As I mentioned in an earlier post, a specialty fabric or two can be the primary inspiration for an entire quilt. And that’s what I wanted to try. This is sort of what I had in mind. I had intentionally dyed some large scale fabrics in order to try my hand at this. Plus, I…
Dying specialty fabrics is a lot of fun. Having said that, I don’t think I’m that good at it. And I DEFINITELY am challenged when it comes to using them. But, I’m getting ahead of myself. During my recent dye session I tried to create some specialty fabrics that could either be used together or…
In my mind there are two basic types of dyed fabrics: those that can be used for yardage, and those that have specialized patterns. These are a few of my yardage pieces. They fall into this category because I could cut pieces out of them in a variety of places and still get pretty similar…
I stopped counting when I got to 250. TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY unique color swatches! More than, actually. These are the swatches showing what each of 7 different basic colors looks like when mixed with the remaining color, Turquoise. Each color combination has been mixed in 3 different proportions, and 3 different strengths. Here’s Lemon…
I’ve recently changed my dying process and I’m really liking it! The impetus was the book, Colour Your Palette, by Leah Higgins. She mixes her print paste thinner than I’ve been doing and is, therefore, able to dispense her dyes from squirt bottles. I decided to give it a try, and boy do I like…
What to do when the call for art requests ocean animals smaller than 12″? This is my result: two fish for SAQA’s “Fresh Fish” project. These are made from scraps, most of them hand dyed. I had fun adding a little hand stitching. It turns out that this shape is VERY hard to turn right…
Well, I think maybe I’ve finished making croton leaves for a while. This is where it stands now. Numbers 2-8: I really like the way they look together, don’t you? I think I’ll submit them as a collection to some exhibits. All the fabrics are my own hand dyes, except for one. I have one…
How do you reward students in an online class? I’ve decided on a digital gold star. I wanted to make a special fabric star as my starting point and a friend loaned me a 3D pattern from Fabri Flair. Perfect! First, fabric selection. I wanted to use my hand-dyed scraps and for each piece to…
I haven’t done any garment sewing in ages, but all my luscious hand-dyed fabrics have had me thinking about using some in this way. This is the fabric that started it all. Isn’t it gorgeous? Although I’ve been dying to use it, I wasn’t sure how to use it in combination with other large scale…
I’m apparently quite enamored with these 3D Croton Leaves. They’re all part of a larger series (or installation?) called A Croton Story. Here’s Chapter 3. And a detail shot. I hope you can tell that the two halves of the leaf sort of fold up around the central vein, but with quite a bit of downward curl…