Homemade Butternut Dye

On a recent trip to Grandma's house, the kids helped make homemade butternut dye the way they used to back in the Civil War.  My aunt found the recipe here. 

Here are the walnut shell pieces in the pot.

The bottom t-shirt is white, the top 2 are butternut.

 

People also used coffee and tea to color fabric or crochet doilies like this one:

 

Dye Plastic Buttons

Dyeing buttons is not something I usually think of, but here is a tutorial from Rit Dye for dying ordinary plastic buttons.  It sounds simple and easy.  On the website, there are other projects too.

Quilt Festival Entry-2009

I made this quilt for my sister's first baby (she had a girl). I am not a traditional hand quilter. I prefer to just start throwing fabric in a pile to see what goes together. I then start sewing pieces together and go with it wherever it takes me. This one is about 45"x45", a good size for a baby quilt. She can spread it on the floor for play time or cuddle up under it for reading. Mostly, I want it to be used and enjoyed! I like to use clothing fabric, home dec and quilting cottons all together because I think it adds interest. I dyed the purple myself in a jar of jello. I think it is such a cheerful happy quilt.

This is an entry in the quilt festival- http://parkcitygirl.blogspot.com

Tie-Dyed T-Shirts

This weekend, the family did some tie-dying with a kit by Jacquard. It had easy to follow directions with lots of photos. It was a two day process, giving the dye time to soak in. The colors turned out great! Using just magenta, yellow and blue we ended up with these! We chose 100% cotton for best results and soaked the fabric in soda ash (included). This was a fun, fairly easy project that we are proud to wear! Check out http://www.jacquardproducts.com/ and their "Funky Groovy Tie Dye Kit".