NEW MEMBERS TO THE FLOCK

It continues to be a summer of birds for me. Here are some new additions to my flock. All hand-dyed, hand-pieced, free-motion quilted...lovely, yes?

AS PROMISED, BLACK ADDED

The 24 crossover dye pieces from my last blog were cut in half, now to be 48. Half of them, one of each color, were dipped in soda ash, scrunched into little florets and bunched on the tray.

I added black, lots of it, and let it sit in the pooled up dye,

soaking up the dark color.

After washing and ironing, I matched them up with their original partners.

Now these 48 beautiful pieces await a project. Hmmmm....



CROSSOVER DYEING

I met Marnie at Quadra Island's Quilt and Garden Tour. She was representing the quilters and had some of her works displayed. We started chatting about hand-dyeing and she mentioned crossover dyeing. I asked her to continue on and describe the process.

Start with two colors and blend them in measured proportions. In my case, I took 8 jars and measured 0-7 spoonfuls of the first color in each container (0 in the first increasing to 7 in the last), and then followed up with the same measurements in descending order using the second color. I used 1/8 tsp. measures, so each had barely a teaspoon of dye, resulting in light colors.

My powdered dye stash is low this summer so I am only mixing one red, yellow and blue to work with at a time. Ready for action were turquoise, golden yellow and chinese red. On the first trial, I began with turquoise and an orange mixed from the yellow and red. Results are shown above.
In the past I have been intrigued with the wonderful muted colors I get by adding black, but in this process, its just a blending of the two, resulting in lovely neutrals in between.

I really hadn't planned on more crossover dyeing than this, but was so intrigued with the results, that I just had to continue on. The next combination was golden yellow, with a purple created from the turquoise and chinese red. Results are below. My favorite color of the series is the second yellow...love it!

And the last set of dyes were made by using the chinese red and a green created from the turquoise and yellow. More interesting results below.

I prefer more solid colors, so next time I try this, I will use either a 1/4 tsp. or 1/2 tsp. measure.
Now I'm thinking of taking all of these pieces and adding black. I just can't get away from that black!