Another Way to Have Fun in the Snow

I had begun to get a little itchy at this time of the year to get back to dyeing some fabric, but the basement workroom is too cold for me to spend much time in--and too cold, I thought, for the dyes.  But then I heard about snow dyeing and had to try it. Beth Hartford has a good intro to the process at http://quiltersstitchtogether.blogspot.com/2010/01/my-version-of-snow-dye-process.html

 We had quite a bit of snow on the ground; it had been there a while and was fairly wet from the warmer temperatures of the week--good packing snow, perhaps too good for dyeing but I couldn't wait.  So three days ago, on Friday I mixed up some soda ash, soaked some fabric and got started.

I used five of those plastic bins that salad greens come in--knew I was saving them for something!  And I crumpled up about a yard of fabric in each.  Then out I went and filled each to the brim with firmly packed snow.

I had mixed up some dyes and just chose some of my favorite colors without really thinking about how they would play together, but the suggestion was to use two colors in each.  So I began to add color.

A I poured on some forest green, but thought I might need a bit more control so I put the deep purple in a squirt bottle and squirted it on.

B forest green again with some old brilliant blue; both poured on.

C amethyst and lemon yellow both squirted on and some mist gray poured on.  Couldn't help adding a third color.

D deep purple and amethyst plus a little mist gray

E deep purple and lemon yellow squirted on with dots of amethyst

The dye immediately started to migrate through the snow to the fabric below.  But then I had to wait for the snow to melt. . . . .