Painted fabric with a dyed look

I have a project in mind that will require little bits of lots of different colours. I came across this Bali Bonbons (top of the photo) which is comprised of 24 ....2.5"strips. I thought that this was great as there were lots of shades but did not even notice until I got home that there were no blues or oranges. So I set about to augment this group by making some gradated blues that could blend in.
It is a very simple process. Start with your darkest shade, which in this case is a Cobalt Setacolor transparent fabric paint diluted a little with water. I took slightly dampened fabric and just kept squishing it in the paint till it was completely saturated with colour, squeezed out the excess and put it aside to dry. Add a little more water to the paint/water mixture to "lighten" it and repeat the process. I continued doing this until I had these gradated shades of the same blue. While they were laid out to dry, I threw some coarse salt on to get the mottled effects.
Once heat set these are colourfast..........unlike those commercial dyes I purchased..... I tested them and they all bled, so I had to pre-wash and set the dyes before I can begin my project.
Plan to make a few oranges next.