Snow Dyed

We have very little snow left but back when we had some a friend and I did a quick bit of snow dying. My friend's 2 pieces of fabric in the snow bank.

My fabric in the snow bank.

Mine fabrics on the left side and my friends 2 are on the right side. 

Dyed Again

The dying workshop in Oct got me to dig out the dyes again. I had not done any the past year. So some of this was done after the class and the T shirt was done in class. 

The T shirt was snow dye. Yes we had snow in the middle of Oct. I was wanting some pastel colours and I am pleased with what I got. It took me a few weeks to get the photo because it was in the wash. 

This one is pole wrapped. It had been done twice but still had so much white. I dyed it again so a 3rd time. Love how it is now. 

Pole wrapped twice dyed

This one was folded in half and then dyed on a rope. I wish the dark part was on the outer edges and more broken up. Might have to try again.

Pole wrapped dyed twice.

I used little rocks and veggie elastics to make the rings. I am not sure I like this one. I might over dye it again.  

Pole wrapped twice dyed

Pole wrapped twice or 3 times dyed. 

Finished Fabric Friday

I got my snow dyed fabric washed out and photos taken. I had nine 1 meter pieces of fabric but really did not like one. It still needs washing out. Here are the eight finished ones. 

I have used Kona PFD fabric to dye these days.

I swirled this one in the snow before adding snow on top or dye.

 Not crazy about the one above, may over dye it or just chop it up.

I have added this post to Crazy Mom Quilts,  and Richard's Linky #50's and Confessions of a Fabric Addict

I love this blue one.

I have a very busy weekend full of dog related actives. Tonight I have an Agility workshop with an out of town teacher, Saturday is the last day of Agility fun league and then I may go to Dock Dogs at the Pet Expo. Not sure if I will enter Lex or just go and watch. My dog habit is costing me so much money I am having to buy less fabric.

Snow Dying

As we have had a little warm spell and the snow was melting yesterday. I thought I would snow dye some fabric.  I also got the timer to work and took a photo of myself knelling by the fabric.

It was sunny and warm yesterday, just look at the great blue sky we had. No sun today just grey.

I hope this one turns out. I placed the fabric with a spin and have laid out the fabric with a plaid like pattern.

I am off the wash the nine pieces out now.

I have added this to Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday and Needle and Thread Network WIP Wednesday.

Snow Dyed Results from April

Back in April, before my little visit to the hospital, I got some fabric dyed in the snow. Here are my results. I have many pale blue and purple ones because I used all I had in my sales box. I wanted to replace it all. I also have one larger piece (60x80) to use as a backing on a lap quilt. It turned out great. I am pleased such a large piece turned out so well.

I was kind of hoping for snow in May (got lots last year). Then I could snow dye again. I have my bedding plants bought and plan to get them in the ground Saturday, so now I really do not want snow till December.

New Surface Design Group - Snow Dying

 I have a new Surface Design group started out of the Edmonton Quilter's Guild. We are going to meet the second Friday of the month in each others homes or yards. There are five of us. Our first gathering was earlier this month and we only have three of us this first day. I hope we will have all five next month and talk more about what we are going to do. I really want to meet over the summer months and do some dyeing and painting outside.

 Here is a couple of the girls dying fabric and taking photos of what we have done. I led the small group in Snow dying fabric in melting snow outside. We do not get much time we can snow dye outside. I did a lot of meters last year this way. It leaves the mess outside. Our outside temp was about 6 C this day.  We left our fabric outside for about four hours ( 11 till 3).

 Here is Dawna adding dye to a snow cover piece of fabric. We had large hills of snow, so we made shelves in the snow to place our fabric. We had presoaked the fabric in soda ash. Then we placed a meter of fabric in the snow. We crimped or pleated the fabric. We covered it with snow and then covered it with dyes.

Yes I am behind in making blog posts, sorry. I have had the most busy two weeks. I hope to get caught up in what I have been doing. I have much time to rest now. On Friday I had gall bladder surgery so I am not doing much. Time to get some paper work done, play on the computer, and taxes soon.

Snow Dyed Baby Quilt

It is snowing again. We had a foot of snow last weekend. Now we are getting more. We are running out of room to plow all this snow. The fields are to deep to walk in. I think it may blow later in the week and we will have to plow again.

Here is a close up of a baby quilt my mom Betty pieced and I quilted. Most of the fabric is snow dyed by me. The Dark blue and the boarder are batiks. The blue was snow dyed and then over dyed again. The pinks and peachy are just out of the snow bank and washed. I have machine quilted it with leaves and butterflies. It is a gift for a little girl, a friend of the family.


My internet is down and been that way for a week. I am at mom's to down load emails and make this post. I had hoped to make a post about my every day journal every Thur. I have a page done and other drawing done. I will have to make a post another day.

Snow Dyed Results

Pink and yellow snow dyed fabric. Each of the fabrics are 1 meter in size.
Blue snow dyed - I think it was pleated not just lumped in the snow.
I love this purple snow dyed piece.
Here are some of the fabrics I dyed in the snow this spring.

Green and pink purple - kind of a different piece.

Snow Dyeing Fabric again

On May 4th yesterday we got a good spring snow storm. Here is a photo off the back deck at about 9 am. It kept snowing here for another couple hours. The nearest weather station - the Edmonton International Airport reported a record snow fall 17mm. We need the moisture so badly I will not get to upset. Now the wind is not blowing I can also go dye some fabric in the snow again.
Here are my tools for snow dying.
I have pleated this fabric and then loosely rolled the pleated fabric.

I then place snow on top of the fabric and add the dye on top of the snow.
The top peice is mostly navy and some royal blue.
Here is some of the piles of dyed snow with fabric under. I hope this works today. The other days I did this the temperature was warmer( 8 to 14C) today's high is only 2C. The dye is taking longer to work down to the fabric. I have 14 meters in the snow today. One piece is a extra large piece with the plan that I will use it for a backing.

Dyeing fabric with horses

This is my horse checking out the fabric in his pasture. I have been dyeing fabric in snow banks. I get great texture on my fabric. Now that it is spring, there is less and less snow. This snow bank is some of the last snow we have. There is a snow fence in the pasture, so the snow has gathered here. Last week we got more snow and lots of blowing on Thursday. Check out April 6th post if you want to see more snow dyeing. I hope to take more photos of the finished fabric. I am washing it now.

Snow Dyeing Fabric

I have spent the last two days dyeing fabric outside in some snow banks. Here I am standing around my field of dyed fabric. Like I am farming. Plant then in the snow with dye (fertilizer) and come back a few hours later to harvest.
I have been using 1 meter of cotton that has been soaked in soda ash solution. I like this spring snow bank idea, works only when warm spring day. I lay the fabric out on the snow with hills and valleys.
I start to cover the fabric with snow. Get all the fabric covered. Taking note were my fabric ends.
My dyes are mixed and in squeeze jars. I have 1 Tablespoon of dye and about 1 1/2 cups H2O. I have made some mixes and some diluted solutions as well. I do fly by the seat of my pants and just mix at times. A bucket of warm water was very useful to wash cold gloved hands.
Squeeze bottle dye on to the snow. With some time and the warm sun the dye moves down to the fabric.

I also did some in trays and some in buckets. I did not like this as well but if the air temperature was not warm, I could bring these in to warm up and the dye can still get to the fabric. My snow bank fabrics were nicer than the bucket and tray dyeing. I also hate washing out the buckets - we do not have the water hoses hocked up yet (freezing at night still), so I have to hall the bucket inside to washout.
Here are 12 fabrics planted for dying. This is the snow bank at the bottom of my parent's driveway. There is a few rocks and grass on the top but not bad snow if a dig down a bit.
More planted fabrics in the hay field north of the trees.

I am going to Calgary at the end of the month to sell fabric. I have a booth at the Quilt Canada Market mall. I hope to get much more fabric done. I got 10 done yesterday and 24 done today. I have a few that need another layer of dye to be better.
Purple snow dye fabric. These are all for sale.
Blue snow dye
Orange snow dye.

I have many other dyed and painted fabrics that I am working on. And the dyed thread. So keep looking back this month and in May. I will have to post some in May as my life is very busy now.