grape leaves & hydrangea dyeing – part 2

Well, time for the unveiling……

As a reminder, this is what I started with-

After letting the rolls of fabric/leaves/flowers dry for about a week, I decided to give them a steam bath.  Onto the stove-top they went for about an hour in a stainless steel steam bowl, covered with lid.

Then, I threw them onto the back stoop for another week or so.  Today……I unrolled the bundles to see the results.  Sorta appropriate since today is Christmas Eve….it’s like opening a present!

My thoughts…..

It is hard to see from the photos, but the leaves/flowers did dye the fabric some – however I didn’t get distinct leaf shapes onto the fabric I had hoped for.  It seems like the leaves dyed brown and the hydrangea dyed orange.  There is also a fair amount of blotchy color…..almost like a fabric dye ‘run’ – yet I don’t think it was the fabric – rather the leaves/flowers.  Once I let it dry in the sun for a week or so, I’ll wash it, press it and take another picture and hopefully the changes will show up better.  The inside was damp when I uncurled it but no mold had started.

Overall – - – I’d say it was a good experiment even though I didn’t really get what I ultimately was hoping for.  It does look more aged – and to me more interesting – which is what I was looking for.  It was just too pristine before.  I might still do something else to this piece – I’m thinking to read up on rust dying and add some of that.  Or maybe I’ll just roll it back up and stick it in the ground for 6 months and see what happens.

Klimt – My new favorite artist

I might be obsessed with this artist…..and I certainly wish I would have bought a book or two of his work when we were back in the USA – but my suitcases were at their maximum weight – I simply didn’t have room for one more thing.

Fortunately, we were able to view a few of his paintings up close and personal at the Neuegalerie in New York.  I tried to see one at the Smithsonian in Washington but it was on loan at the time.

One of the things that I like about his work is that it seems to lend itself to quilting….is has a geometric element within many of his works.  Especially the one titled Portrait of Adele Bloch Bauer I.  I’m not sure but I wonder if this is one of his more famous paintings?  From what I’ve read, she was his muse.

Anyway, I want to interpret one of his paintings using fabric and free motion quilting next year.  I have all my quilting peeps digging through their fabrics looking for yellow/maze colored fabrics to share with me.  I think I only need a maximum of about a 6″ piece of each fabric as I want to use a hundred or more fabrics.  The next thing I need to decide is which one of his paintings I want to interpret.

The question came up as to whether it is right or appropriate to copy someone’s work.  I posed the question to one of my family artist and this is what she said based upon her experience and education with one of her teachers:

“[it's] perfectly fine to learn how to create a piece of art by trying to “copy” others.  (Of course, never pass it on as an original idea).”  She said she  ”learn[ed] a lot about color, form, design, technique, etc by doing that.  As long as you’re putting brush to the canvas (or needle to the fabric) you are that much closer to your own ”masterpiece”.”

So, I’m taking that as permission to play and experiment!

Here’s a few pix of a card set I bought of his work:

And here’s a link to his complete works – Klimt

If you have any bits and bobbles of yellow, maze or gold fabrics – especially those with a bit of gold in them – and want to share, let me know and I’ll email you my mailing address!

Vignette blocks 5 & 9

Another border block finished.  I find that I get really sick of these long blocks but once the embroidery is finished, I’m excited to sew the pieces together.  Then I think I’ll wait awhile to start the next one but I don’t.  Go figure.  Yesterday I started on block 4 and I’ve been busy sketching ideas for the center of the quilt.

grape leaves & hydrangea dyeing – post 1

Today Mr. W pruned the Pinot Noir so I had a ton of grape vines & leaves to work with.  Plus, the hydrangea bush is in full bloom.

I’ve been reading India Flint’s book Eco Color on using natural material to over-dye fabrics.  I don’t have a firm grasp on it all yet – but I decided to dive in anyway.

Starting with an uninspiring (ugly?) quilt top.

I sprayed it with vinegar water.  Then I layered hydrangea blossoms & grape leaves onto it.

After wetting the leaves again with the vinegar water I rolled it up and secured it.  I did the same thing with just a plain piece of fabric that I’ll probably use for the binding.

White grape leaves are supposed to yield a yellowish color – but I couldn’t find what red grape leaves produce so it will be a surprise when I unwrap the package.

I’m not 100% sure what I’m going to do with it now.  Steam it?  Let it sit out in the rain for a few days?  Bury it in the garden?  Rather than an overall color, I’m looking for the imprint of the leaves.

There’s a possibility that I’ll unwrap it and nothing will have changed because of lack of a ‘mordant’…..I don’t really understand the mordant business yet – - – it apparently is needed for the fabric to soak up the stain or dye.  I guess when I unwrap it and if nothing has changed, I’ll just try something else (like maybe rust staining the fabric?).

One Quilter’s trash is another’s treasure!

I have a new quilting friend and she’s cleaning out one (yes, I said ONE!) of her quilting studios.  She brought me this bag of goodies on Thursday.  Who’s the lucky girl????  (that would be ME! ME! ME!)

Masters Art Quilts – Book Review

Now…..this is a mother of all art quilt books.  I will definitely be checking this one out for another month.  I can’t tell you how may hours I’ve spent looking at this book while sitting in front of the TV in the evenings.  I started to make a list of the artists in order to  later ‘stalk’ them online.  The list includes: Ha Ziv, Cher Cartwright, Deidre Scherer, Linda Colsh, Charlotte Yde, Joan Schulze, Jette Clover, Pauline Burbidge and Katie Pasquini Masopust

And that was when I stopped – because I’d only gotten through half of the book.  Suffice to say – there is plenty to drool over in this book.  Plus, I think every possible style of quilting imaginable is included.  Even though I’m not personally drawn to several of the styles of quilting in this  book – it was interesting to read about their processes, their inspiration, their history.  Also, the caption of each piece lists the techniques or items used which is really helpful when trying to develop skills.

As I look at the work in this book I keep coming back to the question of “how do they find their inspiration?”  Do they wake up with an idea or do they just start and see what develops?  I’m not sure if I have inspirations or ideas – and I wonder if that is what holds me back…..I keep coming back to the fact that I’m good at following directions (or patterns) but do I really have what it takes to come up with my own ideas/inspiration?  Do I have the artistic push necessary to come up with my own designs or am I destined to simply be a ‘piecer’….someone who colors inside the lines rather than ventures out into the unknown?

A few quilts from this book:

Cher Cartwright – Rock, Paper Scissors

Jette Clover - this one is interesting because she used a rusting technique – which is something I want to try.  I also want to try burying a quilt top for 6 months with organic materials and see what happens.  While stalking Jette Clover, I ran across the blog Art Propelled – another amazing place to spend time.

Joan Schulze – another artist that ticks my boxes….she combines photo transfer, glue resist and collage with her art which makes for some simply breathtaking works of art in my opinion.   It seems like she is a most prolific artist – someone I’ll be following.

And now….it’s time to stop stalking other artists and go out into my little house and create……not sure what it will be today – but it will be something!

‘Art Quilt’ Book Review

Time to return another batch of books to the library – here’s what I’ve been reading:

Simply Amazing Spiral Quilts by RaNae Merrill

Interesting book but not something I want to pursue at this time.  This would be perfect for the person who wants to really get into geometric work.  There is good information in here about choosing your fabrics – scale and color – in order to make the spirals really swirl.

Again, some great machine quilting work on her examples.  And, I love the concentric circle appliqued on the cover.

Personal Imagery in Art Quilts by Erika Carter

This is another one of those books that details the transition the quilter made from traditional quilting to art quilting.  Her later work is quite abstract and that is the work that most appeals to me.  I’m sure it represents specific ‘stuff’ to her – but I like that I can interpret it to mean anything I want it to mean.  Truly, isn’t that art in general?  I struggle with art critics and art instructors and all telling me WHAT or HOW I should interpret something (whether it’s a painting, a photo or a story or whatever).

She says….”Personal, internal landscapes are organic.”  (I LOVE the word ‘organic’……it’s my new favorite word after ‘fractured reality’).  Back to Erika…..”Personal, internal landscapes are organic.  They live, change, and grow.  Some aspects wither and die.”  She goes on to talk about how she came up with an entire new language – the language of landscape which became metaphors for personal issues.  Sounds a little deep and I may not be getting the entire gist of her thoughts across – but suffice it to say that the words in this book are just as inspiring as her quilts.  I think it’s her story that is most compelling because it’s not that it is a story of great strife and chaos or hardship (or it could be, I’m not sure) but more that she had the internal angst……she knew at times that she wanted to do something different but she didn’t have a path to follow or know the path to follow and yet she just kept plugging along until she found HER way.

I am drawn to her work.  I like the hand-dyed fabrics and I like the squares and rectangles.  They are visually appealing to me.

Art Cloth by Jane Dunnewold

There is a ton of information in this book for dying and painting fabric.  Not only does it cover the different techniques for adding or removing color but it gives you ideas for developing your workspace, the tools you need and how to build layers of color onto your fabric.

One of the techniques I’m going to try is fabric resist using flour.  I’ve dyed 3 pieces of fabric to use in my 2012 leader/ender project but I’m not quite happy with them yet.  I’m thinking by doing the flour resist, I can add some depth to the fabric.  As soon as we have a couple days of dry weather – I’ll be tackling her method.  Should be interesting!

This is another one of those books that I would definitely check out again or perhaps even purchase.

Eye candy

I like this gal’s blog – and her stuff.  I especially love the circular quilting – oh, and the wonky drunkards path blocks.  A drunkards path quilt is on my (quilt) bucket list.  I just haven’t found the one I want to make yet but oh…..wouldn’t a WONKY drunkards path be the cat’s meow?

Malka Dubrawsky – A stitch in Dye

She sells her things on Etsy too if you would rather buy than make.  Check out her camera straps!

Did I mention she dyes her fabrics also?  I’ll be adding her to my ‘inspiration’ page.  REALLY REALLY (standing on one leg REALLY) love her work.

2012 leader/ender project

Years ago, my good friend Karen started making rats.  Well, not exactly RATS but sewing rats.  Instead of having to cut her threads when she started blocks, she whipped a little snippet of fabric through at the start and end of each quilt block.  (Clear as mud, right?).  Anyway……as with many things she comes up with…..I thought she was nuts.  :o)  I half-heartedly tried it and discarded the idea.  About a year or two later (yeah, I’m a slow learner) I tried it again and low and behold – wonder of wonders – it was pretty slick.

One day I was bragging to her about how I had finally come to the rat tail party and she says….”oh, I don’t do that anymore.”  WTF? (sorry mom….I know you hate it when we swear…especially LOUDLY).  Really?  What was she doing NOW?  Well, she told me about her leader/ender process.  Perhaps it’s age – perhaps I’ve learned – but I didn’t wait a couple years to try this new system out.  I was immediately on top of it and I am amazed at how much extra piecing I get done by doing it this way.

My problem is that I run out of leader/ender bits and pieces.

Flash forward (or back?) to a blog I read earlier this year about this group of women discovering a bow tie quilt made with a cheddar background.  They then challenged themselves to use this pattern and color for their leader/ender project for the year.  They offered the challenge out to the quilt world – complete with pattern and instructions and background – Quiltville.

As usual, I’m a little late to the party.  However, I’m going to start my own little party….maybe I’ll call it the ‘after’ party ‘cuz I’m thinking these gals probably already have their quilts done and dusted.  My little change is that you can use any ‘unusual’ fabric as the background – not necessarily cheddar.

But then this morning – I was delivered a curve ball.  I discovered a WONKY bow tie block on the site 42quilts.  If you haven’t spent any time on 42 Quilts blog – you might want to.  She’s doing something very clever (and again, the party already started but I think a gal could easily catch up).  She’s doing a Modern Monday and a Traditional Tuesday version of the same blocks.  I just love the versions of the Modern Monday blocks that her and other gals have done.  It’s so….well……ME.  Wonky.  A Bubble off Plumb.  Strange.  Out there.  All those adjectives that people could use to describe me.

Wonky bow ties it is for me.  And, I’m going to use my left over fabric vomit collection with a hand-dyed background (or three).

Bottom line (sorry this has gotten to long) – if you’d like to start your own little 2012 leader/ender bow tie project – jump in!  The water is fine.  No rules – make up your own.  But let me know if you’re doing it or not – and I’d love to post a picture or two of your progress.  So get crackin’ girlfriend……2012 is less than 3 weeks away.  CHOP CHOP!

Fractured Reality 4

I struggled with this one.  It’s the 2nd of my triptych quilts out of the Japanese Taupe fabrics.  I knew what I wanted to do – a bit of an oversized slash-job with different pieced sections.  Making the different sections wasn’t a problem but fitting the separate sections together was a real challenge.

It was the angles that caused the problems and confusion.  It wasn’t like I was using typical angles like a 45 or 90 degree angle….oh no…..I had to just shoot off wildly into what satisfied my eye.  Good grief.  I could get 1/2 of the quilt to fit together nicely but then to join up the other half and have the slashes meet – it was giving me fits.  I had moments of wondering what the heck I was doing – why be creative?  Why not just follow a pattern and keep it simple?  Who really wants to be an art quilter anyway?  blah blah blah….the voices were having a conference and it was hard to shut them up.  I can’t tell you how many times I walked away from my design wall in frustration with the thought of just sewing 9 patches.

Then…..out of no where…..Solution!  I had an old mailing envelop laying around so I cut it to the size of the panel.  Then, I traced the 1/2 that I had already pieced together onto the panel.  From there, I could draw in the angle to cut the other 2 sections in order for them all to fit back together again.  It truly was just like a ‘stack and whack’ block – just on a larger scale.

So, here we are…..the finished (for now) triptych 2 panel.  I wouldn’t say I’m crazy about it but perhaps it will grow on me.  I especially like the left side – the 1/2 square triangle block section – and I don’t mind the log cabin section.  The star blocks might be a bit large – although I like the bottom of it.  Maybe it’s the checkerboard section at an angle that fights with my eye…..I’m not sure.  It’s still on my design wall and I’m trying to figure out what I do and don’t like about it.  I guess that’s part of the ‘art’ process, eh?

I’ve also been re-thinking panel 1 (Fractured Reality 3 and 3.5).  What’s to say I can’t combine the two of them?  I’m working on that idea while trying to figure out what triptych 3 is going to consist of.