Salt Dyeing

Firstly, the Disclaimer!
I am no expert on this....just listened to a lady explaining & demo-ing it and had a play at home.  This is really about the use of salt - not to explain anything about dyeing fabric.

I grabbed a bit of white fabric and washed/rinsed it in dishwashing liquid....because it was handy...use normal laundry liquid if you prefer - it's just to remove whatever is on the fabric.  Leave it wet.

Make up some coloured solution - Use dye if you have it - I used acrylic paint and added a drop of blue food colouring.  If you use acrylic paint - you may need to stir it very thoroughly or - as suggested by the lady demo-ing it - strain it - to remove any blobs of paint.

Soak the fabric in the solution.  Leave for as long as you need to to get the colour you want.  Remove - squeeze out the excess liquid and lay out - I put mine on baking (parchment) paper.

Now the fun part.
Sprinkle salt over the fabric....
I used Rock salt on the bottom area - ground rock salt on the top area
You can also use cooking salt, or Epsom salts.  I am sure salt flakes would be interesting too - I was just using what I had in my pantry for my test piece...but might buy some salt flakes for another time.  I also added Bicarb of Soda on the top...I wonder if it made a difference?

Because the salt draws in the colour - you get bigger "bubbles" from the rock salt than from table or cooking salt.  (Hence thinking that flakes would be good.)

Here is the side I put the salt on

Here is the "back".

I mean to turn this into an underwater scene....one day...

Chookshed Stitchers 2024 Challenge - #1 - July - Finished

Back here - I posted my almost-finished Block Holder.

I have now added the corflute boards and felt pages.  I made this big enough to be able to transport my 20.5" ruler.  Ideally a pocket for the ruler would have been good....but I decided that I could just tie it in for its rare trips out of the sewing room!

Milo's Quilt - RSC 2023

My grandchildren get an I Spy quilt when they turn 2.
Luka's is here and Peyton's is here

Now it's Milo's turn.

in 2023 - for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, I made two blocks of novelty fabrics in each colour with a plan to make these into quilts for Milo and Montana.

Making the blocks was relatively easy - though I had to 'beg" a few fabrics in some colours.  Then I had to add 144 3.5" squares!!!   I have a fairly large collection of novelty fabrics, a friend gave me all of her collection....but I was still struggling to get enough...(remember I was making 2 quilts....)...and I found a lady on Facebook who was selling pre-cut squares, so I purchased a bunch from her.  As I was finishing the quilt, I found a few repeats, so swapped them out....but I stopped looking closely in case I found more!

Although Milo turned 2 in August - he lives in Townsville and I wasn't keen on trusting the quilt to the postal service if I could avoid it.  We are off to Townsville on Tuesday for some Nana & Pa cuddles, so the deadline was set! 

For the backing, I chose an alphabet panel showing various fish and sea creatures (Milo's dad is a keen fisherman) and an indigenous-inspired pattern that looks a bit like waves...(well, in my mind)

The fish panel is "Deep Blue Sea by Stephanie Peterson Jones" 

and includes some questionably named fish....

Cowfish, Lumpfish, IcebBlue Zebra fish, Unicornfish, Rabbitfish,
Quillback rockfish.  I googled them and they really do exist!
(Fortunately)

The backing:

I have less than 12 months to make the second one like this for Montana.  Wonder what I will find for backing for her...her dad is also a keen fisherman.