Finished Quilting Marbled Fabric Quilt

I finished quilting my Marbled fabric quilt. This quilt came together so fast for me. Keep in mind I created the fabric in 2013. I could say, I've been planning it for the last six years, 

but you know that's not true. 

At first I had no idea how to quilt it. Outlining the shapes didn't really appeal to me.

Below are two closeup shots of the quilt.

I laid some clear plastic over the whole quilt and started doodling with an erasable marker until it showed me where it wanted to be quilted.

Marbled Fabric Quilt

I started a new quilt this week using some fabrics I marbled in 2013. If you have never experienced marbling fabric, I highly recommend it. It is a magical experience! When I was teaching art at the middle school, I loved seeing the students' reactions as they lifted their papers off of the marbling tub and flipped them over to see the beautiful designs they had created. They used the marbled papers to line the inside covers of small books they created. The outside covers of their books were hand stamped from blocks they carved and inked up.

Showing Scarves at Studios on the Park in Paso Robles

Studios on the Park will have their opening reception for the  "Hand Crafted for the Holidays" show this Saturday from 6 to 9 PM. There's lots of great hand-crafted gifts in the show, including some silk scarves made by me. Hope I'll see you there!

Gelli Plate Prints on Fabric

I'm still having fun using art techniques with leaves

Here's a few gelli prints featuring leaves from my collection and one feather.

I really like the texture on some of these.

I plan on enhancing them with some paint and marker work.

As you can see, I first printed some different backgrounds on the cotton

 and then used the leaf as a mask as well.

This last one was a feather I found on our property. 

I love how the textures, which were printed first, came through the feather.

Sun Printing Fabrics

 All the beautiful fall leaves are inspiring me to do more sun printing.

Here's the fabric with 'stuff' on it, drying in the sun.

And voila, the finished fabric below.

The one below was done on fabric with German cursive writing. The first photo

shows it drying in the sun and below it is the finished piece.

The one below was scrunched up and then I applied paint 

to the top ridges and put out in the sun.

Below is the resulting fabric.

More fun with fern-like leaves below.

Another scrunched up one below.

New Monet-Like Ice-Dyed Fabrics

The other day I created a couple more fabrics for my blue,-green-yellow stash. I have a lot of strips cut and am wanting to create an improv style quilt, but wanted some focal point blocks here and there. I love how these turned out. They remind me of Monet's water lily paintings. Who knows? These might take me off in a completely different direction.

Monet's Water Lilies, 1922

Dye-Na-Flow Play

Really enjoyed my time playing with Jacquard's Dye-Na-Flow paint this week. 

 Below are two pieces of cotton, one scrunched up, the other accordion folded. Manipulating the fabric gave it some great textures and interesting nuances.

Painted a couple of silk scarves as well. I plan on putting these

 in the upcoming Studios on the Park "Handcrafted for the Holidays" show.

Dyeing Silk Scarves

Had a lot of fun over the weekend dyeing two new scarves

 and over-dyeing two previously dyed ones.

 I was afraid that the darker colors would totally take over the lighter ones on this scarf below,

but that didn't happen. I enjoy working in this very free, abstract painting style. After squirting on the dyes, I gently lift the plastic a bit from each end to encourage mingling of the colors.

  Below is the finished washed and ironed scarf.

On the other new scarf  I used the arashi shibori technique, binding it to

a pvc pipe with rubber bands.  I used Lemon Yellow, Deep Orange, Turquoise and Terracotta.

 Here is the finished scarf.

The one below was previously dyed but came out very light. It was a chiffon silk, which takes the dye differently than the China silk ones above. I wanted to add more color to it.

The picture on the right shows it with all the wet dye and notice how dark it looks.

However, after curing, washing, drying, and ironing, 

it came out looking very soft and impressionistic. 

    

The scarf below was another one I tried to over-dye, but it didn't work out like I had hoped. I may try to do some stenciling with silk paints over it, to make it a little more exciting.

I'll be selling these scarves and more at the Studios on the Park in Paso Robles

 at their Handcrafted for the Holidays Show

 which opens November 21st and runs through December 28th. 

If you are local, check out their holiday show. 

Studios on the Park does a great job providing arts programming to the local schools.

 They serve over 100,00 students and visitors every year. 

They are located at 1130 Pine Street in Paso Robles, California. 

To find out more about them and their hours, etc., visit Studios on the Park

More Shibori Shenanigans

Dyed some more fabric in my blue and green series. I'm trying to get enough to create a new quilt. For that I need lots of different values of those colors.   Here's some of my new ones and a picture of my design wall with possibilities.

And last, but not least, a fun picture of my friend Phyllis and her granddaughter

having a great time dyeing shirts in my studio.

Shibori Dyeing with Friends

This is the beautiful view from my studio last night.

Below is an accordion folded Itajime piece, done on Essex Linen from Dharma Trading Co. I really like it and the hand of the fabric is perfect for showing the details.

Over the weekend, one of the members of my weekly quilting circle had her art-loving granddaughter and boyfriend visiting her. She asked if they could all come over and dye a shirt. So here they are below working on their projects.

Love the intense concentration from Cameron as she's applying the dyes. Her boyfriend seemed to have a good time dyeing his first shirt ever. He was glad to find out why those kind of designs on shirts are called '"Tie Dye."  It was quite the ah-ha moment for him.

Below is another picture of the cute couple.  

Can't wait to see how their shirts turned out.

New Itajime and Arashi Shibori Fabrics and Shirt

Here are some new dyed fabrics and a shirt I made 

 with a fun group of women, part of the Sew Whatz group,  in the studio barn on Saturday.

This is a T-Shirt I over-dyed using the Arashi Shibori technique. It had been previously ice-dyed but needed another layer of pattern to tie it all together into a more cohesive design.

This is an example of the honeycomb technique.

To learn more about that technique, see my post previous to this one. 

I like the water-like texture in these honeycomb pieces.

I used hexagon shaped tiles to create this clamped resist piece shown above.

I think it resembles glowing bugs with long antennae and legs.

Above is an example of stitched resist know as Komasu Shibori.

The one above is folded just like the stitched one above it, 

but you use only rubber bands

 to create the patterns.  I like it quite a bit and it's easier.

For the one above I used two balsa wood cut outs of a maple leaf  I bought at Michaels, clamped together with fabric in-between them. 

The piece above was accordion folded and held together with rubber bands. 

It's done on linen.