The Dyeing class was great! 7 people let loose with ziplock bags, three yards of fabric, bottles of dye and two attentive teachers.
After we got done setting up our 9 bag run of fuschia blue yellow, we basically got a little out of control. We had three more FQ’s that were provided and they told us to do whatever we wanted. That was all the encouragement that we needed. I had brought a trashbag of fabric for overdyeing and discharging and people used some of that. I used a lot of it!
We clamped and rubberbanded etc but I mainly wanted some of those too-harsh black on white prints to be some other color.
I thought initially that this was all just too too too tidy and that I would never get to live out my dream of wearing white clothes to a dyeing class. I had worn a white tshirt that had the classic grease spot mid chest. FINALLY I saw some blue dye on my gloves. I swiped it across my chest. The teacher about flipped! NOOOOOOOOO! I smiled and wiped my other hand off. LOL Before you knew it, all the other students were coming over to wipe off their hands and tools on me.
After that and some lunch, most people left. Naomi, Sue and I stayed on. Naomi and I wanted to do some discharging (that’s the opposite of dyeing – you apply bleach to fabrics and see what happens).
Sue was just hanging out. She consolidated the dyes and the soda ash solution. That made it seem like too much good stuff to go to waste. So we went through the group stash and pulled out all these REALLY awful donated fabrics that are huge parrots, fish, fruit or flamenco dancers on white background. I think they were supposed to be appliqued on sweatshirts in the early 80’s maybe. We’d used some for stack and whack quilts and for backings.
Anyway we did quite a few big hunks of those in bright colors. Even if they come out pale, it’s better than white! We figure we’ll give them out as prizes to people who do the mystery quilt and challenge quilt! Hey, it’s hand dyed fabric.
Meanwhile Naomi and I were working on discharge. Most of my black solids went to a brilliant red except one that was a bright green.
Sue left to meet some friends. As Naomi and I were packing up, I said I was going to take my spritzer full of bleach and hit the bathrooms. Things were very clean. I was in the downstairs kitchen wiping down the counters, and about to write a note saying – don’t worry about the bleach smell, we just did a little cleaning – when I heard a funny noise and then a “MARY BETH!”
I go into this very makeshift downstairs bathroom and all I can see is water gushing over the top of the swinging door!
Naomi thought she’d follow my lead and clean the urinal in there with her left over bleach and when she flushed, the pipe above the urinal just came apart! She turned the one turnoff she could see, but it didn’t stop the water! I ran around looking for a turn off and didn’t find one either. Finally she rummaged behind a partial wall and found the turn off which was for the whole building. The only thing that helped was that there was a sump area right next to the urinal.
We called and someone from the VFW came to see what had to be done. By then we had most of the water mopped up. When I called our VFW contact, his wife seemed ever so grateful that we’d called to let them know about the problem.
All of this just goes to show that housecleaning is potentially hazardous to your health and furthermore that “let no good deed go unpunished” is very very true. Naomi’s best comment “YOU’re the one in the swimsuit – why am I the one who’s sopping wet????”
Anyway, the VFW fellow wasn’t at all upset, he was glad we had it all mopped up and he was already calling other guys when we left!
Thus endeth our dyeing fabric day.
