Quilt using up commerical Fabric

I had decided a while back that I was only going to start using my own dyed fabric, but whats a guy to do with all these fat quarters, 1/2 yard and 1 yard cuts of commerical fabric.. well I guess I need to use them up.. So my brother inlaw was stationed in IRAQ and I decided to make him a memory quilt of his boys. So here it is.. the top is finished and I'm dyeing the back as we speak.. suppose to be 78 degrees today.. so the backing is in the bucket using Butterscotch.. my new favorite color, Terra Cota and Gold Dyes. Ill post a pic of the dyed fabric after it is complete. I did this quilt top by making all the pictures the same size. 4x6 and centering them in a 12" square.. and did paper piecing to give irregular stips... can you see I'm still in "STRIPE" mode! The pictures were printed on silk fabric and fused to fusible tricoat.. I have alot of this stuff and want to get rid of it.. LOL Any questions just ask. I have to admit these really arent my colors but I love this.. I'm not the best technical sewer, which is why I try to stay away from Squares, triangles etc. so I dont have to match points.. but its the thought that counts I know.

Just Updating

Hadn't posted in a few weeks so figured I'd do an update.... Have been getting myself organized for the C&G Course.. all in binders now.. and starting to collect information. All weekend I rearranged and organized the studio space as well... Wow do I have a lot of fabric... My brother in-law made it home safely from Iraq thank God. Talked to him on Sat morning and he was exhausted. I had talked to his wife while he was over there and he had missed his son's terribly so I've been in the process of making one of those memory picture quilts. so In my organization I went through and picked out the fabric for that quilt top. All manly masculine fabric... No Neons etc. So started that process and got 2 of the 12 blocks designed done. so I feel like I got alot accomplished but no real art done this week or weekend.

Last week I attended a meeting in Lafayette with a group of Fiber related artists.. Its a local group consisting of dyers, basket weavers, bobbin lace, knitting, art quilting, mixed media, a couple of Ladies I believe teach at Purdue. 1 is in Fashion Design and the other chemistry I believe. This is certainly a talented and diverse group of people that would be fun getting to know and being part of such a great group like that. We had show and tell and showed all of our works and it was very engaging and awe inspiring as we asked questions about each others work.


Oh and happy late St.Patricks Day!

More Quilting "Follow The Leader"

I just kept looking at it and it needed more... Someone suggested some Scarlet red added and I was thinking of a sun or orb type symbol so I made it a scarlet sun/moon not sure which yet. Quilted in some grass and then used a silver in the forfront of what I'm calling the water. now to figure out what to do on the ground. Oh the Orb is Lutradur that has been painted with Lumiere Red and then fused down then stitched with a metalic red thread. More to come. As Always feedback is welcome...

Dye Results

after 9 yards later.. below are the results. Have to say the orange and browns are my favorites. I just cant seem to get away from this color... I need to work on some greens to go with them :) Anyways enjoy...




The Above is the Orange/Browns.... The Silk showed the color a little litter.. the Butterscotch in the middle is my favorite new color... I love the Terra Cotta on the right.. not so much on the Rust color...




The Above were the Reds... Really couldnt tell the difference at all on the silks with the 2 reds.. but the cottons showed a slight difference... The Red violet well what can I say..looks great.

And the Blues... Not sure how I feel about these.. the Dye took VERY FAST on these colors was surprised didnt give me much smoosh moving with the spoon that I woul ahve liked. I must had used the wrong color of Dye and not use the Midnight blue on the left piece at all.. I like the Wedgewood blue on the right.. gave alot of neat textures.. these would be interested to overdye I think.

Dye Day

Well its just warm enough today to get me in the mood for dyeing.. so I decided work with 9 colors today. 3 Orange/browns (Butterscotch, Rust Brown, Terra Cotta) 3 Reds (Red Violet.. ok not a true red but I love this color :) , Chinese Red, and Basic Red...Tired of Fuschia so giving that a rest) 3 Blues (Cerulean Blue, Wedgewood Blue, Midnight Blue) Some of these I have not worked with before.. after all isn't that what Playing is all about.. I am dyeing both Cotton PFD and China silk.. I believe its 8mm but not sure.. I know its very very thin so its either 8mm or 10mm. Then I am going to do a 1 yard parfait of each color group. This should be fun.. look tomorrow for pictures. but here is my way of using those water bottles with squirts on top..ok off to adding water and geting the electric blanket out!...oh before I forget for those who are curious.. I used 3 teaspoons per 2 cups of water... Normally I use 3 Tablespoons but I"m not going for IN YOUR FACE color this time LOL

quiltin's done! LOL

I finished the quilting on the 2nd of the Stripe Series.. I think I'm going to call this "Follow the Leader" after quilting the outline of what seems to be some sort of figures now.. I thought the stitching wasnt thick enough even with the Oliver Twist Thread so I went back over it with a narrow satin stich... then just used a regular stitch to outline the horizontal plane.... of for a couple of days out of town Northern Chicago.. geeze wish I could go fabric shopping.. but after that Ill be back to the grindstone.. Got all the stuff printed off for Cities and Guild so starting to get all that organized as well. Going to be a busy busy man! Later...ohh.. P.S. please let me know what you think!

Series #2.. Next Step quilting

After staring at this over the weekend and trying the flour resist.. (if you look at the picture close enough you can see the spider veining going out in the Darker color) I decided to lay out with chalk how I might quilt it.. Looks kinda tribal I think... No glitz on this piece I think.. I have some oliver twist thread that is kinda that "turqoisish" shade to quilt in. Any thoughts? You know I want the constructive criticism now!!!

Glue

Had a few moments so I worked on a few collage pieces just to see how it turned out.. I watered down elmers glue 1/3 glue to 2/3 parts water. Then painted it on a piece of acrylic.. a bit of Angelina then some blending tissue paper.. then more glue... then a few more pieces of tissue paper then some more glue then a few pieces of dyed sheer silk. let it sit for 24 hours and peeled it away from the acrylic. It interesting but a bit to "Plasticized" for my taste so will have to work on some other fabric medium.

This piece was treated the same way except I through in some silk roving pieces and Angelina Fibers. Will have to experiment with this more but at a later time.

Series #2 Stripe

Here is my 2nd attempt at trying the flour resist.. the first one I should have taken a picture.. I know I know.. all curled up on me.. so this is stretched over a stretcher bar and held in place with silk pins. Flour/water mixture has been mixed to the consistency of pancake batter and painted on with a brush. The idea is when this dry's it will crackle then I am going to use a thick bleach solution ie softscrub or the like and paint that over the crackle to see what happens. I have really appreciated the comments... Keep them coming!