Undyeing, Part 3

I got more quilting done yesterday- and also ended up ripping out some.  This piece really is demanding that the thread colors be carefully chosen, and when one part was screaming for attention, I knew it had to go.  Fortunately it wasn't that big of an area.  I also had to run to Dave's Bernina to pick up some more thread colors.  I'm hoping to get the quilting done this week, then face it and ship it off to Grand Junction.

Three or four years ago, I dyed and printed this two yard piece of raw silk.

It has sat in my fabric storage ever since.  The screenprinting doesn't work together, and I couldn't figure out what to add to make it work.  I'm just not experienced enough with printing, especially on larger pieces of fabric.  So last night I decided to try discharging it with thiox to see what happened.  I folded it into a square, and then put it between two pieces of plexiglass with rubber bands to hold it.  I honestly wasn't expecting much to happen, since I'd used turquoise dye at least once on the piece, and turquoise is notorious for not disharging.  Imagine my surprise, then, when the edges discharged to a lovely greeny-gray- and not that long in the pot.  So I chucked the whole thing in the thiox pot, no manipulation, and let it stew for a good half an hour.  Here's what I got--

What a difference!  There are ghostly lines from the first dip in the thiox, which I like.  There is really nothing left from my first efforts with dyes, which works for me just fine.

So now this piece is stewing with a bunch of rusty objects.  When I see how it rusts, then I will decide whether or not to hit it with a tannin bath- then hopefully I will have fabric I like to make another top.

Oh, yeah- and on top of all that, I got my copy of Jane Dunnewold's new book yesterday.  What a visual treat!  That will be my bedtime reading for the forseeable future!