The Sentinel ~ my final Fiberactions Challenge

 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmnm   

That first line was from Broccoli. He has missed me, because I was working the past 2 days, & haven't been home much.

Below is the piece I made for the last Fiberactions Challenge.  The word was 'Structure', & I chose to build a 'Cairn'. It's a rock structure that hikers build to mark paths, or spots to alert other hikers. This one is placed by a river to mark a safe crossing.  

The first photo  shows the quilt how it looked when I first finished. As I had it hanging on the wall, I realized there was a hole in my stack of 'rocks' , & it bothered me. I made the rocks from the Shibori pole wrap process that my friend Sandy Winfree taught me this past summer.                                                       

After contemplating how I might fix that hole, I found a real rock that looked very much like the ones I made from silk. I threaded some long pieces of thread through a button, then glued the rock to the top of the button, & stitched the threads through the quilt (a process I learned from Allie Aller).

The raven standing guard by the Cairn is the one I made entirely from thread, free-motion on wash-away stabilizer.

The leaves are all from fabric that I straw dyed this past summer, appli-quilted in place over the couched yarns for branches. The challenges have been a lot of fun, but I've decided to challenge myself this next year. Changes are in the wind for us. Warren will retire. I will have to go back to full time. I am thinking about what I'm going to do next......we'll see.

In the meantime, I'll warm myself by the fire.

More Shibori with Silk & cotton

My sister Em asked for a shot of the deck skirt, so here it is. Warren worked on the first of 4 raised beds that will go in this corner of the back yard too. The other 3 wil have to wait until next summer, as he will be having his right knee replaced on Tuesday.

I've been working in the studio. I put the old Microwave oven in the corner, & set up all the Acid dyes that I just bought for dying.

I bought some black silk & tried discharging it with bleach, but it wouldn't discharge at all! so...I got out my Lumier paints, & painted it instead. The fabric on the right pole was a black cotton, & it did discharge without any problem, but the silk didn't fade one bit.The silks are the one on the left with the rocks, & the piece draped behind the 2 poles.

One of the pieces that I dyed at Sandy's house, the one with the large rocks, I stuffed the back side with bits of wool batting,( left from some traupunto project a while ago),

Then I basted a piece of cotton batting on, & stitched a flat backing, & quilted the whole thing from the front, & also added a cord for wearing it....

I left the edges on the front piece raw, but burned them a little to seal the edges. Now I can wear it like a little piece of art.

More Shibori

Wednesday I spent a couple more hours with Sandy dying silk. She soaks the fabric in water with White Vinegar. Roughly 1 cup of Vinegar in a big bucket of water. She lets the fabric soak for a minimum of 15 minutes, then rings it out, & scrunches it on a plate. She drips the dyes on. The dyes are Jaquard Acid dyes, just the powder mixed in a little water until dissolved. These can be kept forever, & used until they are gone. They don't bind in the water & lose the ability to dye the fabric the way other dyes do.

After Sandy's, I went to the local art store & bought some dyes, & set up on my hutch. I used straws to mix & transfer the dyes to the fabric, just dipping & holding my finger on the end of the straw, then dropping the dyes where ever I pleased.

After dripping dyes on to scrunched fabric, it's covered in plastic wrap & microwaved for a couple of minutes. Sandy did 3 minutes in her microwave, but mine is a little more powerful. The microwave causes the dyes to steam under the plastic wrap, & therefore sets the dyes.

After taking it out of the microwave, let it set for a few minutes more under the plastic to continue steaming, & to cool down a bit. The next step is to rinse the fabric well under running water, then let it dry.

Wrapped on a piece of PVC drain pipe (this has to be smooth, not bumpy). Using plain string wrapped tightly around the fabric, & rocks added as you go. The pole with fabric was soaked again in the vinegar water bucket, then more dye was added after wrapping.  Next was the hard part....waiting for it to dry...

This was how it looked when finished.

Tonight I did 3 more pieces. This first one, I used beads instead of stones.

Broc modeled one of the finished pieces. It has potential for a Halloween costume..Broccosaurus?

Acid Dyes

The thought of using "acid dyes" had always made me a little nervous. I had never really considered that the "acid" was only white vinegar. I had taken a couple of silk painting classes in the past, & love how the dyes flowed & colored the silk, but honestly never actually "got it" until yesterday, when my friend Sandy Winfree invited to come over & play at her house, & do some silk dying.  I forgot to bring my camera along for the the process, but here are the results so far......

Here are the silk wrapped on poles, Shibori style, with the 3 to the left including rocks & small stones to add texture. Today we will be adding another layer of color, then I have to wait a few days for the fabric to dry completely before we can see the finale results.

Sandy's process involves ironing & pleating her fabric before wrapping on the pole, which I did do for one small piece, but the others I just did the wrapping, scrunching & rocks, for what I hope will be a more organic result. Below is one of Sandy's breath-takingly beautiful quilts. She came to quilting from a doll-making background.