Ice Dying - What A Night We Had!

Photo credits - Katie VanTil

Wasn't that an awesome July meeting! Special thanks to guild member Melanie Rudy for her guidance along the way.

We used pre-prepared Kona cotton dying fabric. If you're sourcing it, look for Kona Prepared for Dying or Kona PFD. Ours was purchased from Along Came Quilting, who regularly stock it, but you may be able to find it elsewhere. We also used 1 litre canning jars.

These are the tutorials that Melanie talked about at the meeting.

Ice dyed Onesies in a Jar

Two-Minute Microwave Method.

Wondering if a procion dye will split?

All of them will, except the primaries! Think back to your elementary school colour wheel lessons. Everything except the primary colours (i.e., lemon yellow, turquoise blue, fire red) are made up of a combination of other colours. The same is true in the dye world. Read up on all the details in this very interesting article form Waxon. Note that the muddier-looking dyes tend to have more splits.

If you are anything like me, there will be a rabbit hole to go down, so I'm just joining to dump a bunch of links here. Thank me later (Phil)

Soda Ash - you can also use washing soda (use more) and ph up from the pool chemical dept. This will help the colours stay, and be more intense. There are several methods of application

Tamarack Shack - Ice Dyed Parfait and Snow Dying

Sarah Maker - How to Ice Dye - easy Diy tutorial, and her post on Soda Ash this is related to tie dye, but talks about several different methods.

FB Group, The process of Ice Dying Fabulous group. Test dye/swatch albums are good to check out colour splits before you buy. Great inspo posts of what others are dying.

Dharma Trading - an amazing selection of colours, although Canadian shipping can be rough. Highly recommend getting together with a friend for this one. :-)

Of course, this post wouldn't be complete without some inspiration on using ice-dyed fabric. :-)

Suzy Quilts - Using Ice Dyed Fabrics In Quilts: Interview With Brooke Biette and Brookes website Dust + Waves Textile is sooo good!

HandiQuilter had an Ice Dyes Challenge with their educators, and here are the results.

Check out Taralee Quiltery, for glimpses of icedye fabric in her quilts.