Kristin's Peace Flags

Last summer I posted these pictures of flags that Kristin and I printed.  They hung in her yard all winter.

This is what they look like now.  Not too bad.  But it looks like they have done their work.  Interesting how the red and fuchia have faded to nearly the same color.

New Work, May 2012

This is a post about what I have completed since the first of the year.  I usually have several pieces going at any moment, and I tend to wait until I have a few pieces to quilt before I switch the machine over.  Even if I practice before I start on a quilt, I find that my stitching gets better if I do several in succession. My intent was to enter them in the Crab Festival Art Show, but here I sit with no way to deliver them, or pick them up on Sunday, so they will wait for another day to be shown in public, but I will show them here. I broke my ankle a month ago, and although I expected to be on the mend by now, that is not the case, and I am still not able to drive.

Crab
14" x 12 1/2"

This quilt actually came after the one that follows.  I ended up with more of the border squares after I had tried out some different layouts, and I had one more of the crab prints from a print session last Fall.  The quilting on this one is very simple, but I like it.

The King
20" x 15"

This is the first of these King Crab quilts that I started.  I tried a few different settings for the border squares before I finally settled on this.  I wanted to have room for quilting on the border.  You can see the quilting in the close-up picture that follows.

Three Kings
34 1/2" x 19 1/2"

I wish that I had used a heavier thread.  This was done with trilobal polyester variegated thread, which I love.  I am trying to be more bold with my machine quilting.  This light weight thread is great for texture, but I would have liked to have seen a bolder line here. I just ordered a set of Sulky Blendables-30 wt.  It was spendy, but now I know I have all the colors.  I have a problem remembering what I have when I order thread!

Three Kings closeup

There are two red quilts in this batch of work.  I was just having too much fun with the rich reds, and I probably overcut as I often do when i am working on a strip piece.  The idea was to put cross strips in as I built the strip pieced fabric.

Reeds
23 3/4" x 16 1/2"

Reeds-fish closeup

Reeds-border closeup

I am still stuck in the red zone with this next piece but it is the accent fabric.  On this piece the goal  was to build the stripped fabric around the prints-very improvisationally.  There were a few times that the plan shifted-to get it all sewn together.

The River
24 1/2 x 34"

This last quilt is probably my favorite in this grouping.  This piece started with two fairly large pieces of stripped fabric.  I then cut panels from each, offsetting the strips in opposite directions to get the zigzag effect in the background.  This piece hung on my wall, with freezer paper depicting the circles for a long time.  The fish were not tightly packed enough on the original piece of fabric, so I added some fish. You can see before and after in this post: http://sallysartquilts.blogspot.com/2012_03_01_archive.html.

Streamside
34 3/4 x 13 1/2

It took me a long time to get the color of the ink correct that day.  For some reason, I thought that I had used more blue ink, so I had to do alot of printing to use up all the ink I had out!  I was pleased with the addition of more fish.  

Streamside closeup

I faced both of the red quilts, rather than applying borders as I normally do.  It is a good option that I have never before utilized.  Sometimes you want that extra bit of color that the binding can provide, but as these pieces show, sometimes you don't. 

Streamside back

All of these quilts started with prints that I did from my own handcarved stamps on fabric that I dyed.  I love handdyed fabric, but I also love the combinations you can achieve from commercial prints-texture, texture, texture!

Repurposed tablecloths

I had these three tablecloths that were destined to be disposed of when we start packing up our house sometime soon.  I had dye left in the refrigerator from dying the fabric for Kristin's wedding flags, so I decided to dye these tableclothes and see if there was anything worth keeping.  This one I really like alot, and the light colored areas were a surprise although I did suspect that part wasn't cotton. 

Closeup

napkins

 This one turned out wild and crazy but I like it.  If I decide it is too much for the table I have some ideas for cutting it up and using it in quilts.

 I was going for a gradation on this one-dark in the center to light on the edges, but it wasn't working so I did some rubber band binding and overdyed in Cerulean blue.  It is still green in the center, but the edges blend better than they did after the first dye bath.

I did the quilting on this piece today.  I used heavier thread than I normally quilt with and am happy with the results.  You can see a closeup of the stitching below.  The water was stitched with Signature variegated quilting thread-40 wt, I believe. The red section was stitched with Sulky Blendables, 30 wt. Unfortunately, I don't have many spools of heavier thread, but I have lots of trilobal polyester!  Oh joy, another thing I need to collect!

   

So, now I am down to one more piece that needs quilting.  Although it has not been a joyride fracturing my ankle, I would never have gotten these 6 pieces quilted.  Bindings, labels and sleeves and they are done.  Oh yeah-naming the, too. I don't enjoy naming my quilts!

Print Day

This is where it started.  I tried cutting circles out of the long piece in the photo above and there were too many gaps between the fish.  Then I got up this morniung and had to face the prospect of making a plane reservation for Nick, my husband, who really didn't have a plan.  Not to mention that I can't go on this trip for various reasons.  So I was in a funk.  Art is a funk breaker so I set up a table and went to work.

It took a long time to get the ink right.  I though I had printed with way more black, but I think the match is adequate-once it is cut up and stitched.

A mandela arangement of the salmon stamp.

Another killer whale that I am not too happy with.

Humpback which I totally love-I plan to cut circles out of this piece.

Humpback Mandella

The best of the first set of killer whale stamps.

Another new less than perfect Killer whale-getting better though!  Like I said-art is restorative.  Even though it is not perfect work, I am feeling much better!

Whales

My daughter wants Alaskan flags for wedding decorations, so here is the start-purple and blue fabrics were dyed on Tuesday.  I always have some trouble with these colors-the dye doesn't blend as I would like, but for the intended purpose, these fabrics will be fine.

I needed more images to print on the flags so yesterday I carved these whales.  I am happy with the humpback, but I think I can do better on the killer whales.  Below you can see the stamps that I carved.

Prayer flags for Andy

I got up this morning with a plan.  My brother's wife is having surgery next Friday so I wanted to make her some prayer flags.  Since the ink I print with takes a few days to dry, I needed to get it done today.  I only photographed 2 of them as I was working today, but will take a picture of the string once they are done.  I made a string of 7, colors running from yellow green through red-violet, each with a different image and word on it. 

It is silly, but it makes me feel like I am doing something to help the person in need-good thoughts... 

Then, sincer I had the ink out, I printed some terns, crabs, and kingfishers for future quilts.  I love the crab and kingfisher but the tern stamp need some work.

Adventures with DeColorant

In my last post I mentioned that I had been playing around with DeColorant.  this was one of the successful experiments.  I used some of my ugly scarves-the ones that I had kept trying to no avail.  Since this one, I have done some with leaf stencils that worked well.  I also took the scarves that were not sucessful and boiled them with dye remover, the aplied soy wax and over-dyed.  they are in the wash now.  will give an update tomorrow.

Kodiak Bear Paw Quilters Annual Quilt Show

The Kodiak Bear paw Quilters hold a quilt show every year.  The show is Saturday and Sunday, October 8th and 9th, at the Kodiak High School auditorium Foyer.  These are my entries. The photo above is called Big Dipper.  It is 21.5 x 20.  This piece started out with a piece of hand dyed fabric.  I had a block left over from a reduction print I made in Liz Mitchell's print workshop, with which I printed the distant mountains.   I decided to extend the mountains beyond the silk border.  The gradations in the border are hand dyed.  I originally printed the stars with gold Lumiere paint, but they weren't  as bright as I wanted, so I stitched with gold metallic thread.  This is the quilt that led me to a thread crisis about a month ago.  I ran out of thread with only 12" of the border left to quilt!  I asked the wrong daughter to quickly send me thread!

 This quilt is 15 x 20 and is called Joy.  The print is an Alutiq petroglyph.  She is actually the only recognizable female figure.  Arms upraised signifies dancing.  Although I am not Alaskan Native, she is my Goddess.  The people who carved these images in the rocks many, many years ago, came to this island from someplace else and made it their home, just like I have.  I was not born here, but after 35 years, I am from here.

 Alaskan Sky is 21 x 12.5.  This piece shows one more stage of the reduction print.  The stars and the Northern Lights were printed first, then that was cut away, and the mountains were printed.  I really like that the red border does not extend into the mountains, making them look more authentic.  The gradations in the border are hand dyed.

 Kings is 15.5 x 20.  One morning, I just decided to start cutting this print up and inserted strips thinking sea grass.  I was happy with the layering effect, and though everything matched up quite well for freeform work.  I don't normally do alot of hand embroidery-I am pretty much hooked on beads, but the stitching on this piece was fun and I am pleased with the results.  I used 3 stands of red embroidery thread on the distant blades, and  hand dyed purple Size 5 pearl cotton on the closer blades.  I will not try that again-multiple layers of pimatex is not easy to pull that thick of a thread through.  I used hand dyed size 12 pearl cotton to outline the starfish, which turned out great.  I bought both of those thread at Visions in San Diego last Spring.  Then, of course the required beads and buttons were added.  I used higher contrast thread than I normally do.  I have thought that my stitching gets lost when i use lower contrast thread, but I am not all that great of a stitcher.  Of course, when my thread really show is when my sewing machine started misbehaving and eating the thread.  I tried new needles, rethreaded, put on some thread treatment.  She just was angry with me that day, I guess.  Our first bad day!

 A close-up of my starfish and button creatures.

Over the Mountains is 12 x 12, with a portrait quilt measuring 4 x 6.  I posted about this piece several months ago.  i wasn't happy with the placement of the mini quilt.  I moved it around for months, then I read somewhere to leave blank space in the upper left corner, which works for me.  This is my donation for the silent auction.

I have been playing with Decolorant and paint with stencils this week, as a means of procrastinating binding and hanging sleeves!  I had some ugly scarves that I experimented with.  I used spray decolorant on one which was a mistake-it crept under the stencil.  Then I did three with plain decolorant paste.  I was working on a table with batting, covered with plastic.  I guess paper or cotton underneath would be better.  The paste went through the scarf and seemed to just sit there on the plastic.  You can't move the scarf until it is dry, also.  Anyway, one of those is beautiful.  Then, I used yellow Decolorant and a leaf stencil on a red scarf.  That one is pretty awesome.  Finally, I printed Lumiere paing with a stencil.  those turned out OK, but it is hard to apply the correct amount of paint.  Tomorrow, I will take some photos and post them.

And I almost forgot-my SAQA Auction quilt sold for $250.  Of course, there was family politics involved-it was purchased the Aunt of my daughter, Kristin's, fiance.  All the same it sold for a good price and I wasn't shamed by having it sent back like last year. 

What I am Working On

I haven't posted much lately-not because I haven't been doing anything, but because I have been to busy to take pictures and post.  Then, it took hours to upload the pictures!  The two pieces on the left were bound with clamps, and on the right with rubber bands.  The fabric was originally goldish, rustish, green, then overdyed in cobalt.  They are actually alot more brown than they appear in the photo.  I am very happy with these pieces.   A closeup shown below.

I like these starbursts but too much of the fabric was bound.  I have to figure out how to spread the color.

Leaves

More leaves or maybe trees.

I am really pleased with the patterning and the vlow of value and color across these pieces.  They were rolled on a string or rope then i tied the rope in a donut. I wan to try rolloing from the other direction then overdying in a different dolor.

These are all pole wrapped shibori.  I see leaves and trees.  For some reason my closeups of these are up above.

I still have more dye mixed and stored in the refrigerator and about three more yards of fabric. My plan is to play with soy wax one day soon.

This is what is on my design wall.  The red piece is ready to quilt , binding is on the teal/purple piece.  Actually, I am progressing on all pieces.  I am hand sewing on the fish piece today.