My Latest Silk Quilt Is Finished

 

I am happy to have finished another one of my Olympic Quilts even though it is after the closing ceremony.

I love, love, love the way silk takes color.

The background fabric is one I used in a jacket and the other fabrics came from a bag of hand painted silk I got from Joe Sherman ties in Chicago.

I debated on what edge finish to use and I'm very happy with the zigzag over edge finish.

Silk Olympic Quilt In Progress

 

I am working on my Olympic quilts but wanted to share a little teaser before this one is finished.

There is nothing like silk to take color beautifully.

I'm on the home stretch for this one.

My Olympic Dyeing Medals

I want to share a few more of the best pieces from my recent dyeing personal Olympic event!

This piece of silk noil coordinates with the one I shared yesterday.

I was doing a color test on this piece of vintage 14” wide kimono silk.

I had to scrunch up this piece of silk double georgette to get it all in the picture. It is a large scarf
All of the pictures today are silk fabric.
I love the way silk takes color and these are no exception. All won GOLD medals!

Another Color Hue Dye Scarf

Knowing that the Color Hue dyes do not mix once they are on the fabric like ice dyeing colors do, I still wanted to attempt a mandala with them.
I am quite pleased with the results even though this is very different than the ice dyed fabrics. It was a quick project to do.
This is a very lightweight silk perfect for a scarf or any number of other things.
I was using the very last of some of my dye colors. Even though the bottles of dye are very small, once they are mixed with water they do go a long way. I think we’ve dyed close to 40 scarves with this set and I still have a fair amount of some of the colors left.

Dyeing Silk With Color Hue Dyes

It has been a few years since I used my Color Hue dyes. I had already mixed many of them with water. They worked fine with no loss of color. One of the great things about them is they don’t loose their potency no matter how long you keep them.
They set instantly so there is no waiting period or color transfer to the cotton towel I roll them in to dry before I press them.

Since I didn’t have any silk scarves to try the dyes on I just used a piece of off white silk crepe. This can be a scarf after I serge the edges. I just did an allover spray with some dyes I mixed with strong values. When I did this with friends most of them preferred making pastel colors. 

I was not happy with the way I sprayed the colors on this one so I did a second application. For the second application I folded the fabric in triangle folds and dipped each fold in a different color. This started with a white very lightweight silk. I will serge the edges of this also. 
There are so many possibilities of different ways to use these dyes. And how exciting that they are permanent within such a very short time.
I plan on using more of these soon on silk scarves.

Snow Quilt

Thinking about all the snow so many parts of the country are experiencing I had to share this snow white improv quilt.
It is constructed from irregular strips of white silk. The only color is some quilting in both red and black to complement the stark whiteness and the design.

Sunset At Cedar Key

It’s finished in record time. I showed it as I was working on it yesterday. Since then I have cropped off some of the quilt to make a better balanced design. It is easier to take away than to add.

The entire piece is constructed with hand dyed silk noil. It is fused in place. I added a little bit of detail with machine stitching.

It was free motion quilted and also quilted with an even feed foot….whatever works for the area I am working on.

I used one of my favorite edge finishes…zigzag stitching over the outer edge of the quilt.

I used a medium weight drapery fabric for the back, casing and label. The heavier weight makes the quilt hang better and also makes it easier to do a smooth zigzag edge finish.

I’m very pleased with the finished quilt and I hope someone else will be too.

Silk Quilts

When my BFF Lisa mentioned making a quilt from silk I thought this would be a good time to share some of my silk quilts with you.

This Trip Around The World quilt was made with various types of silk. Silk takes colors so beautifully, unlike any other fabric. This is a perfect quilt to hang in a dimly lit area as it just glows.

This fused quilt was built in layers with various different silks. the patterned silk is hand painted.

It is not poor photography, it really is an askew shape.

Crystal Clear is silk that I painted with watered down paints. The edges were appliqued down with visible stitches. That is a lot more hand sewing than I usually use in a quilt.

Quilt Number 400–Old Florida

This is the 400th quilt I have finished. My goal was to reach this number this summer and it’s still summer!

The quilt is hand painted on raw silk. The shibori fabrics used for the borders are both silk and cotton.

If you think of Florida as Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, the theme parks, the ocean, the Golf and the interstates you may not understand this quilt.

If that is your view of Florida you have missed the best part.

One of the greatest parts of Florida is between the coasts, and a little less than half way down the state.

There is a part of Florida that is disappearing as northerners build out some of the most wonderful parts of the state.

Have you been to the horse country around Ocala where some of the best race horses in the country come from?

Have you been to some of the little towns like Micanopy, Eviston, Mt. Dora, Eustis, Lake City or any of the nearby towns?

Have you driven the back roads and seen the moss hanging from the trees?

Have you taken a boat ride on the back waters?

Have you seen the birds, creatures and vegetation native to Florida?

Have you see the old buildings, some in shambles and some kept up beautifully?

Have you met the people who have been born and raised in Florida and are proud of their state?

It can be a softer more gentle Florida without the hurry up and wait mentality.

If you can’t answer YES to most of these questions it’s time you took time to really see Old Florida before it disappears.

This quilt pays homage to that special part of Florida – it is not one particular place, it is my vision of OLD FLORIDA!

My Turquoise Is Green

This is the color I used to overdye the pieces I dyed strong orange last week.

It was interesting to see how different the results were on the cotton versus the silk.

On the silk the results were more of a  olive green shading to browns.

On the cottons the results were between a turquoise leaning green and a dusty green.

I am very pleased with this piece even though it was not exactly what I was trying to create.

You can see that whether the fabric was silk or cotton that STRONG orange was in control!

Although I sometimes know better to choose the colors I do when doing my dyeing, it always seems to be a pleasant surprise when I see the results.

I have taken Carol Soderlund’s Color Mixing For Dyers classes – both 1 and 2.

I do have the knowledge to control the results I get, but I am often a “by the seat of my pants” dyer!

Even being that kind of dyer the information I learned in Carol’s classes is something that guides me. I learned SO much in her classes.

My shibori techniques have been learned in Jan Myers Newbury’s classes.

Putting the two together has given me the skills and freedom to create some awesome fabrics I can create exciting quilts with.

If anyone wants to learn to dye fabric I highly recommend both of these instructors.

Silk Scarves–Orange Overdyed With Turquoise

When I dyed these silk scarves the orange was far to strong for almost anyone to wear.

I decided to overdye them with a turquoise. I didn’t have turquoise dye so I mixed my own.

No matter how much of the blue dye powder I added to the yellow it still was very green so I went with that.

It did tone them down somewhat but in the photo it still looks like a VERY strong orange.

I have a feeling the yellow in the mixed dye also did it’s work on the original orange.

These two scarves started out with a much paler orange as I used spent dyes to dye them orange.

I did a clamp resist on each of them and I am happy with them. They DID turn out very green.

Silk takes the dye quite differently than cotton and I will be sharing the cottons I over dyed soon.