Indigo makes me happy

     Years ago, I bought a 10" Moda pack with Shibori fabric and sewed them all into HSTs. One quilt was made and given away long ago. 

     I finally finished the second one and quilted it. For the backing, I used indigo fabric I dyed over a year ago as an experiment in dyeing. It was not as dark as I wanted it, and I put together all the half yards for the backing. I love the backing and the front. Indigo is tough to dye, and although I love it, I don't think I am capable of dyeing my own.

Before quilting

Quilted, inside shot

Quilted, outside shot

Quilted back, inside shot

Back quilted, outside

     I just found Moda has made a new bundle of Indigo which I immediately bought on sale from Green Fairy. I am glad I jumped on it, because they are already out of stock. I love indigo!

Love the indigo, but...

      I have a good friend who is a quilter and a former art teacher, like me. We are program co-chairs for our quilt guild. She has been wanting to indigo dye some fabric. Me, I would rather buy it from a dyer like Vicki. She bought a kit and white fabric and told me I needed to do it so we could share our experience with our guild. I stalled all summer and, finally, acquiesced last week. We bundled, clamped, rubber banded, etc. yards of Kona white ppd. We followed the directions and it is quite a miracle how yellow green water makes indigo when you pull the fabric out. 
     I am sharing some of the photos here as I tried to document what we did, but wet gloves and hurrying got them out of order. I did not include the too much white ones. Our biggest issue: folded fabric doesn't let the dye penetrate enough. We did not want much white fabric left. We wanted more indigo color. Elizabeth also stitched some designs, and they did not show up well. I loved the wine bottle shiboris. One I wrapped horizontally and scrunched down and the other, on a diagonal.
     So, okay, here is the rub: How do I cut these up for quilting without losing the designs? I am not making a quilt out of these as panels. Big HSTs? Just squares. I don't know. I do love the indigo color but I am wondering if using indigo color fiber reactive dye might work better. I think if I can get past the how do I use it, I might make- or rather buy- more indigo dyed fabric.

Diagonal wrap on bottle

Horizontal wrap on bottle