Dyed Embellishment Experiment

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Instructions

This is just a simple sampler using dyed embellishments. This is just a simple sampler using dyed embellishments.

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Difficulty:

Category: Quilting

Type of item: Functional

For: Other

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Materials

Buttons, chenille tape, yarn, lace, cowrie shell batting, roving, paper, beads, fabric, decorative thread

What was your inspiration?

I saw a segment of Quilting Arts T.V. in which an artist dyed a number of different objects in one dye bath. I had a bottle of purple Rit dye on hand so thought I would give it a try. I dyed watercolor paper, roving, lace, chenille tape, buttons, batting, 2 ply yarn and even a little cowrie shell. I left everything in the dye bath for about 5 minutes and then left them to air dry. Since I didn't really have a plan to use any these objects, I decided to make a sampler to hang on the wall of my quilt studio for future inspiration. All of the embellishments except the beads and the little fused glass mask were dyed.

The top two squares are needle-felted: The one on the left is the yarn and batting with some beads and the one on the left is the roving over some of the paper with a fused glass mask. The middle right square is paper stitched onto the fabric with some beads and a paint stick scribble. The middle left is the chenille tape with a dyed button. The bottom right is lace stitched onto the batting -- cowrie shell in the middle. The bottom left is the 2 ply yarn couched onto the square with some dyed buttons.

What advice would you give someone starting this project?

It will take some experimentation to get the shades you want on different objects -- one button took the dye very well, the others and the shell less so, but they did all take some color.