Custom Dyed Gradients

One of my favorite things about dyeing fabric is getting a request for something custom. Occasionally I am unable to do do what they want, but when it comes to custom dyed gradients I can usually meet the challenge.

Here's one I just finished last week. Barbara sent me that narrow strip from a commercial print gradient and I created this hand dyed version that closely approximated the colors.

These custom order can take a while though. Sometimes I need to go through a couple of dye cycles to test blends to get the colors just right.

I can also create gradients oriented lengthwise. In January I created a 3 yard version of Blue Sky with the customer specifying exactly where he wanted the darkest color offset from the center gradating to the palest colors at the cut edge. He's using it as a background for a 6' aquarium.

The most interested lengthwise gradient that I've done so far is for this spectacular quilt made by Cheryl and her sister, Joyce. Cheryl is a wonderful longarm quilter and she and Joyce split duties on this one. Cheryl sent me some swatches of the reds and blues and I created the gradient that she used on the border. By dyeing the gradient along the length of the fabric she only had to make 4 cuts for that simple-to-piece border. You can read more about the quilt on Cheryl's blog.

If you have made something with my fabric I'd love to see it. You can send photos to me or upload them to my customer Flickr group. Once a month I draw a name from the entries and that person gets a 3-month 25% shop discount.

Posted at 01:56 PM in Customer Work, Dyeing and Painting | Permalink