Camp Quilting Arts: Dyeing Fabric Outside – Quilting Daily

Our best-selling online course is back and better than ever! APQS Longarm Certification Sponsored by Quilting Daily has been revised and updated. Not only will you learn how to make beautiful quilts, you’ll also gain skills to turn your passion into a paycheck with tips on how to run your own quilting business.

This past weekend we dropped my youngest son off at camp for his last year as a camper. As you can imagine, this was a bittersweet moment. While we celebrate his anticipation of spending six glorious weeks in the Connecticut wilderness, we’re sad to think he’s growing up and next year will have a much different summer. Wouldn’t it be great to have a summer camp experience every year? It has been many years since I attended camp, but this year I’m planning my own backyard version, complete with fun activities to inspire artistic exploration and spark the creative muse.

The first backyard “Camp Quilting Arts” session took place this week and featured projects from past QA magazines. Camp Counselor Carol Ludington led 12 quilters in a gradation dyeing project. In preparation for the day, I acted as her Counselor in Training and mixed 6 jars of dye concentrate, two gallons of soda ash solution, and cut 9 yards of fabric into fat quarters.  In addition, I had help preparing 36 skeins of floss to toss into the dye baths.

The campers arrived early, enthusiastic for a morning of dyeing, and a bit hungry. Good thing we had a hearty breakfast planned. Debbie and Alice acted as camp chefs and provided a great spread. Many hands make light work!

After setting goals for the morning, reviewing safety practices, and donning plastic gloves, we got started.

The fabric dyeing was done in quart-sized plastic bags, with 4-5 gradation steps per color. We quickly learned that we needed to set up an “assembly line” process, with one person measuring dye and pouring it into a bag, another camper adding the fabric and thread to the dye, and a third in charge of sealing the bags and organizing them for batching. We all rotated through the stations so we each were able to take part. And let’s not forget recording our process and results! Alice was our official note taker.

Again, many hands made light (and colorful!) work.

Aren’t the resulting fabrics gorgeous?

I hope you are playing along and having fun in your inside and outside studios this summer. Stay tuned to learn about what we make with our gorgeous fabrics (Hint: We’ll be making a charity quilt from Jemima Flendt’s new book, Weekend Quilting). I bet you can guess which one <3.)

Best,

Vivika

Get your copy of Quilting Arts Magazine to start earning your camp badges!

Other topics you may enjoy:

Related Articles

Join the Conversation!