dye experiments that I don't particularly like, will get cut up and used in some scrap quilts. They will never go to waste!!!!

So, while I take a snow dyeing break ...

Happy Quilting!