If it's been a while since you did the one color lesson, take a moment to review the steps. I'm going to assume you're familiar with making the chemical water, mixing in the dye, and baggie dyeing.
Some of you may have recognized that most of my lessons mirror "Dyeing to Quilt". This is an excellent book, and is in my personal quilting library. But for the two color gradation, I'm going to deviate slightly from the proportions the book recommends in order to demonstrate that pigment is not linear. (More about that later).
For this lesson, we'll need two different dyes. As a beginner, you'll get the best results if you choose two of the three primary colors (red, yellow, and blue). You can certainly choose any two dyes, and I strongly recommend you do that some time. But 95% of you will be happier with the results if you choose two primaries to work with.
We'll need at least 9 cups (I like 12 oz plastic disposable cups) for mixing dyes, at least baggies, at least 7 prepared fat quarters and test strips, and 2 quarts of chemical water for this lesson.
Take your chemical water, and make 1 cup of dye solution of each of the two dyes you have chosen, following the directions in the one color lesson. (Don't put your stuff away yet, since you'll need to make more of each dye solution as you use it up.)
Next, take 7 empty cups and arrange them in a line from left to right. Take dye #1, and put 1 tablespoon in the first cup, 2 tablespoons in the second cup, 3 tablespoons in the third cup, etc. Now take dye# 2, and repeat the proceedure, but in the opposite order -- 1 tablespoon in the last cup, 2 tablespoons in the next-to-last cup, etc. You should have a total of 8 tablespoons in each cup.
You will need to make more dye as you go along. If you've measured acurately, you will have 4 tablespoons of dye left in each cup. You can either make more dye so you can measure out 8 tablespoons of dye to make a total of 9 colors in your run, or you can save this small amount to play with at the end of this lesson. (You can't save it for next time, as the dye will loose its strength after about 4 hours).
Mix the dye solution in each of your 7 cups, and put each dye solution into its own baggie along with a fat quarter and test strip. (Did you mark your fat quarters?) Follow the same proceedure we used in the one color lesson for amount of time to let the bags sit, rinsing, etc. And don't forget to glue your test samples in your notebook!
When you've washed and dried your fabric, you may be surprised at the results. Let's say you used red and blue as your colors. Compare your fat quarter with one tablespoon of blue and 7 tablespoons of red to a fat quarter made with only red. Now look at the fat quarter with two tablespoons of blue and six tablespoons of red. That first tablespoon of blue made a much bigger difference than the next tablespoon. The same thing happens at the "blue" end of your color run -- that first tablespoon of red makes a huge difference.
So, you say, what happens if you want just a smidge of blue in that red? Just add an extremely small amount of blue dye. Try adding just a teaspoon, or even a quarter teaspoon. Another possibility is "overdyeing", which we'll cover in a future lesson.
Bonus
Did you save any of your leftover dye? Here's a chance to get
a jump on part of our "Getting Wild" lesson. Take one
of your 2 quart buckets, pour one dye in, and add a fat quarter.
Swish the fabric around so it's more or less all dyed. Now, drizzle
the second dye over the fabric in any pattern or random way you'd
like. Instead of placing the fabric in a baggie, cover the bucket
so the fabric won't dry out, and proceed as with your other fat
quarters. Cool, huh?