FREE Quilting Patterns, Tutorials, Magazine

Disappearing 4 patch blocks get extra texture with hand dyed fabrics

Disappearing 4 patch blocks get extra texture with hand dyed fabrics

by Allison Spence

Yesterday on QUILTsocial I showed you how to add a pop of color to children’s clothes using Dylon Permanent Fabric Dyes. Actually, all week long I’ve been sharing how great Dylon Multi-Purpose Dyes and Permanent Fabric Dyes are for making your projects one-of-a-kind.

Dylon Permanent Fabric Dye in Intense Violet is wonderful for hand dyeing cotton fabrics.

Dylon Permanent Fabric Dye

Today I’m sharing my latest quilting adventure. I’m making a simple disappearing 4 patch quilt for a lovely young lady who is soon to graduate from high school. Her favorite colors are purple and grey, but I was having trouble finding enough fabrics in these colors to make her quilt. So, I decided to hand dye my own fabrics for the project.

The lovely purple and greys hand dyed with Dylon Permanent Fabric dyes show up beautifully in Marina's grad quilt.

Marina’s grad quilt

For this pattern, I needed 8 fat quarters in each of purple and gray. I decided that I would dye whole meters/yards of fabric but try to get as much texture as I could in the fabric.

I used Dylon Permanent Fabric Dyes in Intense Violet. Halfway through the dyeing process, I added a second piece of fabric to the dye solution. The dark purple turned out great, but I found that the light purple just didn’t have enough texture to it. So I thought I would overdye it.

Two shades of fabric dyed with Intense Violet dye from Dylon Permanent Fabric Dyes. The lighter was achieved by putting the fabric in the dye bath halfway though the dyeing time.

Fabric dyed with Intense Violet dye

I started by throwing the fabric into another dye batch I had going. It was the wrong purple, more blue than purple, and just didn’t look right. So, I overdyed it again! The resulting purple is a bit bluer than the first due to the second dye that I used but I got some subtle texture with my third try.

The grey fabric and the larger piece of light purple fabric were over dyed with Intense Violet dye from Dylon Permanent Fabric Dyes.

Fabrics over dyed with Intense Violet dye

While I was dyeing this piece of fabric, I decided that I would add some texture to the plain gray I had planned to use. I added the solid gray that I had from Northcott Colorworks Premium solids, color 93 into the dye bath, and am pleased with the final result of all 3 fabrics.

Making the block

To make the blocks, I cut 6″ squares and made purple and gray 4 patch blocks. Since this is to be a gift from both hubby and I, he did all the pressing for me. I cut the 4 patch blocks into thirds, re-arranged and sewed them back together. Here’s a video that I found online that explains how to make this easy block:

Disappearing 4 Patch Quilt Block Tutorial – YouTube

Jenny Doan shares the awesome, but easy Disappearing 4 Patch technique using charm squares (5″ squares of pre-cut fabric).

A disappearing 4 patch block made with fabrics hand dyed with Dylon Permanent Fabric Dye.

Disappearing 4 patch block

This quilt went together quickly and in no time at all, we had a spectacular, one of a kind quilt for a very special graduate!

The quilt top measured 50″ x 70″ when complete. As you can see I quilted a feather design all over it using my longarm quilting machine.

The texture of the quilting in Marina's quilt shows up so well when it's outside in the sun.

Marina’s quilt in the sunshine

I love the texture I can get from dyeing my own fabrics as well as the texture I get from quilting my own projects.

The texture shows both from the fabric dyeing with Dylon Permanent Fabric Dyes and the quilting.

Texture from dyeing and quilting

This has been a fun week of blogging! I’ve used the Dylon Multi-Purpose dyes and dyed a pair of white jeans, t-shirt and necklace beads. I’ve also used the Dylon Permanent Fabric Dyes to dye some onesies and receiving blankets for my new grandson and had fun watching my granddaughter paint some lovely summer dresses.

I love color and I love the unexpected results I get when I dye and overdye fabric. The small packets of dyes from Dylon require minimum equipment and time but can create some beautifully colored projects. Give these little packages of creativity a try and you’ll be hooked!

This is part 5 of 5 in this series.
Go back to part 4: Easily add a pop of color to children’s clothes with Dylon dyes

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE...

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.