50 Minus 42 Shades of Gray (and Yellow)

Thanks to Patty the quilt lady I’ve gotten in some fabric dyeing recently. Patty invited several folks over to her house for a dyeing session.  She had everything set to go, and even made each of us a spiral bound dyeing book complete with fabric samples!

With Patty’s help I dyed an eight step gradient of Procion golden yellow.  She had cleverly cut off the tops of gallon milk jugs and numbered them from 1 to 8.  This really helped keep track of the steps of the gradient as I increased the amount of dye in each jug.  And the handles are handy (groan) for carrying the jugs to the sink.

Here’s some lace of unknown fiber content that was dyed in the same milk jugs.

Inspired by this session, two friends and I took on more dyeing by ourselves.  My friends worked on making an 8 step gray gradient while I tried fabric layering techniques from Gloria Loughman.  Apparently making gray is hard, and converting from metric measurements is even harder.  Thank goodness for Google.

The gray looked kind of purplish in the buckets, except for the bucket sun yellow was added to (the fabric on the far right.)  The dots are woven into the fabric and create an intriguing effect.

Here are my results from two and three color dyeing with leaf green, turquoise, and sun yellow. First I gathered some fabric in a plastic trash can lid and squeezed dye from squirt bottles onto the fabric. Then I put some fabric in a hospital pan, added some green dye, layered more fabric on top, added turquoise, and finished with yellow.

All but one of my fabrics were pre-soaked in a soda ash and salt solution.  And yes, the colors are much more intense on the soda ash soaked fabrics, even after allowing for differences in fabric.

I used old damask tablecloth strips, high quality white muslin, low quality natural muslin (the kind with cotton boll flecks still in it,) and peach colored silk crepe.The silk was bought by my seamstress grandmother who used it to make ladies’ delicates, so I figure it must be at least 55 years old. I tried to rip it by hand but it still seems strong.  It turns out I should have used a different type of dye as silk is a protein based fabric. My Procion dyes are designed for plant based fabrics (cotton, rayon, etc.)

Now all I have to do is figure out how to use all this fabric.

“Eye of the Needle” Exhibit

While quilters can display their work at quilt shows, fiber artists don’t have such go-to exhibition spots.  Luckily St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Akron, Ohio, has an art gallery that often displays work by local art quilters and fiber artists.

The current show features three artists, two of whom could be called fiber artists.  One also works in fiberglass screening, with other elements attached. The screening imparts a moire effect that changes as you look at the pieces from different angles.

My Asian Sun by Ted Maringer

Detail of My Asian Sun

I’m going to focus on the work of Carole Pollard, who is an art quilter in my book. Apparently she plunged into art quilting upon retirement and has had local and regional exhibits of her work.

Awakening features paper piecing and some gauzy loose pieces towards the bottom.  It stuck me as a combination of a butterfly and a bird.The Crucible is the second of what appears to be a trilogy.  The show had almost no annotation about the artists’ intentions.  Again, Pollard used paper piecing and what looks to me like a piecing/applique technique similar to that used by Vicki Pignatelli.  I have no idea how she mounts the tops of these pieces – hooks? wires?  I didn’t think the church staff would take kindly to my standing on a chair to investigate.

Triumph is the least rectangular of Pollard’s pieces, and many of the “feathers” are attached only at one end.  I think it’s the third of the trilogy.

Starkly Odd shows a different aspect of Pollard’s work.  The bottom right block is cut out between the inner circle and the surrounding square.

Talisman also has three dimensional effects.  I like the squiggly pieced curves that radiate from the central motif.

Talisman detail.

As always, I’m fascinated to see how others interpret their visions in fabric.  The cut outs in Pollard’s “square” pieces have been added to my accumulations of ideas for a hole-y quilt.  I don’t think I’d ever construct a gauntlet from silver lame, but it broadens my realm of possibilities to see it realized.

Just Peachy

A recent trip to a local orchard yielded a peck of peaches.  Yes, peaches do grow in Ohio.  My husband and I spread them out on our dining room table to finish ripening.  Funny how little that table is used for eating.  Instead I fold laundry and baste quilts on it.  I do make table runners for it because the poplar wood is such a pretty color. And they’re easy to whisk off when the table is actually needed.

But, back to those peaches – both of us arranged them on the table, placing them at opposite ends.

Guess who did what arrangement. Hint: my husband is trained as a scientist; I’m not.

And this post does relate to fabric.  The tablecloth underneath the peaches is a hand-me-down that I plan to dye.  I hope the striped damask pattern will show up better then.

Linear Thinking

I realize that zentangles are old news, creatively speaking, but Ohio isn’t at the head of the line for new ideas.  A member of a cloth artist group I belong to showed me the basics. She used the technique to draw an intriguing self portrait on fabric. I experimented with squares of fabric ironed to freezer paper for stability.

After I finished four pieces I decided to sew them together with some black and white fabric scraps I had and bits of strips from an old project.  Moral – you really will find a use for those leftovers someday.

This patch is the most baroque of the ones I drew.  I wouldn’t use red fabric again as it’s just too dark.

I think this is the first one I drew.  It’s simpler and more linear.

The next one involved more circles and shading.

In this last one, done at different times, I tried out different patterns.

If you decide to try this I recommend you use a pen designed for archival use.  I used a Micron .5 pen and a roller gel fabric pen.  Avoid Sharpie markers as I’m told the ink will eat through fabric eventually.

I can recommend this technique as an excuse for doodling and as a fun way to pass time while on the phone and in waiting rooms.

It Came From the Back of the Closet

When I was in college (many decades ago) I bought a jug of apple cider from a roadside stand, drank some of it, stowed the jug under my bed and promptly forgot about it.  Months later I found it, opened it cautiously, and decided to taste it.  It had turned into a lovely beverage with some kick.  Of course, it could just as easily have turned to vinegar.

I was in a similar situation last week when I found some forgotten abandoned projects tucked away in my fabric closet.  One, a heart done using the storm at sea pattern, was left unfinished because I couldn’t figure out how to finish it.  The other, an improv piece, was one I had planned to do up using stupendous stitching techniques.  I had even backed it with fusible fleece and fused some organza to it.  But there it sat in a recycled plastic container for a year and a half.

In the time since I abandoned these two I’ve learned different techniques and ways to look at my work.  So, inspiration struck and I finished them.  Hopefully the results aren’t vinegar. Once I added the photos to this post I was amused to realize the two pieces have remarkably similar color schemes.

Making Tracks benefited tremendously from Jean Wells’ books, especially ways to insert curved pieces and mount little quilted pieces. I used a hand dyed gradient done by Vicki Welsh for the framing piece.

Heart in Gold reflects my awareness that sometimes a work can get too fussed at.  Originally I planned to do a checkerboard border, but I came to see that would take away from the main focus – the heart.  I think the muted gold border helps tone it down while the white dots give it some frivolity.  And Gwen Marston’s advocacy of different sizes and colors of border strips helped, too.

My question to you is, what’s in your closet?

Artful Threads

I’m not a big fan of embroidery.  I find it too fussy and show-offy, too much in love with technique.  And don’t get me started on machine embroidery. However, occasionally I come across some art that just happens to use embroidery as the medium.

Recently, thanks to the guy who cuts my husband’s hair, I became aware of two artists/craftspeople who use hand embroidery to create landscapes – Martha Fieber and Natalia Margulis.  Sidenote: David Norton, my husband’s barber, is a talented creator of landscapes in fused glass who exhibits his work at national craft expositions. Since he knows I’m interested in fiber art, he mentioned these two ladies to my husband to pass on to me.

Cloudbank by Martha Fieber reminds me of the tallgrass prairie in Kansas.

I’d love to use Blue Mountain Lake (Martha Fieber) as a meditation tool. Although Fieber’s website doesn’t give the dimensions of this piece, my guess is it’s 5 inches high and 14 inches long, based on dimensions given for similar work.

Snow Track by Natalia Margulis shows a somewhat different technique, but again the embroidery is used in service to the image.

Fine Ice by Natalia Margulis shows the textures she puts in her work.

All three artists will be at the American Craft Exposition August 23-25 in Evanston, Illinois.

Here’s a piece by David Norton, in case fused glass is your thing.

Lessons From the Past

I’ve been taking Weeks Ringle’s Craftsy class on designing modern quilts that talks a lot about color in both solid and print fabrics.  Weeks had us make fabric palettes (25 3 inch squares) of our favorite and least favorite colors.  Then we put no more than 25% of our favorite colors (about 5 squares) into our least favorite palette.  I found this created some intriguing juxtapositions I never would have tried on my own.

Serendipitously, I’ve been reading an old (1989) book called “Quilts from two Valleys” by Phyllis Pellman Good.  It features quilts made in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Amish in Mifflin County, Pennsylvania’s Big Valley; and  Mennonites in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley.  The color juxtapositions are startlingly modern; the designs are mostly combinations of 4 patch and 9 patch.

One Patch Cross Grid, circa 1925-30. Made in Big Valley, PA by “White Toppers” group.

This quilt wows me with its diagonal white crosses and brown inner border. Brown would never have occurred to me for these blue and red purple colors.  And the anonymous maker snuck in four spice colored patches that link beautifully to that brown border.  When I found this picture of a Purple Grenadier finch on Pinterest I thought it was more serendipity or a color scheme that’s really trying to get my attention.

Four-patch Variation made in Big Valley, PA, circa 1935-40.

This quilt is essentially nine large blocks joined with red sashing and four yellow cornerstones.  And those cornerstones absolutely make the design, giving your eye a nudge along those strong yellow diagonals.  Then, while the reds seem quite similar in intensity, the blues used in the background rectangles vary considerably from muted blue-grays to the much more vivid blues used in the middle top and bottom block corners.  The joined four patch blocks within the larger blocks seem to float above all that red and blue.

Nine-patch in Blockwork, circa 1925-30, made by “Yellow Toppers” in Big Valley, PA

Unlike the other quilts this one uses color asymmetrically.  The on point blocks are united by those little pink corner squares that form chains across the quilt.  And check out the pinks, turquoises and purples.  You can see that setting blocks on navy is at least as effective as using black.

Detail of Ocean Waves, circa 1885, Shenandoah Valley, VA

Ocean Waves, an earlier quilt made in a Mennonite community, uses many, many different printed fabrics. Yet the overall effect is almost neutral. The pinwheels formed where the blocks meet help focus your eye.  The whites add sparkle and the reds are evenly distributed. It’s a great study of period prints, stripes and checks.

I photographed the quilts from the book, so the colors don’t come across as vivid as they are in the book. I haven’t found any website that features this group of quilts, though exhibitions have featured other quilts from Mifflin County, Pennsylvania. Most were in private collections when the book was written, some still owned by descendents of their makers.

There’s no way to know what was in the minds of the quilt makers, though since the colors seem at odds with the Amish way of life perhaps the quilts were a respite from drabness.  I was tickled with the two sided quilts shown in the book that could be reversed to the somber side if company might be censorious of too much color.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

I’m trying out a new theme for the SQ, and right now it’s a work in progress.  I still don’t have all the pieces I want in place, but I have to find them first.  I’m working from this tome called “WordPress All-in-One for Dummies” and still can’t find the answers I’m looking for.  You’d think that somewhere in 820 pages I could find out what happened to the page with my earlier quilts.  Anyway, the new header photo shows part of my quilt “Nothing Gold Can Stay,” which was the first improv piece I made.

A Visit To The Sewing Machine Shop

After increasing frustration with skipped stitches I realized it was time to take my Janome in to the shop.  Off I went with a sample of the problem stitching.  I have my machine serviced by the store I bought it from.  They’ve always been fine for me, though some of my friends have had less than stellar experiences with them.

Once I described my stitch problem and the staff person had enlightened me about how to use one feature of my machine that I had misunderstood for years, talk moved on to new machines.  Of course, staff aren’t going to miss a chance to promote their new stock.

So, I let myself be seated in front of a behemoth Brother machine (the Dreamweaver model) that featured a laser (!) system to help you sew straight lines when piecing.  The idea is when you’re sewing half square triangles you don’t have to draw a line but simply use the red laser line as your sewing guide. The next special feature was the large belt driven walking foot so you can sew all sorts of material.  And of course the machine has lots of stitches. The ad copy boasts of 561 sewing stitches. One feature I did really like was the lighting under the harp.

Any possible interest I had in this machine vanished once I inquired about its cost.  It could be mine for the discounted price of $4,000.  I’m sorry, but that’s half the cost of my parents’ house way back when; and more than the price of my first new car – a Datsun B210 for $3,400.  Yes, I know about inflation, but I don’t feel the need for a sewing machine with features I’ll never use.  And I would worry about repair costs with all that fancy computer stuff.

So I’ll go back to looking for a used Bernina 1230, which I have been assured is the best machine ever for quilting related sewing. And my Janome will be fixed and tuned for $145, which is more compatible with my checkbook.  Maybe I’ll splurge and buy a better light for it.