Back in the dye studio!

It's been a few months since I've been in the dye studio, which is in my basement.  This winter was so cold that the ambient temperature in the basement was about 40F, and even a space heater wasn't enough to get me down there!  But spring is finally here, and also a project that spurs me to dye a bunch of colors.  I'm part of a small group of quilters who get together for a four-day retreat each year in the Chicago area.  We've recently undertaken a challenge:  to make a small work (just sewn, not quilted) for each member of the group, with the colors determined by the recipient but the style/composition determined by the maker.  As the end result, each member will have something in the style of each other person, but in colors of their own choosing.  We can then do what we want with what we've received--perhaps put them together in a quilt, pin them up on a wall, or just keep them in a drawer.  Anyway, having a list of colors requested by nine other people stimulated a week's worth of dyeing!  I dyed a half-yard each of a number of different colors; five of them ranging from turquoise through aqua to green are in the photo above; all will be lighter once they're washed out, dried, and ironed.  I'll only use a small amount of fabric for each person's block, so this will give me a lot of new colors for my stash.  While I was at it, I dyed a couple of T-shirts with tray-dyeing; one of them is in the skinny white container above.  I also dyed a couple of large pieces for quilt backings.  The last batch of 5 half-yards is sitting in cold water now.  Once that's done, I'll start the washout procedure on the week's work and will have a big reveal in a couple of days.

(By the way, if you get notification of my posts by e-mail, I updated a couple of previous posts that marked guest posts on another blog by adding the content to my own blog--so, old information for those of you who previously followed the link.)