Something About Nothing

While participating in Jane Dunnewold's Art Cloth Mastery program we learned about the wonder and joys of over dyeing fabric. Over dyeing is as it sounds. Dye a fabric one color, and then after processing and a washing, dye it another color. There are many joyous surprises. I took half of all of my sample strips and made blocks for a quilt. It was only big enough for a large wall hanging, or baby quilt. I want a bed quilt. More fabric needed to be made. In my opinion, this border wasn't enough, visually, or size wise. So more pieces were dyed, And over dyed. I will be cutting these 9"x WOF strips into blocks, and hoping I have enough.  I should have done the math first, but I like living on the edge of uncertainty. I can always dye more!

 My friend, Sylvia , drove up from her home in southern Utah for her granddaughter's birthday. Since she was in town, and we are both fully vaccinated, we decided to have a dye party together. It's been at least 2 years since we've seen each other in person! I think we spent more time talking than dyeing, but that's okay, it was time well spent. I taught Sylvia how to create resists by pinching the fabric, and adding rubber bands. We used small hair rubber bands to create a resist. This is similar to Kanoko Shibori. A one yard piece tied up with rubber bands before dyeing. Sylvia swirled and tied up her one yard piece. We did a little parfait dyeing too. Only appropriate that we do it in ice cream containers! All of our tied, twisted and clamped pieces after adding dye. Sylvia took her pieces home in a bucket, and we both ended up letting them stew in their juices for 48 hours before rinsing, washing and drying. Here are my completed pieces: Tiny hair rubber bands on pi...

Over the past 10 years (maybe more) our guild has been having a dye party every July. Batik artist, Anne Munoz, started out as our leader in this endeavor and then somehow or another I got put in charge. hahaha I love it. It's a great party. Each year we will have a few newbies, but for the most part everyone knows what they are doing and they go at it. Andrea trying to decide on a color. This is always the hardest part. Paula creating fabulous designs. Wendy trying her hand at abstract dye painting. Shaving cream marble printing is always fun. Someone added a second piece of fabric to see if the dyes were still good after marbling. Gorgeous! I found these drops of dye from the ice dyeing beautiful. Everyone has come up with interesting containers for their ice dyeing over the years. Ruth protecting herself while shaking on some dyes for ice dyeing. Jill creating a Shibori piece to dye. Someone sprinkled some Urea over a beau...

As I create my tree drawings for the 100 day project I have been using an app called Prisma which applies artistic styled filters to the photos of my drawings. It creates some very fun art. I uploaded the art to Shutterfly and had cards printed. I love how they turned out! My art printed as blank greeting cards.  I received a commission for some stamps. My friend needed a house and hospital her daughter could stamp on her calendar to let her know when her Dad would be at home, or working at the hospital. Since the weather was beautiful, AND it's almost time for the Quilter's Holladay Dye Party, I decided to organize my dye materials. This seven drawer rolling cart is perfect for all my dyes. I even have a drawer to keep Quilter's Holladay's dyes separate from my own. Looking at this cart and ALL my dyes together, reminded me I have a LOT of dyes, and I really should dye more fabric! It also kept me from going totally crazy and buying a bunch of Natural...

Every July my quilt guild has a dye party. For some members it is the only time they get to dye, and even though others dye often, it is always fun to dye as a group.  More colors, lots of great ideas shared, and just fun to be together. Betty Jo (back left) has let us use her lovely yard for the last ten years. Not everyone dyes fabrics during the party.  Some sit and stitch, or just visit, and some bring wonderful show and tell projects like this one made by Ruth.  Anne and I mixed the dyes in a very heavy concentrate. We have two junior members in the guild and this is one of their favorite nights too. Betty Jo has property in the back which she rents out for grazing.   This year it was these beautiful miniature ponies.  The group likes to do ice dyeing so I set up a "station" which allows them to dye without the powders flying. They place their bucket or bag in the box, then don a mask and glasses before applying the dy...

A number of years back I had the opportunity to take a class from Melanie Testa. I had read all of her books, watched her on Quilting Arts TV, and followed her work online.  One of my friends accuses me of being a Fan Girl.  I can't deny it, it's true.  I am a huge fan of Melly's work!  I have learned so much about surface design from her over the years. I feel fortunate that our art has brought us together as friends as well. In 2013 I had the opportunity to take Carol Soderlund's Dyeing to Discharge class, and I soon became a big fan of Carol's too.  Carol's class was so well organized, and full of great information for dyeing and discharging.  By the time the week was finished I was exhausted, but filled with new knowledge and fresh ideas for my surface design work. I was thrilled when I heard Melly and Carol would be working together to publish a book on printing fabric.  They are the perfect artists to create this book. I have anxiously a...