Tie Dyeing Party

Last weekend we had a birthday party for my daughter. One of the things they did was dye t-shirts.

Camilla did her shirt in a spiral (top left). The other girls shirts all turned out quite different, but they all turned out great. They all fun, and they all have shirts they will be proud to wear.

I was trying to get mine done quickly, so I scrunched it up from the bottom and added a few rubber bands to create simple stripes. Camilla’s grandma did some internet research on tie-dyeing folds and came prepared with a plan. She folded hers to create a “V” design before tying.

I collected the dye runoff from the shirts in one container to dye some fabric in neutral colors. Can you believe that the dye for this started as a very neutral gray color? Somehow the colors separated while reacting with the fabric to create purple and turquoise. I will probably overdye the two lighter versions of this fabric another time.

Whisper Challenge Slide Show

All of the quilts from the 2009 Whisper Challenge can now be viewed on the blog for The Northern California & Nevada Region of SAQA:
http://saqa-norcal.blogspot.com/2010/04/2009-whisper-challenge.html

It's good to be able to see all of the quilts together.

Blue & White Resist Lines

The paint is dry, the glue resist came out easy with a good long soak and a cycle through the washer, and I have begun quilting my latest project.

A couple of people pointed out that I won't have "white" resist lines, since I started with blue & white fabric. Yes, you're right. I have blue mottled resist lines that look like my base fabric. I added some interest to the brown areas by sprinkling salt while the paint was still wet.

Waiting for the Resist to Dry

Using washable blue gel glue as a resist before painting fabric is a popular technique right now. I tried it a year ago on a very small scale for a nametag, and decided to try it on a much grander scale for my current project.

I have used “Elmers Galactic Glitter Glue”, because I happened to have some on hand. The glitter and the glue will both wash out after I have painted it, and white lines will be left.

I have some down time now while I am waiting for the glue to dry. I will have more down time this evening after I paint.

Another Challenge

I've been too busy with my day job to do creative projects lately. And the next couple of projects I'm not allowed to show, because they are challenges.

This morning I splatter painted a piece of white fabric. This will be the base fabric for one of the challenge pieces, and likely the only photo I'll show of it until the challenge is over. I expect the finished piece won't resemble this fabric at all after I layer more paint and imagery over it. It feels good to get out the fabric and paint. Now I need to squeeze out enough time to get it done.

42nd Annual Textile Exhibition

I will have four of my recent pieces in the Olive Hyde Art Gallery for their
"42nd Annual Textile Exhibition".

April 2 - May 15, 2010
Thursday through Sunday, 12:00 noon – 5:00 pm.
Opening Reception on Friday, April 2 - 7:00-9:00 p.m.

The Olive Hyde Art Gallery is located at:
123 Washington Blvd.
Fremont, CA 94539

Whisper Quilts Revealed

I went to the regional SAQA meeting Saturday in Elk Grove. The main feature was the revealing of the Whisper Quilt Challenge. I forgot to hand my camera over to someone when I was holding up the group of quilts I was in, but managed to get this snapshot of the quilts stacked on the table afterwards. I will talk a bit about the quilts shown here. I believe better photos of all of the quilts will soon be up on our SAQA blog. I will link there when they are up.

Four different groups all started with the same photo of a desert garden, and all went in four different directions.

Marjorie Johnson’s quilt is shown on the top of the stack. You can see her full quilt on her website. She says she had a hard time trying to find cactus fabrics to add to her collaged desert landscape. And then she added some animals to put life into the quilt.

Cynthia Long did a value study of Marjorie’s quilt, and discharged a piece of silk to replicate the pattern of values she saw. She then added lots of wonderful detail with additional paint (or dye maybe?) and lots of wonderful hand stitching.

Carol Larson focused on some painted and stitched details from Cynthia’s quilt, and made it the main focus of her own quilt. She worked in similar colors as Cynthia. Just a hint of the original landscape is showing in the green hill-like shape at the bottom of her quilt.

Liz Berg did away altogether with the landscape idea. She continued with Carol’s circle motif, and added some long curvy shapes. Her full quilt is shown on her blog at the bottom of this post.

My first thought about Liz’s quilt was of sea kelp and bubbles, but I didn’t wasn’t real interested in doing kelp, and waited a couple of days to see if any other ideas would emerge. The colors and shapes in Liz’s quilt reminded me of a piece of fabric I had with random circles printed across it. And then the fabric reminded me of a lone allium plant with two straggly leaves growing down the street. I pulled out lots of coordinating polka dot prints, and added a drift of circles behind the main flower. Liz’s long curvy shapes became the stem and leaves of my allium.