Traditional Dyes for Modern Fabric Lovers. Color, color, and more color-dyeing fabric was just as important to the citizens of 18th-century America in places such as Williamsburg, Virginia, as it is to today's quilters and fabric artists. Using traditional dyestuffs in nontoxic ways, quilters can blend the historic old with a vibrant new world of pure color. Nine natural color sources are used in recipes to create 14 beautiful colors for wool, cotton, or linen fabrics, textiles, and yarns.