Ice Cube Dyeing

     Beth Bleasdale gave a short workshop on dying fabric with ice cubes at Bonnie's store "Sew With Vision", Halifax ... we used the parking lot out behind the new store location. After soaking our fabric pieces in a soda ash solution for 20 minutes and wringing it out, we placed our fabric pieces on a rack in a plastic tray, and drowned them in ice cubes. I chose a mid-blue and a mid-green colour (can't remember the actual colour names) and lightly sprinkled the dye powder over the ice cubes.

     It looks pretty dark here ... the blue powder turned almost black.   

 Everything was left overnight to melt ... by having the fabric sit on a small rack above the bottom of the tray, it allows the ice cubes & dye to drip through and the fabric won't be sitting in a bath of all of the colours together (unless, of course, you'd prefer that.)
     On the 2nd day, we "discovered" our masterpieces!  and repeatedly rinsed them out in cool water until the water ran clear.  At home, I gave my fabric samples an extra salt-water bath to secure the colours before hanging them out to dry.

                             I love the turquoise ... didn't expect it. The picture (taken in the sun outside) doesn't do the colours justice.   

     I didn't expect the purply colour and thought that the green would have been a bit darker, but overall, I am pleased with the results.  In hindsight, instead of crumpling all 4 fabric pieces, I should have tried different methods of folding for each to see how that would impact the dye saturation ... (twisting the fabric, flat folds, circles with elastics or thread holding them in place ... kind of like tye-dying of the '70's.)
     So ... will I do this again? Most definitely! This might give me more of the variations I need in producing 'water' colours for some of the art quilts.  I have some liquid fabric dye already & will try the same methods to see the difference between liquid & powder dyes.
     Beth says she gets her powdered dyes from www.dharmatrading.com ... I've been checking out their website to consider my next purchase!! I will also need to find a source for soda ash.
     Thank you Beth & Bonnie for a chance to try something new!