Is it Earth Day Already?

For awhile there this environmentalist was feeling a little jaded.  Last summer I was gung-ho on green crafting, searching for gorgeous and environmentally friendly fabric, and actually using my scraps for something.  In truth, all I've done are a few dying experiments and a spreadsheet on energy and water use associated with quilting.  Beyond getting wrapped up in being a mom to two gorgeous babies, I simply got excited to quilt.  Oh, and that spreadsheet is on the old, old computer currently in storage.  

Having spent my entire professional career working on environmental issues (climate change, sustainability, and green energy) it kind of made me mad that it all seemed, well, trendy.  It was eco-this and green-that. Sure, it was  good to get so many of the issues in the public eye, but so much of it was greenwashing. I was just about to really burn out on it all when the economy went to pot and that news replaced anything environmental.  Hmm, not sure what's better.

I did, however, go through my posts and was reminded that I promised a shot of garbage. Okay, the exact waste from the construction of one baby quilt, not garbage.  This was absolutely everything leftover from the project.  Useful or not, it's all here.  The leftover spool was recycled. The thread and tiny bits of fabric were left outside for the squirrels as they built their nests.  I sorted through all the fabric scraps into useable and non-usable scraps.  There wasn't much in the way of batting scraps because I cut it from a much larger batt.  And yes, I threw out the rest of it - I don't do much other stuff in the way of crafting to even use it.

Since my tirade a year ago I do have to say that I've changed a little.  Maybe it's because I've done a lot of quilting in the last year?  Maybe some of that trendiness started affecting me.  Either way, I've been looking at my scraps with a keener eye.  And I've become more aware of waste from quilting before I even produce it:  I am even more careful when I cut, thinking about what the leftover pieces might be useful for (doll quilts!); and I cut all batts from one king size batt until their are no usable pieces (7 quilts from the last one!).  Now, to get back to that dying.

Natural Dying - Nanking Cherries

Here is the second round in my natural dying experiment. I picked the nanking cherries off the bush in front of both ours and the neighbour's house. These tiny red Prairie cherries are a staple in my life. We had a bush in our yard growing up. Actually, it is still producing cherries at my parents' house. Usually one of the first things to bloom, the flowers are a tender pink in the spring. By August you have juicy, dime sized cherries with a small pit. Sure, they are a little tart, but they make an excellent jelly. I realized after the fact that I should have taken a picture of the cherries, but you can still check them out.

This time I used an unbleached muslin and a scrap of plain white cotton. The top photo is the before shot. For the dye I used the mash again, mixed with some juice. I made the juice by boiling down about 3 cups of berries with a few cups of water. I ended up with 3 cups of juice, 2 of which went to making some sherbet. The dye was an orange-pink colour.

To prepare the fabric I decided to treat it with a mordant, alum. Alum is toxic, if you eat a tablespoon or more. But considering it is sold in the spice aisle at the grocery store and is approved as a food additive, I decided it fit into my efforts at natural dying. I simmered the fabric in the mordant solution of 2 tablespoons alum to about 6 or 7 cups water. I know, I should measure and give you more precise instructions, but this was done after the girls went to bed. The fabric simmered for an hour while I simmered the dye solution about the same time.

After soaking in the mordant I squeezed out the excess water, but did not rinse the fabric. Then I added it to the dye and simmered for another hour, stirring to make the colour a bit more even. After an hour I turned off the burner and went to bed. This is what it looked like the following afternoon. We decided to go swimming, so I never got to it in the morning.

From that vibrant colour I got this pale pink. This is it after a few rinses with cold water.

This is it when it dried. The unbleached cotton is on the left.

I've decided to try a few more items, sticking to traditional Prairie materials. My next experiment will be with the berries of the mountain ash tree.

Natural Dyeing - Black Currants

Inspired by the look of the jellybags when I made black currant juice I decided to try some natural dyeing the other day. I saw this post on Crafting a Green World ages ago, so I had some direction.

I chose two different fabrics to see how each would take the dye. The one on the left is a traditional white on white and the one on the right an unbleached thick muslin. I first simmered them in a mixture of 8 cups water with 1/2 cup salt for an hour. I only had kosher salt and fleur de sel in the house, so kosher salt it was. The salt is supposed to act as a mordant, encouraging the dye from the juice to stay on the fabric. While that was simmering I took the mash (the berries) from the blackcurrant juice making and simmered that in some more water. Sorry, but I wasn't wasting (as I saw it) the blackcurrant juice on this experiment.


Here is the fabric just as I immersed it in the dye. I simmered the fabric for another hour on the stove. Then I shut it off and let it sit overnight.

Don't you love the colour? Here is the fabric in the morning, just as I took it out of the dye.

And here it is after a couple of rinses. The running subsided, but it was still running so I added some white vinegar to help set the colour. Unfortunately, that seemed to encourage more running... So I gave it one more rinse and put it outside to dry.

This is the end result. More grey/mauve than purple. I would hesitate to put this in a quilt that is going to be washed, but it is still pretty enough to be used in a wall hanging

If I was willing to try some non-toxic methods for dying I've had great results with the Procion dyes, but this was an experiment with non-toxic, natural dyes. I've done a bit more research since then and it seems that cottons are the worst at taking on natural dyes without a good mordant. But most of the literature seems to recommend using alum or other heavy metals as a mordant. Alum arguably non-toxic, but it isn't a gaurantee.

I am going to try some more natural dyes - nanking cherries, turmeric, and maybe some beets and onion skins. I'll keep you posted.

Just Made It

Whew, it got done. Well, sort of. I still have to sew on the sleeve and finish the binding. I did get it entered in the contest, though. I really like the quilting on this one, it pops.

So now, I need your votes. Go to the Craftster site between now and August 31 to vote. You will have to scroll through the entries for the craft contest to find mine. I hope that mine is the one you like the best! There are some... interesting entries. Lots of creative ideas, that's for sure.