Still Life Quilt

I have a quilt in a show in the Bella Mundo coffee shop on Monterey Street in San Luis Obispo and it sold!  Yeah! I made it in 2008 or so. I started it in an Esterita Austin Workshop.  Here it is!  A big thank you to Sharon in our Cutting Edge Fiber Art Group who made this show possible.

Marching Instead of Quilting

On Saturday, I participated in the San Luis Obispo Women's March, one of the many sister marches throughout the country.  It was a powerful experience.  I had not marched in a protest march since the Vietnam era. Our much was wonderfully organized. Even the rain did not discourage us in getting out the message that 'Love trumps Hate."

Finally Finished "Shibori with Bird" Quilt

This is a story of a quilt.  In 2009, when I was working on my Masters Degree in Art Education I started a stitched resist shibori quilt. I had done some arashi shibori prior to this but had always been fascinated by the variety of designs that could be achieved through resisting dye via stitching.

Below is a picture of the quilt after dye was applied and rinsed out. Notice the wavy stitched lines at the bottom of the piece both in the picture above and below.

It took me eight years to get back to this lovely piece of fabric. I would take it out at least once a year and try to figure out what to with it.  Finally in 2016 I made a border that worked well with it and started hand stitching and embroidering on it.

Feeling it needed a focal point, or fun little surprise, I discovered a negative area that resembled the shape of a bird, so stitched one in. The eye was painted.  I was a nervous wreck painting it due to the permanence of the acrylic paint, which did not leave much room for error.

Paint and Dye with Itajime

This is the last piece from my dyeing session a few weeks ago. It started as an experiment using paint and whiffle balls.

I did some itajime folding and clamping as you see below.

After clamping, I applied dye and let it batch for about 24 hours.

Here's the finished piece, which I feel has a lot more depth and complexity.

Wishing all my readers a very Happy New Year!

More Itajime and Over-dyeing

I started with an arashi piece made some time ago that needed a little something more.

I folded it, clamped it and applied black dye, made up of two blacks, Better Black and Jet Black (from Dharma Trading Co.) I used 3 tablespoons of each, some salt and 1 cup of urea. 

It batched for about 24 hours.

The black came out very intense and black, while the wooden discs resisted the dye

 giving the piece some nice contrast.

New Itajime Piece and More

Yesterday I created a new Itajime piece and over-dyed a few pieces.

The fabric was folded in thirds then accordion folded into triangles. 

I clamped it and soaked it in soda ash. Then I removed the clamps and applied dye by using squeeze bottles. Next I wrapped it in plastic and let it batch for 20 hours.The picture doesn't do it justice. I think my lighting was off. I like how it really glows.

Here's one I over-dyed. The original fabric is on the left. I scrunched it up, placed it in a plastic container and added a little Deep Orange to it.  I think it has more depth now.

New Stitched Shibori Resist Piece

Last weekend I did a stitched shibori resist piece in Yellows and Yellow-Oranges.  Lots of fun!