Dyed Silk 9-Patch/Snowball Quilt

"Colorful Guy" Jim Kankula shares how-to for dyeing silk and using the fabric in a combination 9-Patch/Snowball block quilt.

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Filed under: Quilting, Crafts, How To

Instructions provided courtesy of guest Jim Kankula.

Materials and Tools:
white Habotai silk (8mm)
fiber-reactive dye
lightweight fabric stabilizer (amount depends on width)
white distilled vinegar

Steps:

Dyeing

Mix one teaspoon of dye powder to one cup of water. Repeat for each color of dye.

Soak silk in vinegar and squeeze out excess.

Fan fold the strip of silk (figure B) and place it in the microwave-proof dish.

Apply the dye on the silk with a green strip down the center and blue on either end.

Microwave the silk for five minutes at 50-percent power.

Rinse the silk until all excess dye has been removed.

Wash the silk by machine or hand in gentle soap.

Air dry or press the silk dry with an iron on warm setting.

Snowball 9-Patch Quilt

Cut three yards of silk into 12-inch strips.
Dye this using the method above.

Fussy cut these strips to make 54, 4-1/2 inch squares with the dye pattern lines running from corner to corner and 54, 4-1/2 inch squares with the dye pattern lines running from side to side. To do this, cut 108 five-inch squares of fusible interfacing. Position the interfacing squares on the fabric so the lines run in the desired direction.

Press the interfacing squares to the fabric.

Use a square ruler to fussy-cut the interfaced fabric to 4-1/2-inch squares.

Dye two yards of silk solid light green. From this, cut 13, 4-1/2 inch squares for the center of the 9-Patch blocks and 12, 12-1/2 inch squares for the Snowball block. Assemble 13, 9-Patch blocks as shown.

Dye two yards of silk solid blue. Cut four, 4-1/2 inch strips from the entire length for the borders. Cut 48 half-square triangles from 4-7/8-inch squares to serve as the corners of the Snowball blocks.

Cut a 5-1/8-inch square in half diagonally to make a cardboard triangle template. Use the triangle template to help cut away corners of the 12-inch green squares.