Natural Dyed Hexagons

Natural, compost (bundle), and rust dyed cotton fabrics.  The dark red was obtained using a Turkey Red recipe.

I started these hexagons using my natural and compost dyed fabrics in March of 2005, the weekend my mother died actually, and found them last night while I was looking for a missing stack of colored papers.  This couldn't of happened at a better time as I am currently working on a new body of work called "Faded Memories: Stitched Stories of the Prairie and Plains" for an upcoming solo show at the Sanford Museum in Cherokee, Iowa.

This new body of work will encompass both traditional and digital techniques, and to say that I found these hexies made up already would be an understatement! The hexagons are from a pattern known as Grandmother's Garden, which seems rather appropriate for this new body of work!

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Black Friday Sale 2013!!!

 

Mark Making with Nature

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WIP - Untitled

I started this piece a good eight or nine years ago and completely forgot about it, well this week is it's week to come to life. 

Layered rust, indigo, and compost dyed, silk, cotton, and cotton linen blend fabrics.

WIPS - Ode to Corn

Working on a new series

Ode to Corn No. 1

WIP - Hot Flash - Detail

Hot Flash in what I like to call the ugly duckling stage, but soon to become a swan!

WIP

Now with a little machine stitching, I still have a long way to go before this piece is finished.

Hmmmmmmmmmmm Lost and Found???

Or simply neglected?  I found this piece hiding in a corner, I started it back around 2004ish and it went AWOL.  This is what happens when you dig into the deep recesses of your studio closet, goodies are to be had back there, oh and spiders.

Silk crinkle crepe top fabric, wool batting, cotton backing.
Natural Dyed with Cochineal and then compost dyed as an overdye.
36 x 60 inches, an approximation.
Soon to be machine stitched.

Prairie Potholes No. 15

Finally home!

Details

Final colors are added, time to finish the interior of this piece.

Details

Detail of machine stitching on rust dyed quiltlet.

Stitching Rust - One Option

Stablized rusted fabric, two layers (I know hard to believe) wool quilt batting, black cotton commercial backing fabric.

The quilt to the left was orginally as thick as the quilt sandwich to the right, heavy stitching reduced the piece to a very thin piece.

Already you can see how the heavy stitching will decrease the thickness of this piece.

I'm stitching the outer areas first with a dark rust colored thread, will come back in and fill the strata layers with two other colors of rust and ocher threads and finally will begin stitching the heavily rusted area in the center.  The reason for this approach is I don't want to have to change my needle, as the heavily rusted areas will dull the needle quickly, in order to finish stitching the outer areas once the center is finished.

I will fill the hole in the center, where the fabric rusted through, with decorative hand stitches and maybe some beads. 

Sewing Rusted Fabrics - The Fabric Rusted Through Now What???

My fabrics have rusted through now what?  Can I still use my fabrics? 

The anwser is yes you can still use your fabrics, with a little help from a quilters best friend iron on stablizer!

A small tid bit of rusted fabric that once lived in the fabric in the preceeding photo.

Heavily rusted areas that glisten, this glistening is due to the iron oxide deposits on the surface of the fibers.

A view of the area I will be working with, complete with a hole that has rusted completely through the surface.

Mistyfuse TM stabilizer, I pressed my top fabric first and then sandwiched the Mistyfuse TM between the top fabric and a piece of soft cotton fabric, as I will be using a wool batting and another backing fabric.  Needling is imporant for this piece hence the reason I chose to use the flannel. Cotton scrim is also suitable for this project.

The stabilizer and backing fabric are now adhered to the front fabric.

Here you can see the stabilzer and the backing fabric peaking through the hole of the rusted fabric, click on photo for larger detail shot.

Full view of the fabric after the backing fabric and stablilzer are put in place, I am now ready to make my quilt sandwich as usual and begin stitching.