“Dyed Fabrics are good for everything!”
~ Lisa White Reber
For 20 years, Lisa White Reber has been dyeing fabrics. “What’s amazing is that you start out with a plain white piece of fabric and end up with an amazing piece of art,” Lisa said in an interview with Quiltfest. After years of reading books and watching television programs about dyeing, Lisa’s once casual hobby turned her into a, “passionate dyer.”
Lisa will be teaching her full day workshop, “Painterly Effects with Various Thicknesses of MX Dyes” on Saturday, March 5 at The Quilt & Sewing Fest of New Jersey. “My class is technique-driven,” Lisa explains, “we will cover the basics of MX dyes on cotton fabric and mixing thickened dye in different consistencies and strengths.” Students in the workshop will then experiment with different marks made on fabric by different brushes and palette knives. Lisa continues, “You’ll go home with at least 20 samples, plus handouts to help you remember how you got there. You can use them in your quilts or as a starting point for further exploration. I strongly recommend note-taking as you go, plus taking pictures.”
While not a prerequisite, this year’s dye class will incorporate some of the work from Lisa’s MX Dye class at the last Quiltfest of New Jersey. “Last year’s class explored four different ways to use thickened dyes, but it was all the same thickness. That was great for screen printing, but thick dye really doesn’t flow.” Students will spend the day thinning out dye to see how it handles and how the results differ from a thicker dye. “In Art History terms,” Lisa proclaims, “part of the definition of painterly is non-linear.”
For more information of Lisa’s Workshop, click here.
The Quilt & Sewing Fest of New Jersey is generously sponsored by Brother/Rock, Paper, Scissors; BERNINA of America/Olde City Quilts, ABM Innova/Olde City Quilts, BabyLock/Pocono Sew & Vac, Elna/Pocono Sew & Vac, Handi Quilter, Pocono Sew & Vac, Pfaff/Above & BeyondCreative Sewing; and Sew Batik.
