A Class on Dyeing - Fabric!

This is the second year for the Road2VA Quilt show being held in Richmond, Virginia from June 24-27. I was fortunate to attend last year’s inaugural show, a cousin to the West Coast’s Road2California that has been around for over three decades, and also attended this years’ show as well.

The California show continues to draw thousands of fiber art enthusiasts, and the East Coast expansion in Richmond is growing by leaps and bounds. There is interest in having this type of large show on both coasts, I can attest to that!

When the schedule came out regarding classes and teachers several months ago, I wanted to enhance my skills in dyeing fabric. Two bee-mates, Debbi Carter and Deb Hoppe also wanted to join in onthe fun. This class was not the run-of-the-mill of dyeing a T-shirt or other garments, it was fiber artist Cindy Lohbeck from Arizona that filled her classes with fabric dyeing folks wanting to learn more skills in the dyeing process using Prepared For Dyeing (PFD) fabrics.

Over the years, there were a few quilt guild retreats where we dyed fabric. It was always fun, but long and laborious with all the rinsing and drying. It was basically taking the PFD cotton and then mixing some dyes to come up with cool colors and possibly ombre colors.

The class we all took yesterday, was more involved using various techniques for super cool outcomes of the colors (dyes) and design elements.

After rinsing and washing all my fabrics, I’ve got some fun coming up with using them in various projects - all to be determined! I love how they all turned out so far.

Here are some photos of the the show and class - The Best Daughter came with me to see the show today! Debbi Carter, Deb Hoppe, and I in the class with the last photo of me with my final rinsing before going into the washing machine. All my fabric turned out fantastic! I’d say it was all in the dyes, of course, but using other design elements and the art of folding the fabric! LOVE!!