Overdyeing Quilt

Figure, I've got a bunch of pictures of projects I've worked on over the last few months....to pack into one big long diatribe of a post.  But maybe I'll just start with the one I'm most excited about because I just finished it.

After reading Oh, Fransson!'s entry on overdyeing, I had to give it a try.  I loved the look of her dyed fabric against the white:

I started cutting up this fabric that I happened upon at JoAnn's that I thought might be perfect!

Used my rotary cutter to cut out 6 inch wide strips.

Followed these directions on dyeing a color wheel using dye and soda ash that I picked up at JoAnn's as well.  

Color wheel of dyes

Drying in the bathroom after rinsing them out...

I think next time I'll be a little more precise when I go to dole out my reds, because these ended up coming out such similar colors.  I think the red seemed to easily overwhelm the yellow dye.

As expected, the yellow showed the details of the print on the fabric best.

Then it was time to get to work cutting and piecing....and this is what I ended up with: 

I really liked Oh Fransson!'s piecing because it looked like it had more movement in it and had a kind of retro-feel, but I decided I wanted to show off the color gradation more.  At this point too, I'd decided who I was going to make the quilt for.  My coworker Kristen was getting married, so I thought a wedding quilt would be a nice gift.  (I didn't really mean for it to come 4 months late though....but better late than never!)  Adam helped me decide how the blocks looked best.

I thought it might be nice to embroider in their names and their wedding date.

I chose a light blue fabric with a small vine and heart-flowers print in white in it for the backing.  I was going to just use the pre-dyed fabric to bind the quilt, but it was an odd pale turquoise and didn't look quite right.  Thought maybe the same fabric I used for the backing....but that just seemed kind of boring.  So I had some leftover turquoise and green damask that I'd just used to make an apron....I think it turned out pretty cool.  I think (hope) it helps to make it not look so old fashioned and adds a little interest.

 

I can't wait to give it to her on Monday!