Dyeing To Get Ready For Wooly Block Adventure!

What would you do without friends?  Friends are the ones who push you a little, tell you when you're a little TOO crazy, and they also give you an opportunity to stretch your wings.  A friend talked about wool, another talked about selling wool and another told me to blog about it.   Hmmmm, my friends are the best!

A little backstory - when I first opened the shop, I offered hand dyed and also marbled cottons.  I did all the dyeing myself and Jim helped with the marbleizing (I found it very hard to sell those, they were GORGEOUS!).  I did this for four or five years and then the store got bigger, Sara became a teenager and my free time to do things like this seemed non existent, so I put my dyeing supplies away.

An email came advertising a new Row By Row Experience™ program with wool—are you in Janet Lutz (head RXR Diva) asked?  Of course I said!  (When a friend says lets go, you go and then ask where when you’re in the car)  Wool I thought, ok I like wool, I like applique and we have a small wool department, time to beef it up.  I looked around for someone dyeing locally so we would have unique pieces and I couldn't find anything.  So out came the long unused dye books, pots, measuring spoons and all the other paraphernalia and back into the world of dyeing I went.  As Janet told me in October, I’ve fallen off the deep end . . . . right into a big dye pot.

Here’s an afternoon of dyeing needed colors for the wool display and kits we were getting ready for our Wooly Block Adventure.

The prep station—my mask is my most important tool, next is the papers that cover my kitchen counters.  Good measuring tools are a must.  

 I am sure the big orange store did not think their bucket would be used to  pre-soak wool for dyeing.  I like the “Let’s DO this.” motto.

First in the dye pot are  grays—I’m working on sand dollars and shells for a kit.  It’s looking a little purple and that’s making me nervous.

 The solid is a little purple right out of the dye pot.  Fingers crossed it’s gray enough, but not too gray, for my sand dollars.  Hoping both pieces tone down a little in the dryer.

Just what I wanted.  Happy as a clam—ok happy as a sand dollar!

 Orange is one of my favorite colors and we seem to sell a lot of orange wool.  I was on a dye diet until I saw the name Pumpkin Spice—how could I resist???  I can just  picture this as lilies or pumpkins . . . .

I’m in love . . . . I love the three different shades out of the same dye pot, I love the textures, the colors.  A lily applique is SO in my future!  Fingers crossed it dries as gorgeous as it is wet.

It did!  It did!  Love, love, love it!  An FQ of each somehow made it into my stash.  

This is a picture of our Wooly Block Adventure block called "Home Is Where You Make It".  I dyed the wool for the hermit crab and the seaweed and after what seemed to be 100 drawings, came up with something that resembled what was in my head.  I totally envy anyone with drawing ability!   You can find info about the Wooly Block Adventure by clicking here and check out their Facebook page also.  

I've gone on to dye more and more and we have quite the nice selection of hand dyed wools and kits at the shop - even if I do say so myself!  It's not as primitive as Fern would like, though I do dye colors that make her swoon and yesterday I challenged her to do something more primitive.  I like the bright, clear colors but I dye the more muted ones to keep Fern and other primitive lovers happy.  I just mailed these off to another friend . . . it was hard to let some of them go!

So that's what is happening at QP lately.  What have you been up to?