A bit of dyeing

I've been meaning to try dyeing in a plastic bag for ages, but just never got round to it.

I've been going to a patchwork class for a few months, it's a quilt-as-you-go sampler quilt, which I haven't blogged about yet. I was really reluctant to spend lots of money on the fabric for the backing, so I thought I'd have a go at dyeing in a plastic bag. There's a really good tutorial for graduated dyeing on the Fibre and Stitch website, but I decided not to try graduated dyeing and just used one colour. The one fabric I have in abundance is cotton curtain lining left from when I was a curtain maker, so I had a go, and apart from only using one dye, I did what the tutorial says. It worked really well , except when I washed the pieces in the washing machine after I dyed them, they lost a lot of their texture. But I am pleased with the colour and am using them to back my quilt.

Then I booked to go to a class "Accidental landscapes" at Puddleducks, my local patchwork shop. Because I'm a very new quilter, I don't have a stash (yet) and thought this was the perfect opportunity for a bit of graduated dyeing. Once again it's curtain lining, and this time I didn't wash the pieces in the washing machine after they had been dyed

The first set of bags were blue through to yellow, and here is the result.

Then I did a set black through to orange, but I forgot to take a picture of these. Once they had been rinsed, I tore them in half and then put one half of each into what was left in the blue/yellow bags, and below is the result.

For a first attempt, I was really pleased with these. The class was fun, and although it isn't finished, this is what I did.

I'm not very pleased with the design - I find it very difficult to make a 'real' landscape out of my head, but really enjoyed the technique. I shall carry on with it. The one thing I am pleased with is how well the colours go together.