First Blog ADD Minutes

I was searching around the web the other day and found the MOST awesome quilts by Amish Country Lanes. This one in particular caught my eye and my imagination. Wow. Reading on, I found that they are using hand dyed fabrics. As one thing leads to another on the World Wide Web, I found myself surfing sites on how to Batik and hand paint fabrics.

I stumbled on a site on "natural dyes" as I don't have any dye in the house and evidently Rit dye would not EVER be the dye of choice (who knew?). Surveying my refrigerator, I found I had plenty of mustard. Okay I have the dye, now what? I found an old sheet which was not likely 100% cotton, so what, it was white and worth a try. I ripped off about 2 by 1/2 yard section to try my experiment. Next. What to do about paraffin? Meh, I have a white candle. I chunked some of it off and put it in my electric wax pot and waited for it to melt. Meanwhile, I made a mild mustard and water "dye" solution and lightly dyed the fabric, rinsed it, and dried it in the dryer. All good, it DID come out a light yellow. I laid the fabric on an old paper bag and tried "painting" on the wax in a sun shape. Yeah, no. That was nothing but a mess. No matter, this was an experiment after all. I found a wine bottle cork and decided to use it as the sun's middle. Dipped in wax then pushed it onto the fabric with a slight twisting motion. Okay, now the rays? Aha, round toothpicks. I created the rays around the suns. I waited about, oh, a minute (adult ADD and its pitfalls), then crumpled it up and dunked it into a stronger mustard solution. Hmmmmm...not getting much darker. I added some Turmuric, after all, I use it to "enhance" my chicken soup. Helped a little, but I was hoping for an orangier color.

Here are some things that do not work that well.

Cranberry Grape juice.
Tea bags that have only been allowed to steep for about an ADD minute.
Coffee grounds.

The yellow was slightly darker. Maybe if I had let the fabric sit in the solution for more than an ADD minute!

Rinsed it again and began scraping the wax off. Did have a pattern, faint as it was. Tried to iron off the rest of the wax and ended up with grease splotches. I gave the experiment up for dead, but kept the fabric for my upcoming hand dyed quilt thingy that I have huge lofty aspirations about and minute increments of time.

This morning I came across another site with instructions for dying with bleach. So quick and easy, even a flighty ADD person could accomplish lovely things with available household items.

I found a blue long sleeved T-shirt no one will wear cause it fits weird (meh, a dollar on clearance Walmart). Some other time I will tell you about this piece of lace I have been carting around for years with permanent stains on it. Cut it up the other day...don't ask. Anyway, I laid the lace on the sleeve of this shirt and sprayed on the bleach in an un-ventilated area of course because who could be bothered to go outside at 6 in the morning in a tattered men's bathrobe? Really.

Long story made even more convoluted. The pattern looked really neat; however, still not a soul will actually wear this T-shirt. Looked around the studio for something else to un-dye...YES! My failed experiment, for sure bleach will take the mustard out!
I laid the lace on the yellow mess and sprayed away. Wow, this came out fairly cool!





Here is a picture of the entire pattern.










This is a closer shot of the "lace" impression.





My point here does not have a lot to do with my failed experiment and the topic of my blogs space EXCEPT...I went hunting around trying to find local classes on Batik and hand painting fabric, low immersion water techniques, etc. Yeah, no luck...there just are no other hippies in Huntsville.