FROM CLOTH TO WALL QUILT

 Ever since I discovered how adaptive ice-dyed fabrics were to what I refer to as Frank Lloyd Wright Prairie Style designs....I've been off and running with ideas.

Several pieces of ice-dyed fabrics, made on a 3 day dyeing marathon with two pals, caught my eye as they were organized into my stash. This one was actually the result of a trade....it's a flurry of excitement on our last evening as we review what we created....trading is not uncommon.  So, if I recall correctly....this piece was Judy's.  It began as a rather boring rusted fabric, but caught my eye in this over-dyed rendition.

I'd brought along some pale cotton prints to over-dye.  This one was accordion pleated and as you can see, not very successfully dyed but I did love the color.

 Our last Fiber Junkies meeting's focus was transfer printing.  I am not keen about the process we use as the fabric is generally stiffer than I prefer to work with.  However, Kate (thank you, thank you) insisted I do at least one....providing me with a cactus image and a piece of rust dyed fabric.

This is the result.  AND...talk about a perfect piece for my current project!

VIEW 1. believe it or not, 4 different ice-dyed fabrics have been incorporated into this piece.  Ice-dyeing yields such unique designs and colors....it's amazing that 2 of the 4 had been made at least 2 years ago, yet still coordinated with the current batch.  

View 2 -  The 'plan', though I didn't map it out on paper or computer was to make a smaller piece to more easily fit into my gallery space at Woolworth Walk in Asheville. AND.... to utilize as much of the fabric as possible, some being smaller, odd size shapes. Since I still had a limited amount of fabric left, a final row was added to the top.

View 3 - I'd considered adding circles to these designs before but hadn't quite figured out how best to do that, until now.  The cactus fabric seemed like it would be perfect to feature. The front of the fabric actually blended in too well, so here you see the back of that fabric instead.

The finishing touches are being done today....stay tuned.

BILL SCHROEDER - AQS CO-FOUNDER

To many, the name Bill Schroeder will not be familiar, but quilters know his name because he was such a moving force in the quilt world.  Bill, with his wife Meredith, brought Paducah, Ky to the forefront of the quilt movement. Sadly, he passed away May 13th.  More info can be found here.  

 Comments from very prominent folks regarding his passing will flood in. This little voice too wants to express gratitude for his dedication founding Collector Books, the AQS Quilt Show, and the National Quilt Museum. They were both there to support my fledgling career way back when by publishing my first two books, hiring me to teach, lecture and judge at over a dozen of their shows, and the opportunity to lecture and teach at the fabulous museum.

A wonderful man whose impact on quilters everywhere can not be underestimated.

OPEN FOR BUSINESS - Woolworth Walk

This will be a brief, right to the point post.  We are officially open for business at Woolworth Walk in downtown Asheville.

 Setting up our space went fairly well, once some items were installed.  Here Judy and Kate are drilling holes into the clever scarf racks Kate made.

 .....And then installing on a side wall that would otherwise be pretty much dead space.

 While they worked on those tasks, I began to hang my work....following the master lay out plan developed on my guest room floor!  That left me available to  assist them as their quilts got hung.

 Mary's space

 Judy's space - Judy and Kate are sharing the hanging scarf rack in Judy's area, and a floating shelf in Kate's.  The canvas portfolio rack under the shelf will be shared by all of us.

 Kate's space

As we were packing up to head back home.....the first two people to step into our space were quilters, visiting Asheville from Cary, NC.  Let the fun begin!

Linking to:  Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Friday, Sarah's Whoop Whoop Friday, and Crazy Mom Quilts.

COMING SOON.......

 Last August pals Judy Simmons, Kate Weston and myself were juried into the well known Woolworth Walk in downtown Asheville.  The popularity of this gallery is evident since it took until about 2 weeks ago for us to be finally notified that a space was availalbe.  I may not be overstating by saying most of the artists stay on there for years.

Woolworth Walk is a uniquely Asheville experience; a privately and locally owned gallery in the heart of downtown, located in a historic building and representing local artists exclusively.  It's complete with a working soda fountain!

Our space is in the lower level, where all 'new to the gallery' artists start out. We purchased the lights from the previous artist and set about plans to paint the walls white.  The flooring is original, stone or ceramic is our best guess....it desperately needs cleaning!

Once we divided up the space.....armed with measurements of my section, I taped off our guest room floor to help me decide what pieces would make the best use of the space. We've exhibited several times at the NC Arboretum where we had the luxury of displaying 90-100 pieces.....that is NOT the case here.  We pay for every square inch so it's important to utilize it!

Besides wall art, I'm hoping there will be a lot of interest in the felted bowls/baskets I so enjoy making.  I planned on using one of the many ladders scattered about our home but ended up deciding on this one.  It was made from recycled barn wood, with narrow shelves rather than steps. I stored baskets filled with all sorts of handy items that I use constantly in my studio. 

 Even with measurements available, I found it necessary to visually ascertain how it would look.

Taking the time to preview how some of my pieces would fit was beneficial.

It was a bit dismaying realizing how few wall pieces could be displayed.  So I considered another option in order to add just 1 more piece.

 I tied out this cubby hole bench (also made from recycled barn wood).  After a ridiculous amount of indecision, I finally chose to use the ladder because the bench was only 19" tall. A longer, taller table may be in my future....

 This week we were back at our space to paint.

 Not surprising, it would require two coats......ever heard the term "watching paint dry"?  We were definitely doing that....anxious to get on with the transformation.

And here it is......booth # 235 - Woolworth Walk - Asheville, NC

Later this week we will hang our work, so check back if you care to follow our progress......it's all so very exciting for us!  

TAMING DYED FELTED WOOL

This week I've been blogging about the various methods pals Kate & Judy and I played with during a dyeing marathon.

I addressed the two-step approach that finally helped me achieve color on the different fibers used to manufacture National Nonwoven's Woolfelt.

One other common issue that develops during the drying process is the wavy edges you see on this piece above.  Steam pressing often does not remove them.

So at home, working with dampened wool, I stretched the piece flat, pinning the edges to a piece of cardboard.  It was left to dry for 24 hrs....which solved the problem! Of course I could have done that after the fabric was rinsed, BEFORE it dried.....but given the environment where we worked, it wasn't practical.

Check out these links to see what others have been working on this week:  Nina-Marie's Off The Wall Friday, Sarah's Whoop Whoop Friday, and Crazy Mom Quilts.

DYEING MARATHON - PART 3

I'll spare you from having to look at the many dozens of pieces I dyed.  Instead, here's a look at some of the methods we utilized.

 This is a piece of ice-dyed Woolfelt. As I mentioned in a previous post, MX doesn't dye wool successfully, therefore the 20% wool fiber content of this National Nonwoven fabric appeared as white fuzz.  Using clips to hold the folds of the fabric, it was reprocessed in an indigo acid dye bath. Photo here.

 We use a large canning pot, heated over a burner fueled with propane for acid dyeing.

 I frequently work with silk noil.  Here are two disappointing ice-dyed pieces, scrunched with rubber bands and treated to an acid dye bath to create more color/texture.

This silk noil piece began as a solid light khaki color.  Borrowing a shibori folding method.....held together with string, this too was processed in our indigo acid dye pot.

 We all agreed, this piece was one of my best results.  Ice-dyed silk noil, using leaf green, stormy gray, and straw MX dyes.  We just love it when the colors split!!

 We did a LOT of over-dyeing this time.  I had 4 barn red good quality napkins that had gotten stained....and you know how that goes.....no matter how many times you pre-treat and wash....the stains remain.  The answer:  Ice-dye!!  If I'd had known it would work so well, I'd have brought the placemats that matched!

 Kate is modeling an over-dyed hand quilted whole-cloth vest I'd given her. I know the photo is poor quality but I assure you the results weren't.  I still have a closet full of wearable art from my teaching days, fashion shows, and books. I'm thrilled to pass them along when anyone expresses interest in a piece.

The last evening our piles are impressive....and the trading began!  We not only return to our daily lives with lots of beautiful fabric but with treasured memories as well.

DYEING MARATHON - PART 2

Ice-dyeing is a subject I've covered many times on this blog....and one the three of us do regularly on our Folly Beach jaunts.  The following is not meant to be a tutorial....rather an overview of our approach.

 We work on a large concrete pad beneath the house with an enclosed utility/storage area attached.  We assemble all our dyes together...(note the microwave....we micro-waved dyed this time as well.....mostly over-dyeing pieces that needed improvement!)

 We've done this so many times that we've really developed a system....here we have kitty liter pans labeled with the main color we've chosen to dye with....and each of us add fabrics as desired.  

Big buckets are prepared with a soda ash solution, this one now contains all the fabric we had selected for our 'brown' batch. 

 Large bags of ice have been purchased and kept in a cooler.  Kate is preparing one by breaking the cubes into manageable sizes with a rubber mallet.

We can never remember what combination of dyes we used...esp. if we want to either avoid doing that again or repeat when results are superior.  So, now we take a reference photo of the 3 or 4 we use for each pan.

 Fabrics are arranged on a screen placed on top of a kitty liter pan.  Ice chunks are placed on the fabric (sometimes we tray dye as well....placing small amounts of fabric loosely spread out in the pan).  Judy, showing excellent dyeing precautions is wearing rubber gloves and a mask as she sprinkles the dry MX dye power onto the ice.

 Each pan is covered with black plastic, secured with clothes pins and set in the sun to batch.  This is what we did the first day (with maybe one or two more that weren't in the photo).  Not bad considering we didn't arrive till around 1:00 PM).  Sincerely, we've worked together so often we almost have an assembly line method now.

 The next morning when the plastic is removed....all the ice is melted and the delicious colors are revealed.

 Ever tweaking our system....Kate came up with the back saving idea of using a tall work trolley to wash out our fabrics.

Once the water runs clear, the fabric is re-washed with Synthropol in a washing machine and hung to dry.

We save the pressing to do during happy hour where there is always a lot of squealing and laughter....and yes, sometimes outright begging to trade!

More to come on the next post.

DYEING MARATHON

Bliss......I've been away with pals the last four day doing a dyeing marathon at a friend's home on Folly Beach, SC.  I'm considering weighing my stack of  fabric....surely it must be 10 pounds or more.....

Here's a sneak peak of some of my results.....more to come when I can take a breath....and stop itching from all the chigger bites!!  They LOVE me....and this trip I vowed to add another layer of protection besides the outside spraying my friend does.  My skin/clothing/and even hair was drowned in bug spray....and I thought I'd gotten away with only a few minor bites...not so....but worth every annoying itch! 

 Cotton long sleeve t-shirt that had been light tan, turned into a weird pinkish after accidently being washed with bleach in a load of whites.  Now, after some ice dyeing....I have a brand new t-shirt!!

 Ditto for this sweat shirt......it started as a pale yellow...that always looked dirty....now it has a new life....though I wish it would have come out more red.....I have an aversion to anything pink.

Hooray......3 white pieces of National Nonwoven's Woolfelt were ice-dyed, then overdyed with acid dyes.  Woolfelt is available in a variety of fiber contents.  The most common is 80/20.  One would think that means 80% wool - 20% rayon.  Actually it's the opposite....so when dyeing with MX the results are generally beautiful BUT there is always a flim of undyed white wool fibers. Those wool fibers will take up color when over-dyeing in an acid dye bath and the results are so lovely.

Check back.....I'll be posting more soon.

XRAY FILM

At the Fiber Junkie's March meeting, our focus was working with alcohol inks.  

 I'd read about using plastic sheets/transparency products and decided to see if the inks would adhere to some Xray film.  I'd unearthed more than a dozen big sheets from a past medical issue that were of no use to me now.

The inks didn't work.  Hey...a girl's gotta try right?  I gave some to Val because I just KNEW she's come up with a brilliant way to utilize them.

.....And she did!  Here's a prototype of a coaster.....a section of the film has been cut and adhered to felt.  I tried it out using a hot coffee mug....results "A+".  Next I'll see how it holds up to a glass filled with an icy cold beverage.

Kuddos to Val.....