June series quilts 3,4,5

This is June 3. The fabric for the center panel started out black. I bound and clamped it and discharged the color. After it was discharged I overdyed it to get the colors you see. All the other fabrics started out white and were either shibori or clamp dyed.


June 4 - This also started with a discharged and dyed piece of fabric for the center section.
The vertical strip on the left was part of the piece of fabric I discharged and dyed and used in the next quilt. Again the rest of the fabrics are shibori and clamp dyed.


June 5 - The center section of this fabric originally had 4 patterned rows. I cut off one of them and used it in June 4. Again the fabrics are discharged and dyed for the center portion and shibori or clamp dyed for the rest.

The center portion of each of these quilts were created within the same dyeing episode. The coordinates were fabrics created over a period of years. They all came together when I started creating the quilts in the June series.


Although these are not the fabrics I used in these quilts I wanted to show you how I start working on a composition. I pull the fabrics I think might work in the piece I am starting to compose. I won't necessarily use all the fabrics. I may add others. This allows me to see how the fabrics work together. I always design on my white flannel design wall. I don't necessarily cut the fabrics to the size I am thinking of using. I just fold parts I don't plan on using under so I can see if the proportions are right.

When I think I'm pleased with a section I cut the fabric with my rotary cutter. Often I will have to cut off a little more. Yes, there are times I cut off too much and then I resort to plan B - which is make it work somehow. It is trial and error as I compose a pleasing work of art.
This is the aerobic part of quilting as I walk across the room and look at my compostition to see if I am happy with it. I then may change it a little and walk away again. This is an on going process and since my studio is quite large I get a lot of exercise as I make adjustments to the piece - sometimes as little as 1/4 inch..

And yes, there have been some pieces that don't seem to be working. I put those pieces aside and come back to them at another time - which could be the next day, week, month or year! Sometimes I have multiple pieces on the design wall - each in it's own section as I need to take a breather from a piece to see if it is working.

In this particular series I spent a lot more time designing and making decisions than the actual sewing process took.

I was in a good state of flow so I just kept designing quilts and didn't stop to quilt any of them. It took only that month of June to design and piece these.

The quilting and finishing took 1 1/2 years.

You have now seen 7 of the 19 quilts in this series.