There Is Always A Place To Hang A Long Skinny Quilt

 

This is a quilt with little quilts on it. It will also have some of my polymer clay work added.

I can think of so many spaces this could hang in.

Olympic Quilt Using Hand Dyes With An Artist Printed Large Floral

 

I had a piece of my Shibori fabric and was able to combine it with this large floral I was gifted from an Artist.

I had to add a real ugly piece from my hand dyes, and when used in the borders it was no longer ugly.

I made this as my Olympic project a few years ago.

Shibori Tiffany Ice Glass

This is my current favorite quilt and it is also my newest.
I hung quite a few fabrics on my design wall for inspiration and the top panel and the center panel spoke to each other and invited the others along.
But before they invited the others they auditioned some others who didn’t make the cut. I’m happy with their choices and the design.
Each of these fabrics have been created over the last several years. Before they became the supporting fabrics at least two of them were ones I’d consider my uglies.
It’s always great to be able to figure out how to use some of my favorite fabrics in a composition.
This is 37 x 35.5 inches and is currently hanging in my studio gallery.  $1795 and free shipping within the continental United States.
As you know I create work with colors and designs that are at home anywhere and everywhere. Great ART doesn’t have to match the sofa, but it is OK if it does!

Black And White Shibori

The combination of black and white can be very striking.
These are all the fabrics I found in the basket.

I did not arrange these to make a composition. They are just arranged to fit the available space on the design wall. I even had to put some fabrics on top of others to make things fit.. After I took the photo I rotated it 90 degrees so you could scroll down and see each piece a little better. The total measurement of what you see from top to bottom is over 16 feet.
As usual I have no idea how I manipulated some of these fabrics.
I am so glad I found these fabrics and I am quite sure some of them will be showing up in my work in the near future.

Luscious Hand Dyed Fabrics All Organized

These are my hand dyed shibori and ice dyed fabrics all organized and ready to use.
The only ones that aren’t here are the very large ones.

These are most of my solid hand dyed fabrics. Many of what you see are piles of gradations of a color or blends between two colors.
Looking at all these dyed fabrics in both pictures in the flesh really stirs up my creative juices.

Accidental Dyed Objects (Images)

The images on this shibori dyed fabric look like trees. I have no idea how I manipulated the fabric.

This is an ice dyed fabric and these look like a tree in full flower.
These are just 2 examples of some interesting objects that have appeared as I dye fabric.
This is one more thing that happens when I dye and keeps me interested.

A Colorful Productive Day

There is another view of a quilt I am working on.

You get to see part of the quilt that wasn’t talking to me and telling me what it wanted to be. It finally spoke loud and clear and the top is finished.
I now have 4 tops ready to layer and quilt. They are all new work made from the fabrics that hung on my wall for several weeks.
I also cut the batting so I’m ready to layer them tomorrow.
It’s a good feeling after being away from creating while I have been purging and organizing the studio and doing some home decorating. Yes, the purging and reorganizing is not finished, but if I don’t take a break and do some creating I lose track of the purpose of my studio.

Another Exciting Ice Dyed Finish

It was finished a few weeks ago but I finally took a picture of it.
I am pleased with it. I enjoy seeing all the different patterns the manipulation of the fabric before I dye it created. I hope you find them interesting too.
The border was created with arashi shibori dyeing.

Complex Shibori Dyes

As I was organizing and folding my dyed fabrics I pulled these out and hung them on my design wall.
I wanted to study them and look at each one of them to see if it told me what it wanted to be. I am still studying them but I do have some ideas.
These are special pieces I used unique techniques to create and I want to showcase the piece and enhance it as a finished work of art.

Marrying Fabrics From Different Dye Sessions

As I study the fabrics I have pinned up on my design wall  I can see what may work together. This is a finished top that will be quilted in time.
I am breaking my rules about not showing unfinished work again, but this is how I can keep track of what I am doing and when. I have a vague idea as to how I will quilt this.

Contemplating How To Use These Fabrics

I have a lot of fabrics I have dyed.
I find one way I can think about possible uses is to just hang some on the design wall and leave them there so I can look at them and get ideas to use them.

I have already made a decision on what to do with one of these pieces and started on creating with it.
A few of them have gone back to the table with the other dyed fabrics.
One of them told me I should use it on another project I will be working on soon so it has also been taken off the wall.
I may be doing some very simple things with some of these. After creating for my shows recently, working on my Olympic quilts and finishing some works in progress it may be time to slow it down a little.
Another advantage of having them hung on the wall is I start to see possibilities for quilting designs.
It’s not a race, it’s the enjoyable process of creating.

They Are Sewn Together!

Once the pieces are sewn together it makes the entire piece more exciting and clearer.
I haven’t measured it but I am guessing it is about 8 feet wide and 24 inches high.
Of course the next steps will be to layer and quilt this.
I am pleased with it so far.
This would look fantastic hung above a double doorway or a large window. I can also visualize it hung above a sofa, bed or buffet.

Designing On My Design Wall

I shibori dyed this group of fabrics a few years ago.
I decided to put them on the design wall to see if I like what is happening.
Showing it with the furniture gives you an idea of the size.
I do like this so I hope to join and quilt them.

Variations In Fabric Dyeing

I am sharing another group of dyed fabrics.
I hope you find them interesting.

I can’t even remember how I did some of these shibori fabrics. Many were experiments.
I have used quite a few from this group in my work.


Some people dye with intent to use fabrics is a design they plan to create. My normal method is to create dyed fabrics and let them inspire me to create my designs.
This was an example of dyeing with intent and it really didn’t work. Yet, nothing was lost as I had more fabrics to design with and I have used quite a few of these.


This was created with a method of ice dying that was different than what I use. I just slapped it into a few folds or something very quickly. I love the results but so far it has not told me what it wants to be. Some fabrics don’t start talking as early as others, just like some children.


This is a fabric parfait. The fabrics are layered in a container and each one gets a different color of dye and the dyes mix to a degree.
There are just so many ways to dye fabric and so many wonderful results.
If you are not satisfied with them you can always over dye them, paint on them, discharge them, cut them in strips or smaller pieces and put them back together.
With the hundreds of pieces of fabric I have dyed I have never had one I couldn’t see a way to save.

Lucious Hand Dyed Fabric

I have used a few of these in my quilts but there are so many more to use. Everything you see in this post is some method of shibori dyeing.

I played with new ideas creating this group of fabrics and also used some more common methods.


Common palette, different manipulations.


These were dyed black and then discharged with 3 different products.
Dyeing holds my interest as the possibilities are endless.
It is a challenge to decide how to best use each fabric.

I Enjoy Creating And Using Shibori Fabrics

This was a long skinny piece of white fabric I wrapped around one of my poles. I like the unique pattern it created.

This was from the red dye bucket. I don’t know what it was before I did the red shibori dye on it.

This was shibori dyed with blue dye and then again in an opposing directions with red although it had been dyed previously in some manner.

This is the fabric I used for the binding on the block printed quilt I showed yesterday.

This one is also red over plain white fabric with no specific pattern.
Although I dyed well over 60 fabrics with these 4 recent dye buckets I have used so many of them in my recent work. The fabrics themselves inspire me and get my creative juices going to create interesting works of art.
Using highly pattern fabrics requires a lot more thinking to figure out how to use them.

Newest Quilt–My Hand Carved Block Prints

About a year ago some friends and I got together and carved our own blocks to print.
Then a few days later we met again and practiced printing with them.
I brought a variety of fabrics with and experimented with different paints, brushes and rollers, and how they worked on the different fabrics. I was bound determined I was not going to purchase any other paints or supplies.
I was semi pleased with most of them. Robbie kept telling me they were good prints.

All of the fabrics had been shibori over dyed with black or red dye.
Fast forward to last week when I decided to cut them up and make something.
The irregular spacing made it a time consuming process to fussy cut and get the most useable prints, I used 30 of the 34 I was able to cut.
I spaced the block I had most of every other space, filling in with the others.
I cut narrow strips for the border from what was left.
My favorite part creating this quilt was doing the spiral machine quilting. It has become a feature in my recent work.

Chasing Rainbows 6

I am so pleased to have finished another quilt in this series.
Each one is very different than the others which is my goal.

The coloration of this one is more limited that the previous ones. It will be an easy quilt to live with and will evoke a peaceful feeling, all the while keeping you interested and seeing something you haven’t seen before.

This is the fabric I created by dyeing several times before I did the satin stitching on this finished piece. If you are one of my Facebook friends you may have seen me post the fabric recently.
I really love making these. They are very labor intensive as I need to do a lot of thread changes, design and color decisions. Yet, a finished work is so satisfying.

Sharing Some Recent Shibori Dyeing

I have now done a black, blue, red and black shibori bucket.
My total yield was over 60 pieces.

I did a black shibori overdye with this multicolored mandala. It has the look of stained glass.

Do you remember my Olympic Quilt 2’s ugly fabric I used in the border. It went from ugly to gorgeous. The section I didn’t use was still ugly. I did a black shibori dye over that and now it is exciting.

This piece needed some more definition which I was able to achieve with black dye and clamping sections.
I am pleased with the results of all of these.
I need to think about each one before I decide what I will do with them.

You Can Never Have Too Much Money Or Too Much Red Fabric!

I’m sharing more of the Dye Dogs that became gorgeous fabrics from the red shibori bucket I did recently.

This was a silk screen image on white fabric. I wanted to add some color and texture to it.

Although you see a lot of blue in this one, the final shibori dye was done with red dye.

This is one of those pieces that is so much better than the photo.

Each piece is manipulated differently and I can’t even tell you how I did them. I purposely to NOT keep records as I want to play and experiment to get my original designs on each one I dye.
I never know what to expect when I rinse, washout, dry and iron my projects.
The red batch produced so many wonderful pieces.