I have not dyed this summer. And I’ll not be dyeing this autumn either. Why all this lack of dyeing? What’s going on?

My dyeing education began in 1973 when I worked in a costume shop at my college. By 1985 I had set up a dye shop in my home dyeing fabric for clothing. Soon I was dyeing fabric for quilt makers and my students when I became a peripatetic teacher in the early 90’s. (Gad! I’m old!)

But now my travel and teaching schedule is reduced to once, maybe twice a year. I don’t need to dye fabric or threads for my students. My personal stash of hand-dyed fabric is stacked high. And my threads use to create art runneth over. So, no. I’m dyeing for you anymore.

So this is your fair warning. I’m not replenishing the threads available for sale on the Artfabrik website. Once the thread size or colorway sells out there shall be no more.

Now is your chance to add beautiful hand-dyed threads to your stash before they are gone. And to get you motivated to stitch, I’ll include a free skein of thread (my choice of color and size) with any purchase over $100.

Here is what I do to make my art. I dye. I iron. I cut. I sew. We are now at the dyeing stage of my artwork. For the next few weeks, I’m dyeing thread for the Artfabrik shop and myself.

My list consists of 31 Artfabrik colorways to dye. The process begins with taking an inventory of the size 8 and 12 pearl cotton threads needed to restock the Artfabrik shelves. Then I begin the process of mixing Procion MX dye powders with water to make the dye stock. (Remember to put the lid on the blender!)

Next is painting the white pearl cotton threads. Each colorway has its own color sequence. (This one is called October Fest.) Sometimes I mix the basic dye stock colors together to get a secondary color. At other times I dilute the dye stock with water to achieve a lighter value of the color. It’s a lot of measuring and whining when I get it wrong.

Then there is the whining about washing them out by hand. It’s a bad idea to throw thread into the washing machine to rid it of excess dye. I know, because I’ve tried it.

So the thread is washed by hand. I collect buckets of water from the washer as I wash clothes or fabric using that water for the initial rinse of the threads. After 5-15 buckets of water or so, I can use clean water to rinse it out. This is usually my morning work out.

The thread bundles must air dry before I begin to twist and label each skein. So you see, dyeing can take weeks. But the colors are worth it!