Hand Dyed Offerings

How fitting that of all days - Halloween - our power should go out!  Crazy storms all day, trick or treating put off until tomorrow, sorry little goblins!  There isn't much you can do in the dark.  Candles are burning, ice-cream is melting and the wind is howling.  Lucky for me I have my iPad fully charged and have no excuse to put off writing a post!  

It's no secret that I love fabric!  I know, we all do.  There is nothing like a big fat stack of fiber goodness sitting in front of you, staring you down, daring you to cut them.  

My daughter Britt has a way of wearing me down until I finally give in.  First it was her wanting to teach me to quilt and then recently it was learning how to hand dye fabric.

She is currently a Fibers major at The Appalachian Center for Craft.  She has a couple years under her belt.  Long grueling hours in the fiber studio, soaking up the knowledge, and after all the hard work, wanting to share it with me.  Again, I was slightly reluctant.  Again she was right.  (Don't tell her!)  Another creative avenue, another process learned.  My favorite part honestly, is the time we spend together!  She doesn't think I will ever take the reins and dye by myself.  I could.  But it's so much more fun when we do it together! 

We have set up a little space in the basement for dyeing.  Lots of plastic covering the work bench and walls.  I like to refer to it as my 'Dexter' room.  A little dark humor, but I did get the plastic idea from that show!  We have our buckets, dyes, mixing gear and a sink.  Its all we need to dye our fabric on a small scale.  

One could certainly measure a color...like blue...pop in a piece of fabric and call it a day.  That's okay.  That works. We like to be different!  We set out all our dyes, get a color idea and go to town!  A squirt of aquamarine, add some golden yellow, a squeeze or two of black...maybe that is good enough or maybe I'll splash a dab of pagoda red in it!  Take a chance!   I have been totally grossed out by a color, but gently i'm reminded that 'you never know'.  We have gotten some beautiful colors with this process.  Unique colors.  Colors we could never ever do again since we don't measure.  Awwwwww, its okay! 

We both have a love for fabrics, a love for creating.

We have people ask for our hand dyed fabrics.  I never thought about it.  We do it because we love it.  And so it seems others do as well.  Looking at our hand dyed fabric magically multiplying, we decided it was time.  Cut the apron strings, let our pride and joys fly the coop!
We have put together some delicious fat quarter bundles!  (And a couple fat 1/8th's too).  Great color combinations.  Perfect for small projects, adding some pizazz to a quilt or to use as a handkerchief!  The choice is yours!

TWIGGY & OPAL

There is something about hand dyed fabrics I love.  Maybe it's the unusual texture variations that occur, or the unique colors created or the feeling of accomplishment when it is all said and done!  We put a lot of love into each piece of fabric.

I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I do!    These are now available HERE in my Etsy shop, if you would like to see more!

As a side note:  After the first hour, the charm of losing power and having candles burning wears off.  I finally gave up and went to bed at midnight!  The power finally came back on at 2:01am!  This morning is a beautiful sunny crisp day.