Dye Retreat 2012

I spent a week in June dying fabric with friends in East Texas. 

It's an annual event that began 39 years ago. You can read the history details here.

One of my goals was to dye a sky background for a motorcycle portrait I've been working on.

I pleated a piece of muslin and laid it in a wallpaper tray under 

the clothesline to catch the dripping dye.

I wish I had used sateen.

Another goal was to dye some shirts, baby clothes and baby blankets for gifts.

I borrowed Becky's bag of toy balls and tried my hand at dying a piece of flannel for a baby blanket.

Here's the dry flannel.

Among other things, Kathi drew with thickened dye on linen, 

and painted this large piece of sateen on the floor...

 Linda experimented with some shibori on Kaufman's new Radiance fabric (a silk/cotton blend)...

and Jill played with some deconstructed silk screening and 

made test pieces of all 10 of Dharma's new 2012 dyes.

Several friends visited during the week and Smokey the cat supervised.

I had a great time.

I still need to make room for my pile of new fabric.