Travels

I have been away from blogging for the past two weeks because I have been enjoying time with my far-flung sons.  I have played with my granddaughter in Florida,

visited the oldest continually inhabited town in North America,

and helped my oldest son start preparing to move.  The last week, I have spent time in one of the most beautiful state parks I've ever visited (Ludington in northwest Michigan); they have miles of trails, which I hiked with my younger son and his fiance, enjoying every minutes of the beauty and solitude.

We saw a beautiful sunset over a windswept Lake Michigan.

I saw art created by an artist (Nellie Durand) I've gotten to know through the wonders of the web- what a pleasure to see it in person rather than on a computer screen!

 Today we visited the city- I'd forgotten what a huge, bustling city Chicago is.  

We topped off a day of walking around the city with a late lunch at Rick Bayless's Xoco restaurant- Mexican street food, unlike any I've had before.  It was delicious, and the authentic hot chocolate was superb.  It tasted of chocolate, not sugar!

Tomorrow night I fly home, back to the routines of work and home.  It has been a wonderful two weeks, some of which I hope to incorporate into my art.  And, I'll have many more pictures to share.  But there you have the quick and dirty scoop on what I've been up to!

Painting with Nana

What better way to spend a sultry, rainy Florida morning than introducing your granddaughter to the joys of creating color on fabric?  Michelle and I had a ball, and I now have six painted blocks to make a special quilt.

Flat Dyeing and Other Experiments

I got my flat dyes from last weekend washed out, and overall, I am happy with the results.  There are subtle variations and some fold lines from the plastic, especially on the lighter values- results that show the maker's hand.  That part I really like.  Here's the colors I did--

The piece off to the right is fabric I threw in the drip bucket under the table.  I had no idea what I would get, but I like the results.

I also did a half yard shibori wrapped on a piece of PVC pipe, and another flag fold.  This time I had triangle shaped pieces of plexiglass, which helped a lot.  Shibori wrapping is a pain, especially for arthritic hands.  

I used grape and black dye on the shibori piece- I will leave it up on the design wall to help decide if I want to overdye it.  The flag fold will get overdyed, I'm just not sure what color.  I love how the yellow glows, so I'm sort of leaning towards a less intense value of red.

And, I did a silk scarf in a square fold.  I left this one sitting in the dye overnight- I wanted to see how good the plexiglass was as resisting the dye.  It did better than I was expecting, and the black color I used really glows on the silk.  It's not black, but you have to look closely at it to see that.

No more dyeing for awhile- I leave Friday for two weeks, and then will have to work like a madwoman to get my TT challenge piece done.  Bits may be done on the trip, but not a lot.  I am really looking forward to seeing my sons that live so far away!

I won't have a quilt at Houston, but hopefully I will have at least one photo in the Eye of the Quilter exhibit.  I submitted two photos I took in Bodie, the ghost town in the eastern Sierras.  It's a juried exhibit, so now I wait for the acceptance or rejection.

Time to wash the dye out of my hair.  I hope your weekend was a creative one!

A Distinctive Voice?

I have been thinking a lot about my work lately.  Does it say 'me?'  Are there aspects of it that make it recognizable?  I have been trying to figure out if I've 'found my voice', as the saying goes, or if I am still all over the map- which is how I've felt in the past.

In an effort to answer this question, I constructed a photo mosaic of quilts I've made in the past five or so years.  It doesn't contain everything I've done- I eliminated some that I made as part of a group challenge where the theme or photo never spoke to me or evoked an emotional response.  Here's what I came up with--

What commonalities to I see?  I like strong colors- no pastels for me, thank you.  They're only useful for the good colors to play off! I also like how those strong colors play off black.  Even if the image is somewhat realistic, I prefer abstracted or simplified.  I like strong lines and simple shapes.  That is what jumps out at me- what do you see?

I think I am at a point where I want to simplify how I work, and explore a more cohesive or consistent way of expressing my images.  I don't want to be agonizing over how I will do something, I just want to figure out how to do it withing the constraints that I choose for myself.  I'm thinking that will feel freeing rather than constraining.

It also means that I will limit my fabric choices.  I've preferred using my hand dyes for several years now.  I have been slowly moving away from the heavily patterned low-water immersion dyes that I fell in love with initially, and more towards soft, very subtle patterning.  It reads as solid from a distance, but on closer inspection shows the influence of the dyer.  If I want patterning, I'd probably go with what I can get with soy wax batik, where I have more control over the amount and kind of patterning than I do with straight LWI dyeing.

I'm hoping this is a positive move for me.  I will be going through my stash, eliminating a lot of the commercial fabric I have that just doesn't get used much anymore.  Then I can go through the hand dyes, and make sure I have a good range of both colors and values.

With that in mind, I tried something new today.  I'd read about Robin Ferrier's method of dyeing, which she calls flat dyeing.  It certainly conserves water, and doesn't involve all the containers or stirring.  Here's what the wet studio looked like at 10:30 this morning, after I got about twelve half yard pieces dyed.

I do have a couple of shibori pieces in the containers and under the plastic shopping bag.  I also immersion dyed a piece of linen/cotton for a blouse.  All the rest is under the plastic, batching away.  I'll probably leave it until Wednesday night.  Oh yeah, I also threw a piece of soda soaked cotton into the drip pan under the table.  We'll see if that one turns out to be a dog or a gem!

I'm hoping that working within these self-imposed limits will turn out to be a good thing, and help move my work to the next level.  I'd love to know what you think. . .

Announcing Fall

That is what it felt like today- fall.  I was awakened at 4 am by thunder and lightning, and the rain did not stop until after lunch.  I managed to go for a walk between the first set of storms and the second that was rolling in just as we headed home.  It has been noticeably cooler, and the sky has been gray and overcast most of the day.

I did manage to get a shot of a butterfly on our walk, something I've never been fast enough to do before.  This butterfly seemed to pose on the flower before he finally flew off.  I love the shot I got- with my point and shoot, no less!

I am having a hard time concentrating on anything- I'm planning for my upcoming trip in my head.  Mostly, I'm wondering how I'm going to fit enough clothes for two very different climates in one suitcase.  I got this tank done today, it will definitely get used in Florida.  

I am so happy to have a tank top that fits me, since Land's End (where I used to buy loads of tanks) has decided to not carry them anymore.  I had to tweak the fit, but it looks good.  I am especially happy that my bra straps don't show, since I do not share the younger generation's nonchalance about exposed underwear.  It drives me crazy to have my straps show, I can still hear my mother's voice on that one.  Now that I have a pattern, I will be making lots of hand-dyed tank tops!

Counting Down

I'm counting down the days, in more than one way.  In less than three weeks I will be on a plane to spend one week each in Florida and Chicago with my two sons.  I am SOOO ready to hit the road!!

It's also clear that we are counting down the last days of summer, even though the calendar still says August.  On my walks on the river trail, the signs are definitely there.

I love the variety of wildlife I sometimes see on my walks.  On a recent one, we saw these roosters, having a good time grubbing in the irrigation canal,

this snake slithering off the trail,

and this buzzard up in the trees along the trail.

We took a chance today, deciding to walk even though the weather was a bit iffy.  On the way out on the trail, I was rewarded with this rainbow. . .

and on the way back, with these awesome clouds over the mountains.

I've also been in the studio. although sewing on clothes instead of quilting.  I got this cute A line skirt done- we should have enough warm weather left that I'll get to wear it a couple of times.

When I not thinking about what I will be packing for visits to two very different climates, I'm considering what to do for the next TT challenge- new beginnings.  Vicki gave us lots of starting points, and I have some research to do.  It would be nice to have it well  on the way to completion before I leave!

Good-bye God, We're Going to Bodie

If you've never heard of it, Bodie was a boom gold mining town in the east side of the Sierras.  It's now a California state park, and since it is close to Bridgeport where my brother and I camped in May, we decided to go there on our last day.  I'd been there before (1990), but I do not remember being as entranced with the place as I was this time.

Bodie is remote, even by today's standards- it is at least twenty miles off Highway 395, and seventeen of those are dirt road.  The first thing that struck me was the intensity of the blue sky.  This is the church, one of the few buildings that visitors are allowed to enter.

Here's the inside of the church--

Paul and I wandered the streets for hours, peering into the interiors which have been kept in a state of "arrested decay."  Some of the buildings house park employees- obviously, we weren't peering into those.  But it was fascinating looking at the relics of years long gone, even through glass.  Those are my favorite pictures from the trip.

The general store looked like I could walk in and place an order- although it would be extremely dusty!  Many of the windows have been replaced with modern glass, but some of the buildings had the original.  

 This is a photo looking into the pool hall/casino- I think this one is through original glass.  We figured out we could get good photos by placing the camera lens flat against the windows, which is how most of these were taken.

The three photos above were taken in the only residence that allowed visitors inside.

My favorite photos, however, were surprises.  Look closely at these next ones.

 In the first, you can see my shadow, peering into the bar.  In the second, you can see me and Paul, looking into the pool hall.  But the best one has no people at all in it.

  

I love how the interior and exterior are juxtaposed on this one.  It has some quality that I am having a hard time finding at word for, but I find it mesmerizing.

Gigabyte

or, computers from the perspective of a fiber artist!  Our theme was 'Architecture', but I knew from the outset that I wanted to do something other than a building.  When I stumbled on a definition of architecture that included information technology, I knew I had my inspiration.   My son suggested I google 'gaming computers' to find an inspiration photo, and I found several that I thought would lend themselves to interpretation in fabric.  Here's my inspiration. . . 

and here's my finished piece.

I embellished with actual computer parts I got from my brother, who had built computers.  I liked what the text fabric added- to me, that represented communication- and computers have become a huge part of communication just in my lifetime.  I quilted it all over with a straight line kind of stipple, which was a challenge to keep the scale somewhat consistent.  And, I did a skinny (1/8") binding, something I've wanted to try for awhile.  

It was a fun one to do- I think I will mount this one on painted canvas.  Who knows, maybe one of the techies in my family will end up with it.

Counting Down

until I can reveal my latest piece for the Tangled Textile challenge.  Have a look at the blog on Wednesday the 15th to see how everyone interpreted the theme 'Architecture.'  I spent a lot of last weekend and most of this past Friday finishing my piece.  It's not my usual, but I had fun with it!

No fiber pictures, but I'll leave you with this picture of reflections on the river walk trail where I take Shiloh most weekends.  I love this trail, it is so peaceful.

I will be away from home most of this coming week for work- I leave Tuesday morning, and I'm not home until Friday afternoon.  Although I always mourn the end of summer, I'm also counting down the days until I leave for a week each in Florida and Chicago with my sons.  Just a month away!!

More Dyeing. . .

I signed up for a class at Craftsy- The Art of Cloth Dyeing with Jane Dunnewold.  Honestly, I was less interested in the chemistry of how she dyes, and more so in how she approaches layering and creating patterns on the cloth.  She talked about maybe having more classes on Craftsy- I hope she does one that is more surface design oriented.

She showed various ways to fold the cloth, and I fell in love with her flag fold.  I can't remember if I've done it before, but I got some tips to make the folding easier.  One piece I did was the rayon bamboo scarf that I bleach discharged a few weeks ago.  The other was a piece of "ugly" cloth I got from Barbara on the MX Dyers group.  Here's the piece as I got it--

I had a hard time seeing it as ugly- it had lovely patterning on it, and luscious shades of green, yellow, and brown.  The white didn't bother me at all either.  But in the spirit of the ugly fabric challenge, I played along.  First I flag folded it, squished it between two pieces of plexiglass held with rubber bands, and dunked it in a bleach solution.  I left it a bit too long, because there wasn't much color left.  Here it is as I'm flag folding it again--

You can kind of see the flag folding marks on this one, and you can see how little green is left.  After I got it back between the plexiglass, I dunked it in grape dye.  I only used a 1 percent solution, I wish I'd used a 5 percent.  I didn't leave it sitting in the dye, I just dunked the three edges and then left it to batch for several hours.  And this is how it turned out--

Very different from the original fabric.  I'm still considering what to add with additional layers, it doesn't feel done to me.  The one on the right is the rayon bamboo scarf, you can just see the old patterning under the flag fold lines.  I think this is a vast improvement.

I am itching to spend another day waxing and dyeing, but I suspect it may have to wait a couple of weeks.  I have a little bit of quilting to do on my Tangled Textiles piece, and then I need to get it faced.  Maybe if I can find the energy to get the quilting done after work this week?  We shall see. . .

Waxing Eloquent

Well, maybe not eloquently, but I was busily waxing this weekend.  I spent several hours at fellow USDG member Robin's home, playing with soy wax and dyes.  Some I got done there, some I finished up at home.  

The last time I tried using soy wax, I remember having issues- like, it wouldn't soak into the fabric.  This time the wax behaved perfectly.  I'm guessing that I didn't have it hot enough the first time.  

I took some white Pimatex fabric, and some pieces that were already dyed.  The results told me that it really does matter what kind of fabric I use.  The smooth, tightly woven fabric (like Pimatex) seem to hold the wax better, which means less dye seeps under the line.  Since I was doing multiple dye baths on some pieces, that makes a difference.  So here's the fabric I ended up with--

The two on the right were done on yellow fabric, the one on the left started with white Pimatex.  I absolutely love that one.

The one in the upper left is on white Pimatex, the others started with yellow fabric.  I used three different potato mashers, a pastry cutter, and a small brush.  I did three different dye baths, then waxed after each, then I waxed the entire piece and put thickened dark blue dye on.  I probably crackled the wax a little too much, but I love this piece anyway.

What's not to love about all that texture?

The last piece is really different- I wanted to see what would happen if I just put brushstrokes of wax on the cloth, then paint different colors on.

I wasn't sure about this one at first, but it is growing on me.  I really like the movement I got with the brushstrokes.

I had more dye adventures this weekend, but they will wait for another post.  Time to wash the dye out of my hair!!