Heat Wave = Time to Dye!!

We have had triple digit temperatures for most of the past two weeks, so I decided to take some time off work for the specific purpose of dyeing fabric.  I sweated, had to take breaks in the air conditioned house, but I got about fifteen yards of fabric dyed.  I never tire of the process!!

This time I decided to set up a studio in the garage, since I wanted to do some soy wax batik also.  It worked really well- I had two tables and a TV tray, which gave (usually) plenty of room for my equipment and room to work.  Here's the setup after I was done, with all the fabric ironed and folded.  I never did get around to taking any pictures when I was actually working!

I had room to lay plastic on the floor of the garage, and also my Ikea drying rack.  The best part about the setup is the table on the right.  I got it at Walmart, it was labeled for tailgating parties.  It's sturdy, it folds up to half the size for storage, and it was very reasonably priced.  I put a 2 by 4 piece of plywood on top, covered that with a couple of towels and plastic, and it worked great.

I did some solids, flat dyeing on the table. . .

(except the four on the far left are multi-color pieces, I just squirted dyes on).

These are the best of the soy wax pieces.  I was especially happy with the one on top- I used a sponge in the soy wax, and it held the shapes very well.

I also had fun doing some clamp Shibori pieces.  I now have three sets of acrylic triangles, and two sets of squares.  I also found some round plastic carpet casters that worked great to do circles.

The piece on the left I just drew with a tjanting.  It looked great wet, not so great once it was washed and dried.  

I experimented again with flour paste resist- something I'd tried on silk a few years ago, and wasn't happy with.  I was so happy with the first one, I did a second and also tried oatmeal resist.  I think I like the flour better, but both are cool.

My favorite is the one in the middle- pale green, with dark blue veining.  The one below that is the oatmeal resist.


I did several flag folded pieces with the acrylic shapes, and loved how they came out.  I ended up dyeing two colors on each- here they are at the end of two dye baths.

The bottom right piece was done with the square shape.  The green on the left was originally a boring scrunch dye without a lot of texture, so I flag folded it and discharged in a bleach bath.  I really like how it came out, I think I will be doing more pale scrunch dyes that I overdye in a flag fold.

And I had to have something to wear, right?  This is a light rayon poncho from Dharma- I was hoping for a pastel Monet effect.  As much as I diluted the dyes, I should have diluted them more, it is a little brighter than the pastel effect I was hoping for.  But I'll still wear it!

Now I just have to figure out how I'm going to use all this fabric!

I'm linking this post to Nina Marie's Off the Wall Friday.  Take a look at what all the other fiber artists there have been up to!

Fast Food Shibori

I learned something new this month- a way to do shibori that does not involve string and trying to get arthritic hands to wrap and shove fabric down a pipe.  It's as simple as roll and push- really!

My first piece was done with charcoal gray.  I got some splitting, but not a lot- which made me happy.  Then I tried another with navy blue- which, since I messed up with my calculations, came out a medium blue.

This was nice, but I wanted more depth.  So, I took the blue piece, rolled it again so the light end was on top this time, and overdyed with a red.  I was feeling lazy and not wanting to mix up dye solutions, so I used some that I had stored in the frig.  And this is what came out of the second dye bath--

I

I am really happy with this.  It got me thinking about possibilities for another tree quilt- think snowy, stormy night in the forest.  I think this is one I will have to plan out carefully, both with fussy cutting fabric and planning my layout.  I don't think slash and stitch would do justice to the fabric.  I also want to be able to control the direction of the lines on the shibori fabric.

I am planning some time off work to dye fabric, and this will definitely be part of what I do.  Our temperatures are heading into triple digits this week- perfect for dyeing!!

I'm linking this post to Nina Marie's Off the Wall Friday.  Head over there and take a look at what the other artists are up to!

Waiting for the Muse

It has been a dry month creatively- no surprise, given the events that have impacted our family over the past two months.  Until last weekend, I hadn't spent any time in the studio, except to clean.

I know, having been down this road before, that just the act of sewing can help get my creative juices flowing again.  So I have been working on a tee shirt quilt for my daughter, a gift to help her heal from the loss of her fiance.

I cut and backed the parts of the shirts that I'm using, and played with layouts on graph paper and on my design wall.  I learned again the wisdom of the adage "Measure twice and cut once!"  But it is all pieced, we have gone from this. . . 

 

to this. . .

Now I just have to add a border around the outside.  I'm doing simple straight line quilting, probably on a diagonal.

I hand dyed the fabric that I used for the sashings.  I wanted a medium gray- there was already enough darks in the tee shirt blocks.  That was another lesson on the many variations of gray!  I think this has a green undertone- which, fortunately, works.

I'm already planning for some time off work that I'll spend dyeing fabric.  I want to have a selection of fabric to use in the discharge workshop I'm taking from Carol Soderlund in September, and I have another tree piece that I want to start- probably using shibori fabrics.  Just the thought of spending several days in the dyepots makes me happy!

It has been a slow month creatively- aside from the show now on display, it's been almost non-existant.  It's hard to be creative when you are feeling both emotionally and physically drained.

I'm trying to get back into it with a simple project that will nonetheless be very appreciated by the recipients.  I spent some  time over the weekend cutting up tees, hoping to get a couple of lap-size quilts.  I have twenty-five good size blocks, and plenty of plain fabric to fill in where needed.  Here's the first set up on the design wall--

First step is to get the blocks squared, then play with design options on graph paper.  Then I'll know what I have to cut out to fill in.  Add some medium gray sashing between the blocks, some simple straight line quilting- I'm hoping to get this done quickly (for me!), and hoping that this will get the creative juices flowing again.

I also chose some fabric and ironed fusible on it, hoping to play with some postcards.  Can you tell I'm craving some bright summer colors?

Another simple, quick project.

I had some learning moments while getting my pieces ready for hanging- but I'll need time and energy to collect my thoughts in a coherent manner.  So I'll leave you with this, and hoping for positive thougts that my muse and energy start visiting me again!

Artist of the Month!

I have been busy the past couple of weeks, preparing to have thirteen of my pieces hung for a month-long show at a community social service agency.  Prompted by one of their staff who also has a strong interest in the arts, they installed a hanging system in the waiting room, and invite community artists to show their work.  This month, it's me!

It was a fascinating experience preparing for this.  First, I had  to choose which ones to show.  I don't have a huge body of work- but I did want to showcase my best.  I chose several of my best pieces from the Interpret This! challenge, both of my quilts inspired by the wind turbines.  I wanted to show Green- but at twelve inches square, it didn't have much presence.  So I created a matte quilt, and sewed it to that.  You can see it directly to my left in the picture above.

I also wanted to show two other small quilts, Chaos and Tetes au Dessous.  I ended up painting two stretched canvases black, and sewing them on.  I couldn't believe the difference it made- but of course, I didn't have enough presence of mind to take pictures of them when I was done!

I also had some larger pieces- I couldn't leave these out!

One other artist who has been shown here had a fiber piece in her collection- but this will be the first show that's exclusively fiber.  It will be interesting to see what the response is.

Blogger's Quilt Festival, Spring 2013

I became aware of the Blogger's Quilt Festival through Nina-Marie's blog this week, and have decided to enter my latest quilt, Autumn Glory in the Art Quilt category. I've blogged about creating this quilt before- so if you seen and read all this before, bear with me!

I've lived in the desert southwest my entire life- a landscape that is more known for wide open spaces and lots of browns. I had the opportunity to take a trip to northwestern Michigan with my son and his fiancee last fall, and I found myself enthralled with a lush, green landscape very different from what I'm used to.  We hiked through woods that enveloped me with verdant greens (and the very beginning of fall colors), where the view above me was entwined branches with only bits of blue sky peeking through.  I loved it, and took hundreds of pictures.  So far, I've made three quilts inspired by this trip, and more are in my head.  A Walk in the Woods: Autumn Glory is the third in this series.

I do not want to create a realistic quilt of the woods I experienced, but rather give a sense of the tall, upright trees juxtaposed with the beautiful autumn colors.  This is actually two quilts: I constructed the pieced portion with hand dyed and commercial fabrics, then quilted and embroidered it using both hand and machine embroidery.  Then I constructed the wholecloth "matte", using a commercial cotton that I stenciled with Shiva paintstiks to depict the leaves.  I created the stencils myself, using actual leaves that I collected on the trip.  This "matte" was heavily quilted, then the pieced quilt stitched to it.

I feel like I am finally starting to find my voice with this quilt.  I love improvisational piecing, and prefer to use my own hand dyed fabric as much as possible.  I also like the 'calm' lots of negative space in a quilt provides.  I hope the viewer can get the same sense of peace amidst the grandeur of the trees that I experienced in those woods.

I've been absent

with good cause, dealing with needs of my family and child.  I haven't done anything worth blogging about, and haven't had the emotional energy anyway.  Hopefully we have turned a corner on that one--

Kicking Back

We are on out annual spring trek to Moab for the car show, and the chance to catch up with good friends. The weather has been great, the car show and Main Street drag were lots of fun, and we've just enjoyed the chance to relax and kick back. Take a look, need I say more?

Michael Berry G!allery Show Opening

Friday night our Utah Surface Design biannual gallery show opened at the Michael Berry Gallery in downtown Salt Lake.  I helped to start hanging the show last weekend, and came up to Salt Lake Friday afternoon to photograph the gallery and every piece for the group.  I'll have those to show later- I haven't even had a chance to get them off my camera!

Most of my family made it up for the opening, so I got Sean to take a picture of me with my piece, using my iPhone.  So here you have it- after all that work, my baby is out in the world!

John Hess had two beautiful dimensional and holographic weavings in the show, one hanging below Autumn Splendor.  Marilyn Fashbaugh's quilt is hanging to the right of mine, and two fantastic hand dyed silk scarves are below.  (If my memory is any good, Judy Elsley did the one on the left, and Sally Wilkinson the one on the right.)  I can't remember who did the weaving on the left side of my quilt- it was also at the Weaver's Guild show earlier in the year, and caught my eye there.

The show is beautiful, it came together really well.  Lisa Chin, another USDG member, has lots of pictures posted on her blog here.   Enjoy them, because I have no idea how long it will take me to get all the pictures I took off my camera and edited!

I am now frantically working on my next Tangled Textiles piece, due the 30th.  I was going to piece it, but decided that I just didn't have the time, and my idea would lend itself equally well to fusing.  So it is all ready to be machine quilted.  Now to just to find the time and energy to get that done!  (I'm sensing another mental health day home from work on the horizon!!)

Hope your week is a creative one!

The blur that was March. . .

I haven't vanished from the planet, or given up my art- life just managed to take over this past month.  I'm still getting used to having a three year old in my home again.  She is a delight, but has more energy that all four of the adults in the home.  Calling her the Energizer Bunny would be an understatement.

I have been steadily plugging away on the second piece in the Walk in the Woods series- all I have left is a label and sleeve, and that has to be done by Saturday when it is delivered to a gallery in Salt Lake to be part of the Surface Design show.  I am happy with how it has developed.

I finished the edge with zigzag and rat tail cord- kind of like with yarn, but I like the smooth finish the rat tail cord has.  I don't think I've ever gone through so much thread with a quilt, but it was worth it.

So now I have two weeks to complete the next piece for my Tangled Textiles group- Remnants.  I think I am going to use the remnants from some previous quilts.  The color palette certainly appeals, it is so evocative of spring.  

I'm thinking this quilt is going to have lots of negative space.  I really like the clean look of the modern quilts with that design esthetic.  We'll see what I can come up with.

I am very frustrated and sad. . .

ith the demise of Google Reader- I've looked around for another RSS feed, and decided to follow other quilters and sign up with Bloglovin'.  It looks like it will work for me- I never discovered the 'Next' button on Reader, so I won't have that to miss like others. 

So, Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Possessed

That word pretty much describes how I am feeling about the second Walk in the Woods piece- I can't focus on anything else, even though I have at least one other looming deadline.  But this quilt is just demanding to be birthed before I can move onto the next.

I got the hand embroidery all done.  Here's the top of the strip set section.  I used a different machine embroidery stitch on this one than I did on the first Walk in the Woods.

I can't believe it took me so long to figure out how to do French knots- now I'm doing them by the dozen.  Look closely, you can see them on the bottom of the strip set  with more seed stitching.

This was taken with the quilt laying on my sewing table, so the perspective is off.  I won't attach the strip set until I finish the quilting on the red background.  It is taking time, but I love the way the pebbling makes the leaves pop.

 

Yikes, the lighting is really off in that photo- the background actually is a deep, dark red.  But you can see all that quilting!

I'm hoping to get the pebbling done this weekend, and maybe even start quilting the rest it.  Once that is done, finishing the entire piece shouldn't take that much longer.

In the meantime, I will continue to be. . . possessed!

I'm linking this post to Nina Marie's Off the Wall Friday blog.  Take a look at what all the other artists are doing!

More Progress!

I got a lot done on Walk in the Woods 2 this weekend.  The machine embroidery is done, and I've started the hand embroidery.

The lighting on this photo is lousy, but I can't seem to get it right.  Next time I'll have to hang this on the design wall to photograph.

And, I started quilting on the background matte.  It will be a lot of work, but I think it will be worth it in the end.  I love how the pebbling makes the leaf shapes pop.

 

I'm away on a business trip for two nights, but I'll have the hand embroidery to keep me busy in the hotel room.  I'm taking an extra long weekend next week- I'm hoping to get a lot of this quilting knocked out!

I hope your week is a creative one!

Progress

I am plugging along on Walk in the Woods 2. I got all the background quilting done this weekend. I am always blown away by how much difference all the thread makes to the look of a piece.

And, I got the background matte pieces cut and sandwiched. I'm using a mid weight non-woven stabilizer and black felt instead of batting. I ended up doing some surface design on part of the matte, then I'll quilt to add focus to the motifs. 

I am getting lazier and lazier about getting out my laptop to post- we'll see how this one turns out, since I'm doing it on my iPad. In the meantime, have a good (and hopefully creative!) week!

A week later, and I can say I won't be using my iPad to post, unless it's a short post without pictures.   I can't control the placement of the photos in the app, and I have no clue how to edit my photos to make them smaller on the iPad.  So posting will continue to be done on my laptop.

It's Snowing . . . and Dyeing

Our storm, however, wouldn't hold a candle to the Nor'easter that's pounding the east coast.  It's supposed to snow overnight, but I don't think we're going to get more than a couple of inches.  I decided I couldn't wait for the new stuff, so I found some old, icy snow that was clean enough to use.  So this will probably be more like doing ice dyeing than snow dyeing.

After all my experiments with the grays, I needed some color.  Liza Anne brought some gorgeous snow dyes she'd done to the last meeting of the Utah county art quilt group I belong, and they were all about color.  She had one emerald green piece that was stunning.  So we'll see what I get with these.

 Sabrecon red and gold yellow- I think on a couple of Pimatex fat quarters.

 Cerulean blue, and a green made with the same blue and lemon yellow, on Radiance.  That's the luscious fabric that is silk on one side, cotton on the other.  Can't wait to see how this one turns out!

Bamboo/cotton fabric with bright blue and Sabrecon red dyes.  I haven't dyed a lot of that fabric, but when I have, it has been gorgeous.

 A yard or so of Pimatex, with Cerulean blue and lemon yellow.  I swirled this one before I put it in the container, we'll see what effect that has.

A couple of rectangular silk scarves, with Sabrecon yellow and fuschia.

The Sabrecon dyes were gifted to me several years ago- from what I was told, they could be as much as ten years old now.  I figured this was as good a time as any to use them up.

I'm going to throw a couple of pieces of unknown cotton on the bottom of a couple of the bins, just to see what happens.  The bins are all covered in plastic, sitting in my cool studio.  So now we wait.  I figure it will be at least Monday before everything is melted.

I had another lovely surprise related to 'Walk in the Woods', which I entered into the Weaver's Guild show in Salt Lake and had the thrill of winning an award.  I subscribe to an online arts magazine (15 Bytes) that covers the arts in Utah. They have an article on the show in the current issue- imagine my surprise to read a mention of my piece!  They didn't include it in the photo gallery, but it was nice to get a mention.  Hopefully this link will take you to the article- for whatever reason, Blogger does not want to cooperate!
http://artistsofutah.org/15bytes/13feb/page6.html

And, I have the trees section of the second in the series about half quilted.  I am happy with how it is coming along, and already thinking ahead to the next step- the machine embroidery.  I'm thinking of using a heavier thread than I used on the first one- but I'd have to find the thread, and do some samples!

A busy week at work, then the last long weekend of the winter arrives.  I'm hoping to make lots more progress on the trees quilt, and have some gorgeous hand dyes to show off!

I'm linking this to Nina Marie's Off the Wall Friday post- make sure to go over there and see what all the other artists have been up to!

Weaver's Guild Show

Last Friday, DJ and I met his sister and went to the Weaver's Guild show in Salt Lake.  I wanted to see my piece along with all the others that were entered!

The show is at the Utah Cultural Celebration Center, a multi-purpose venue.  The gallery itself is in a nice, well-lit room.  I thought the guild did a very nice job of setting up the show.

Nice to see my piece hung, with the award information right there!

I loved the silk dress that was right next to it.

 

Hand dyed silk, of course- and it was gorgeous.

Being a weaver's guild, there was no lack of useful and utilitarian items.

I loved this rug made from Pendleton wool yardage selvedges.

This bobbin lace was exquisite.  I learned that my sister-in-law had tried to learn bobbin lace from the maker of this piece.

Loved the scarves!

This piece was done by another Surface Design member, Diane Hauerter.

And I thought this copper weaving was stunning.

All in all, I thought the show was well done, and I'm honored to have won an award.

I also managed to spend some time in the studio.  I had some charm squares, and put them together with white sateen to come up with this small modern quilt.  It will probably end up with Shannon- she likes the fabrics much more than I do!  

 

It reminded me of why I like improvisational piecing- but at least I know I can still piece with precision!  Now I just need to get it quilted- we'll see which I find less stressful to do, this one or Walk in the Woods 2.  But there's no doubt I'll be quilting on something this weekend!

Hope your week is a creative one--