Kind of exhausted

This weekend was nothing but dyeing. I should have been doing some of this over the past few weeks but it seems I saved it all up for one marathon weekend. Work started with a couple of hours of prep work Saturday. Then I could get started dyeing. I had several bottles of "expired" dyes in the refrigerator so I used them first to dye 5 veterans quilt backs, some tea towels and 2 t-shirts. When A dye is expired in my terms, it just means that it's not full strength. It's still good enough for things that don't have to be an exact color. I used expired dyes on veterans quilt backs all the time. 
Once the bottles were empty I could get started on some other things on Sunday.
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On Saturday, I also set up 3 more ice dye shirts. I had several questions about this so I'll answer here. This particular version of ice dyeing is called gravity dyeing and I learned about it on Facebook and Youtube. You arrange the soda ash soaked item and put dye powder right on top of the item. Then put the ice on top of that. I top mine off with a little extra soda ash powder. Now, there are several variations on this and, if you are interested, look the technique up on social media. You'll find lots of different folding and dyeing techniques.  Using ice bricks is another idea that I found on social media and it works great. I try to keep various size of ice bricks in the chest freezer ready to go. 
This type of dyeing is the most unpredictable. Sometimes it's a complete dud but it's still worth it. Even an ugly t-shirt can still be worn.
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On Sunday I mixed up fresh dyes so I could get exact colors. I tie-dyed 6 shirts, 4 bandanas and 10 tea towels. 
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Then I dyed a large quilt back for the Fab Farm quilt. I need to get that quilted and bound soon so it can be donated in January.
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Finally, I started one last gravity dyed shirt. I can't wait to see how all these things look over the next few days. After all these things were dyed, I started the washout of the things I dyed Saturday. There's lots of washing and soaking happening the next 3 days.
All of the t-shirts will be gifted this Saturday so I hope they turn out OK!
Today I take Mom to an eye appointment and then will do grocery shopping for the friend that I took to the ER Friday and her Mom. They both live really close to Mom's apartment. Maybe I'll have time to get another pair of veteran's quilts loaded and basted.
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