Tribute

As I mentioned in my last post, I have been posting about scrunch dyeing techniques at "... And then we set it on Fire", which is a group of fiber artists who specialize in surface design techniques.  After dyeing several pieces of fabric, I challenged myself to use some of it in an art quilt.  I played around with various methods of using the fabric combined with some of my other fabrics (stash buster!), and put the finishing touches on the piece just this morning.  Here's how it ended up:

I hung it on a cafe rod in my bathroom, next to a sunny window to highlight the quilting.  As I mentioned in my post on the other blog, I got some smudges on the center panel when I mistakenly used a graphite pencil instead of a lead pencil to trace the leaf and vine design I later embroidered.  So I decided to finish the piece, then launder it to remove the graphite.  I remembered how I love the three-dimensional quality quilts get when they have been laundered, which in this case, added to the visual interest. Then I went back in with a lead pencil, drew the vine and leaves, and embroidered... just right!  

 In the closeup above, I had a piece of fabric I dyed by covering a button with the fabric and tying with string.  The button had a raised daisy pattern which transferred to the fabric, but it was very faint.  So I embroidered the petals, then used french knots to create the center.  I free-motion quilted the white area around the flower.

This is a closeup of a square I made using some of the scrunched fabrics I dyed for the blog posts.  I used free-motion quilting to highlight the design.

Here I tried to get a closeup of the border, which was created with more of the scrunched fabrics. Again, I used free-motion quilting to meander over the patterns of the scrunch.  And this gives a little better view of the embroidered panel in the center.
I mentioned in the other blog post that I decided to call this piece "Tribute", as a tribute to my Mom, Step-Mother, Grandmothers and Great Grandma, all who were very gifted in various fiber arts, and who inspired me to work in fiber.  But it is also a tribute to the many wonderful fiber artists I have met in the past several years online, who have so generously shared their techniques with the world!  I have learned a great deal from you all, and hope to be able to share what I have learned with many more!

Up to my ears in fabric!

I've been a busy gal lately!  I'm a Resident Artist over at "...And Then We Set it on Fire", and this month is my month to blog.  I decided to do a series of posts on Scrunch dyeing, one of my favorite methods, and I'll let you wander over there to check them out if you want.  Meanwhile, I'm now in the middle of working on ways to use some of the fabrics in a project, and my studio is in total chaos!

I took this shot yesterday as I was backing out of the room, and it only shows a small portion of the fabrics which are strewn everywhere!  And here are a couple of pieces I have created using a combination of my scrunch dyed fabrics, other hand dyed fabrics and commercial fabrics culled from my ever-growing stash:

I still don't know how this will end up, but I'm having lots of fun combining fabrics in various configurations!  Meanwhile, if you've never tried scrunch dyeing, I've given you several methods to try in my posts... hope you join in the fun!

  

 

Possible new project

After playing with the batik fabric I created a few days ago, I got inspired to try a new project using batik fabric. But I will need more than the amount of fabric I finished recently, so I cut about a yard and scrunch dyed it today:

The idea I have is to create a 'space junk' whole cloth quilt, and I envisioned shapes similar to the ones on my smaller cloth, floating on a black background. This fabric has better colors than the practice piece, but I almost hate to overdye with black and obliterate all that color! So I'm going to study it for awhile before I proceed. The way this came out, it almost looks like a solar explosion, so I may put it aside and dye another piece for my 'space junk' idea. That's what I love about having a bunch of pre-washed undyed muslin hanging around... just waiting for inspiration to strike!

Using up leftovers

Thanks to a few of my fave bloggers, I got inspired to use up some of my leftover dye that has been hanging around for awhile. I don't use old dyes on clothing since I'm not sure what I will end up with, but for fabric it's great! Here are the results of today's 'leftovers':

This one is a combination of Plum Blossom, Lilac, Sage green and Golden Yellow.

This one is Orchid, Lilac and Bronze

This has a little Robin's Egg Blue, Aqua Marine and Bright Green

This one is Cerulean Blue with just a smidge of Deep Orange and Lemon Yellow to create my version of 'Dusty Blue'.
These dyes ranged from 1-3 months old, and I stored them in a refrigerator that has not been on for months.

Each piece of fabric is a yard of 44" muslin. Now I just need to decide what I want to do with the fabric!

Fabric Dyeing

I have a friend who sews professionally, and she recently started making 'Eye Bags', which are filled with flax seed and are designed to be used to releive headaches by freezing the bag and placing over the eyes. She has several massage and physical therapists who are ordering them from her, and she wanted to have me dye some fabric for her to use. Her request was that the fabric be in soft, muted colors that would be relaxing to look at. I dyed 5 yards up yesterday, using Orchid, Lilac and Sage Green in a scrunch pattern. Here is a picture of part of the fabric:

This is more muted than I would normally do for my own use, but I sent her a picture and she loves it! Another satisfied customer...