Guild Workshops & Lectures
Workshops
Dye Boot Camp
In this basic workshop, learn all the skills you need to start dyeing your own cotton fabric. This fast-paced workshop starts with a discussion of safety, and of the supplies needed to easily create gorgeous, washfast color on fabric. Then the class will practice dyeing a single solid color, then move on to color and value scales and color mixing.
Transparent, Layered Color with Dyes
Transparency is everywhere in the quilting world! Dyeing your own fabrics is a great way to get just the hues and values you need. We will focus on dyeing fabrics with minimal amounts of white for results that look most like the layering of different colors. Samples of transparency in quilts will be shown and discussed. This is a beginner workshop where you can learn all the skills you need to start dyeing your own cotton fabric. Plus you’ll get great recipes to start you on your dye color journey. We’ll start with a discussion of safety and of the supplies needed to easily create gorgeous, washfast color on fabric.
No Muss, No Fuss – Thickened MX Dye Exploration
This class is your chance to experiment with thickened MX dyes. Screen printing, mono-printing, direct application and color mixing will be covered. Everybody will be able to sample each process and the different tools used with each, so this will be fast-paced, fun and exciting. For class supplies you have two options – buy a kit or bring supplies from home. This class has been consistently popular at the shows where Lisa teaches.
Manipulation: It’s a Good Thing
This class explores different ways to manipulate fabric before putting it into the dye bath. Folding, pleating, clamping, basic stitching and tying will be covered. As with the other classes, we cover all the fundamentals of dyeing with MX.
Stitched Shibori
Because Lisa loves stitching, that can be the only focus of a manipulations class, with some modifications for timing. One method that works well is a Zoom class a month before a live workshop to allow your group time to stitch. The basics of dyeing with MX are covered with emphasis on solids.
Dyeing with Poles: Arashi Shibori Techniques
In this workshop we will be exploring different ways to wrap fabric around a piece of plastic pipe ore other core and the patterns each generate. The basics of dyeing of MX will be covered.
Introduction to Discharge
Create unique and magical colors and designs with discharge – the systematic, deliberate removal of color from fabric. Working with various fabrics, we will learn how to remove color in immersion baths of bleach or Thiox, and with thickened discharge agents, while keeping the fabric and, most important, the dyer safe. This class must be held outside, preferably under cover, or at a garage door with fans. Six hours minimum.
Also available: 90 minute discharge lecture.
Lectures
Lectures all include a trunk show of fabrics as well as quilts and are edited on the fly to fit the time available. Questions are encouraged!
The drab little quilt that brought color to my life – how the craziness that is DippyDyes got started.
A dyer visits Japan – a lifelong interest in Japanese crafts, starting with Origami in elementary school, led to the trip of a lifetime to Japan. Combining solo wanderings with a dye-centric group tour led to lots of workshops, shopping, and scenery. And even mixing origami and dyeing at home!
Tools of the trade – OK, tools of all sorts are fascinating. You might be surprised at some of the things we use in the studio, borrowed from the kitchen, the wood shop, the sign-making company where Lisa once worked . . . the list goes on!
“You mean that started out white?” and other questions we hear.
Discharge – the systematic, deliberate removal, and sometimes replacement of color in fabric. Includes a video section that lets you watch discharge happen without wearing breathing protection.
The ‘P’ word – polyester. Before you say ‘yuck’, there ARE so many things that can be done with synthetic fabrics that don’t work with cotton. Great for art quilters.
Fees:
Workshops cost $400 for a half day, or $700 for a full day. Lectures alone cost $350. This does not include class supplies per person or travel expenses. For savings, combine the workshop with a lecture! Maximum class size is twenty people, depending upon the facility available. Thickened Dye Exploration can accommodate twenty-four people. Classes can also be held at the studio: indoors for one or two people, or outdoors up to eight people.
Updated 4/24/2026