Thanks all for your lovely comments, I have been at it again.
This time I used RIT dye. I mixed two cups of hot water to one box/packet of dye. The red that I used was liquid, the others were the dry packets. I just poured some of the liquid dye in a pot and added a random amount of water. I came out with some pretty pieces...and some not so pretty. This is my first pieces that I put in to test before using bigger pieces.
They are orange, pink, green, and peach- in that order from top to bottom.
Here are some larger pieces that turned out to my liking:
once you click on those, you can look through the album, there are several more...I tried a red with black dribbled on it,
didn't turn out too well...it's a different type of cross stitch fabric too--it's kind of fluffy, I don't know what it is. The ones that I dyed one color and then sprayed a different color on, well, I am hoping that they look better with something stitched on them...hubby says the pink and green one looks like a rag with mold on it...
he's kinda right.
I had fun and got some really pretty pieces out of the whole ordeal, some of the colors aren't true on the computer monitor, they look much better in person.
I learned that the dribbling doesn't look as good as I thought, and the spraying doesn't either. The longer you leave it in, the darker it gets-duh.
Always rinse it before you iron it, only squeezing out the water/dye and then trying to iron it, makes it stick to the iron and leaves a dye residue on it. After pulling out of the dye bath, rinse with cold water till it runs clear, dry, if you want the current color to stay, do not wash or rinse it till the next day. If you want it lighter (remember it gets lighter when dry), then wash alittle more before drying it overnight. After I ironed them dry, I let them hang over night, then washed in a Woolite cold water, then rinsed in a weak vinegar/water bath, they ironed again dry. If it doesn't rinse clear, rinse it till it does.
Black is yucky...not true solid black, and really messy. I also tried a Navy blue, about the same thing, not true to color--more of a dark dark purple, and messy. The solid red one I did turned out pretty, but the one with the black dribbled on it , not good.
I really like how the whole piece doesn't get evenly solid all the way through, kind of a mottled look...no special skills required for that, I just waded the fabric while wetting with clear water, and then placed it in the pot all waded up and sort of stirred it around. Even if the piece is completely submerged, it will come out looking mottled. The only pieces I got solid were the little pieces that layed out in the dye and were too small to wad.
If you're using several colors, or are busy with something else while doing this and your dye baths sit for a few minutes, stir them before putting in your fabric, even though the dye dissolved, it still settled if it sat for awhile. I did peach, orange, pink, green,red, black, and navy blue. So I had quite a few going at once. I did not heat the dye baths. I just used hot water to dissolve the dye initially, and then let it go at that. It cooled off eventually, but I just kept using it that way.
Oh, and when you initially take out your fabric and rinse it till it's clear, and put it on your towel, soak up as dry as you can and then iron it, fold your towel over the other way for different colors, I used 3 bath towels folding them in half, ironing on one side, then on the back, then folding in half the opposite way so I was using the inside...because even though your fabric rinses clear, some dye comes out when you iron it dry,,,onto the towel and will transfer to another piece of fabric if you iron it on the same side of the towel. so I kept track of which colors to use on which areas of my towels & kept doing the same (or very like) colors on the same area.
Hope I've explained this well...I feel like I kinda jumped around in my explanations. If anyone has any questions just ask away.
And don't be afraid to try dying some of your white or off white--or stained fabric, it's fun and just use some stained or scraps for your first pieces to get a feel of the color and timing.
the bottom pic is a close up of the top 
, but the birds definitely are more visible in the top picture. at least to me.
in hand waiting the next Dyeing Experiment* 
