Slowly, over the course of a couple of months, I began to notice the same group of colors. First, was a Croton plant. What pretty oranges and greens! Then, I noticed the mess on my table, which had the same colors. I decided to work with green, yellow-green, and orange. I pulled out all the…
Last summer, I made a quilt called Beet Salad. I put a lot of work into it, including dyeing all the fabrics especially with this quilt in mind. This was the final result. Although I liked it, somehow it didn’t quite meet my vision. I wasn’t sure what it needed. Recently, (when I finally put…
When you combine one of your favorite activities (dyeing fabric) with one of your favorite people you KNOW you’re going to have a good day! Such was the case when my friend, Perlie, came for a dye play day. She’s an experienced dyer, but we have very different ways of working, so it was interesting…
When dyeing fabric, it’s not at all unusual for me to wash out a fabric, decide it needs more, treat it (again) with soda ash, and continue on. Such was the case with this one. The eyeballs/ovals on this piece were originally pale yellow. Well, that was just creepy! It looked like a lot of…
I’ve been wanting to dye some luscious terra cotta and rust colored fabrics, but wasn’t having good luck with my usual primary mixtures. Therefore, I bought some “Strong Orange” and set about learning what it would do. First, I made swatches of it mixed with each of my other colors. Yes, it took A WHILE….
I’m beginning to realize that dyeing fabric is an endless process of learning. Although I can now predict much better what my results might be, I still miss the mark pretty routinely. And, of course, I’m still trying new things, so I can always count on surprises with that. But it sure is a heck…
After starting a new quilt at a retreat, it was time to continue at home. Now, where was I? Something like this. I studied the arrangement and knew I wanted to change a few things. (Remember the abundance of that favorite fabric bottom left?) While that was percolating in my brain, I looked for areas…
Whew! After LOTS of rearranging and trial and error, I’ve finally finished this piece. And I’m quite happy with it. The finished piece is 36″ x 26″. It’s available for $695. The yellow in this detail shot looks a little yellow-green, but it will show you the circular quilting pattern, done both on the machine …
As I worked on my two-colored “beet” quilt, it became obvious that composition was going to be SUPER important in creating a successful piece. Because the yellow showed up so sharply against the reds and purples I knew the yellow circles would form the focal point of the piece and they’d need to be arranged…
I’ve been having fun making units for my current quilt. It features the colors of red and yellow beets, represented by wonky circles. Follow along with my quilt design decisions. This was an early start. Initially, I made all the circles very imperfect. But, as I began to play with composition I began to question…