THE QUILTER'S ALLEY

Whirlwind December and November, too

thequiltersalley — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 21:17:48 +0000

I’m documenting my adventures constantly, but have little time to edit the photos and post. In reverse order

In the bag

Wet Felting with Kitty Jones and Alison Baker at the Aldrich Museum. Like I need another project, but I’m hooked.

We studied the work of KateEric and connected with our own surreal place. Design and Sewing at the Aldrich.

A taste of the Holiday Rush…. and still quilting.

Waiting

thequiltersalley — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 12:43:07 +0000

Our last foray into dying was a smorgasbord of color. Nancy brought me sea water for mordanting and fireplace ash water which we used to transform turmeric – yellow to red. My stash of natural dye fabrics is growing – some still a surprise. We used amethyst, english red and an array of greens, browns, grays.

While I was waiting for Nancy to arrive, I started to tie my bundles in folded, clamped and rolled patterns. The pearl cotton I had dyed the week before is used to tie some of the bundles. I want to see if the indigo leeches out onto the other colors.

accordian fold

tied with indigo string

to dye and over-dye

I also mixed a batch of turmeric. Boil for 1/2 hour to release the color. So much turmeric remained at the bottom, but no worry, the color is still intense and so, so permanent.

turmeric bath

I also took out a stencil I’d been saving for something and dry-brushed flower patterns with turmeric.

We stopped for a deliciously colorful lunch (ginger carrot soup, almost the color of turmeric) to visit our local thrift where I found a beautiful white piece of fabric for another day. $1. for 1 + yards.

I am waiting for the bundles to dry a bit. One that was dyed in logwood dried quickly and yielded beautiful patterning. The piece I rinsed too soon, faded miserably. These bundles also, accidentally sat out in an unexpected rain and dyes migrated into interesting results.

I is for Indigo

thequiltersalley — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 12:34:38 +0000

We finally got together like we said we should and now Nancy and I are on a roll. Last Friday we did Indigo and Black Walnut with all sort of techniques for surprise results. I should, but I don’t know the names for wrapping cloth around a pole or a tree branch (Arashi Shibori) or folding it between slabs of wood (Irashi). The results are awesome. Here are some photos.

On the line, in the sun

Sumi plaid and pokeberries

the next day...

Now we have to make something

A show of hands

thequiltersalley — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 12:36:15 +0000

by the participants of Sound and Sewing = a Makers Night Adult Workshop at the Aldrich Museum. What an amazing group of brave and talented.

We explored the Chelpa Ferro exhibits to stir ideas for our hand-stitched pieces. Thanks Suzanne for the wine and cheese.

Listening and reacting in words to the sounds

Gathering materials

decisions, decisions

designing

ideas in bloom

binding her "book"

intuitive reverse applique

running stitches

inspired by real life

flowing

and what a space to make art. Thank you Aldrich! Thank you artists for giving yourself the time to explore.

A week of Quilts

thequiltersalley — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 19:24:30 +0000

Mood Indigo

thequiltersalley — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 11:18:28 +0000

I’m a self-professed “not a blue person.” But, blue fabrics, prints are the most popular color for quilters. As a shop owner, I’ve noticed this as a clear-cut fact. However, in recent years, true blue fabric has been very lacking in the collections of most of the contemporary designers. More often, they opt for turquoise-y shades. There are a few exceptions, especially if a designer has a blender collection which likely has one light blue or navy. But we generally look high and low for a good blue sometimes.

I’m reconsidering my preference for green after my Indigo day this week. I discovered pre-reduced indigo in the Jacquard catalog and just had to give it a go since my budding plants are struggling to grow a third leaf, it seems. (I haven’t given up! nor do I minimize Jude’s recent success with the real thing!)

With pre-reduced indigo, you simply mix the crystals with water if you want a short term dye bath. The instructions get a bit more intense if you plan to keep the dye more than a day. So I mixed a 1/2 gallon tub which pretty much was gone with the few yards of cotton I colored in it. The results are phenomenal. Well, maybe not so if I had used my grown up leaves, but let me tell you, still pretty amazing.

I used white and pale yellow cotton, overdyed a brownish piece from the dye class, organdy, vintage muslin and other…

I pre-wet, pre-mordanted, dipped and loosely bundled with rubber bands…

I am thrilled with my not-so-scientific results, but have more experiments ahead.

I found Vinyl gloves that actually kept the dye off my hands for a change. No kidding, not all surgical gloves can handle water.

Little Bits

thequiltersalley — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 12:03:49 +0000

I got thinking about what my friend Nancy and I were talking about the other day. We were saying how the summer is almost gone and we feel unfulfilled in our accomplishments. So I went around taking photos of everything I’ve recently done that don’t amount to one BIG thing, however..

a pretty successful tea-dyed bundle

You may not be able to see the places where the little leaves resisted the tea, but I know my bundling is improving ever so slightly.

foamcore loom and serger leftovers

Sergers leave some mighty-good strips, and Sheila Hicks was in the shop this week. (There are many, many more links for her retrospective.)
And a post I mentioned her in last year. (scroll to bottom)

yellow with a plastic fruit bag resist

using newly-dyed and other

made from same scraps

Have I made my point, yet?

Go see what Nancy didn’t do this summer.

Experiments and play and generosity count!

When I dye

thequiltersalley — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 12:34:11 +0000

I am crazy happy when I dye. I am even crazy-happier when I teach people to dye. Last Friday, we had a remarkable day – beautiful weather, beautiful people gathered to play and discover color. It was a well-contained mess. Tarps all over the classroom. I decided to keep it inside because it was closer to a water source and less humid, but we hung our newly-hued pieces in the outdoors with lots of curiosity and comment from our neighboring shops. I felt like we were bringing this craft to light again. Comments concentrated on “tie-dyeing” mostly, but we were happy to be creating awareness that it’s all still alive and it’s not the ’70′s.

ready, set

dilute, stir

blue spoon

soak

Summer Show Recap

thequiltersalley — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 12:46:12 +0000

Just a quick review of late July, early August that has kept us so busy packing, traveling, setting up, tearing down, more traveling and not blogging so much.

Lowell Images 2011

The quilt in the center is all Cherrywood hand-dyed fabrics. Thanks, Nancy, for letting us hang it in the booth. It’s amazingly beautiful!

thai break with fabritique

Marian (Tom not in photo) of Fabritique and Stu enjoying some rest and restaurant. Marge of Maine-ly Sewing was next to the photog and not captured in any pictures. Bruce wasn’t there. (see below)

dad and girl

Ally met us there to help out in the booth and with the dogs (not shown)

more thai

Kathie Alyce (specialty rulers and quilt design) with Stu. Great idea for dinner! It’s hard not to fit in some fun stuff when you bump into the same nice people from show to show.

Maine Quilts…..Augusta, ME

double booth

I hate towing

Bruce's yard

some good clean yankee-red socks stuff

fresh!

Thanks for your hospitality folks.

Indigo Little

thequiltersalley — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 12:13:21 +0000

There is something so sweet about growing a plant from seed. I haven’t done it in a long time. Mostly because I haven’t enough time and my patience is used on everything else.

Two weeks ago: I ordered some indigo seeds.

One week ago: They arrived from across the Atlantic – in a small padded envelope. I looked inside the envelope and almost didn’t find my indigo seeds. I was surprised to see how tiny they are and how few there were. 12 And how precious that makes them, especially if I have plans to grow and harvest leaves for blue dye.

This week: I waited for each seed to expand after soaking and have now planted nine, each in it’s individual cell. (I’ve learned that they are delicate for transplant.) I realized after reading that indigo likes heat, that my kitchen counter may be chilly to Indigo, while comfortable for me in this heat wave. I put them outside, hoping they will love the warmth and humidity and germinate into healthy little sprouts.

temporary starter home

cute baby sprout

I can’t believe it… now I have two sprouts,the one above now turned upright and another, all today!
I do this as an experiment, of course, always with the likelihood of some level of failure, although I am never sorry because I always learn something. I may learn that I should just buy blue dye in a box or I may learn something that will make a great story in my August dye workshop.