Fabric Dyeing

I have been enjoying some fabric dyeing over the last two weeks. I tried some where you put the fabric in a tray and pour different colors of dye over it. I also tried some Shibori which was fun.

 

I also want to try some rust dyeing. I have had the supplies for a few years now and finally did some this week. This was done with steel wool stretched across the fabric with salt added. Then wrapped around a tube and tied with rubber bands and copper wire. This was kept wet for 2 days. It was warm in NJ so it did not take long to react. I might be using this fabric in my next 15 by 15 challenge quilt for the theme of TEXTURE. I want to do some more rust dyeing before I decide.

Thanks for reading.

Chris

“Cloud Illusions” (Visions)

Just finished my 12 inch by 12 inch challenge quilt. The word this time was VISION. With my physics background as soon as I heard the word I immediately equated vision with light. Without light there would be no vision. I have often taught the various properties of light over the years. My favorite to talk about is the reflection of light and the images that are created. In addition I have always been fascinated  with the reflection of clouds that you get to see in windows.

Since I am not good at abstract quilts, I decided to go representational once again. So I found an image of an old crooked window and edited it in Photoshop and printed it onto ExtravOrganza. These are very sheer sheets of organza that allow you to see the background fabric. I also had some cloud fabric in my stash that I never thought that I was going to use since it was such a literal image of sky. These kinds of fabrics look fairly bizarre in landscape quilts due to them looking a bit fake. This fabric did work as the reflection of clouds in the window, however. Then I added some gray weathered barn boards around the window. The original photo had red boards, but that looked too weird. It looked better with the only color being the blue from the sky.



   
The title comes from a song by Joni Mitchell called “Both Sides Now.”

Rows and flows of angel hair
And ice cream castles in the air
And feather canyons everywhere
I've looked at clouds * that way
But now they only block the sun
They rain and snow on everyone
So many things I would have done
But clouds got in my way
I've looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down, and still somehow
It's cloud illusions I recall
I really don't know clouds at all

Thanks for reading.
Chris