Ice, Ice Baby

This morning I made made my first attempt at parfait ice dyeing. I can't find the color I am looking for in the stacks of fabric sequestered in drawers, bins and bags throughout my house so I decided to create it myself. (Of course this is bull#$%@ because I never looked and I don't have a specific color in mind. Rather, I like to try new techniques and will use any excuse.)

This process has been on my list of things to try since reading a couple of articles in Quilting Arts magazine last year and the desire was kicked into high gear when I saw the beautiful fabrics Jules lent us to use during ArtsPark.

The process is pretty simple - soda soak your fabric; scrunch, gather, twist or turn your fabric and layer in container; add layer of ice - crushed or cubes; sprinkle dye powder on ice - repeat until you have either used up all your supplies or you have reached the top of your container. Note - snow can be used in place of ice - but I live in Texas so enough said...

A few things to take into consideration - wear protective gloves when using soda ash; wear a dust mask when dealing with dye powders and spring for a bag or two of ice. Unless  you have a separate ice machine at home, the ice bin in your freezer may not hold enough ice to do more than a couple of layers.  This is what my attempt looks like after 16 hours. Most of the ice has melted on my three paltry fat quarters. I am excited to see the results after the 24 hour batching. Tomorrow I will buy some ice so I can dye the remaining fat quarters I have soaking in the bucket next to this one.

Looks good, hopefully the colors will be bright and not wash out.

 Closing tonight by sharing this lovely bouquet. It was the centerpiece on our table at the Taste of Garland. This event supports the Garland CrimeStoppers program. My friend Judy Kriehn bought a table and invited me as her guest.

Thank you Judy