Solstice 17

Yes, I'm still working on the Solstice Quilt even though the solstice has come and gone. Eclipse quilt maybe? Nope, that's today, so maybe the winter solstice... Anyways, here's Block 17, it's called Spring Fever. Even though it's late summer, I still like how this one turned out. Possibly because of the background fabric which I've been itching to use in this quilt.

Newspaper Yarn

 I recently clicked on a Facebook ad for Darn Good Yarn because they had these eye-catching, colorful cute skirts made out of recycled saris and ended up also buying a spool of this yarn made out of coiled recycled newspaper. Isn't it interesting?

It's not washable or really easily knitted or crocheted with, but I think for couching on wall-quilts, or ATCs it might be cool. For now it's just sitting on my table vibrating with intensity.
Thanks to Maureen for the colorful eyelet fabric behind it, those colors just went together too well not to use as a background.

Indigo-a-go-go 2

Finally, a long week of anticipation had passed and it was finally time to unfold everything and hang to dry for a day before washing out the excess indigo. I chose a corner of the yard that wouldn't matter if any indigo dripped off the fabric, it was pretty dry by that point.

This is the t-shirt, which seemed to be the brightest, possibly because of the knit t-shirt fabric vs. the tightly woven cotton fabric taking the dye so differently.  I liked how the shapes I made with the clothespins turned out on the t-shirt.

This one was folded (obviously) and then clamped on the edges with clothespins and rubber-banded together tightly.

 Here's the stitched-resist while it was still wet and before being washed and dried. I can't get over how gorgeous this is, I even love the thread holes. It looks like topographic maps doesn't it?

 This piece was accordion folded on the diagonal and then clamped much too tightly so that it resisted the dye getting inside the folds a little too well.

 Here's the circular rubber-banded piece while it was still wet.

I really like the linear parts of this folded design. It reminds me of cathedral windows.

 Here's the t-shirt after washing and drying.

 The rubber-banded piece, look how much the color changed!

 I like how this one turned out, even though there is so much white overall.  Maybe a shirt made out of this would be nice?

 I think this one changed the most after being washed and dried. It's become more interesting, there are more subtle patterns you can see now.

 The stitched resist part was still beautifully folded and I know I will have a hard time ironing out those wrinkles. Perhaps I'll find a way to use them as-is.

 A close-up of some of the details that are now visible in the circular patterns, So much depth to it, fascinating.

 My absolute favorite part out of everything is the bit that I did the stitched resist on. Oh how I wish I'd done an entire piece of fabric with this technique. If I go back to try the workshop, I'm definitely going to try that.

Here's a close-up of the t-shirt after being washed, it's just such a soft and pretty blue, like a blue sky after rain. I'm very excited about getting to wear this one. Thanks for giving me the shirt, Rhonda.

Indigo-a-go-go

 In preparation for an indigo dyeing workshop at the last CQFA meeting, I managed to stitch-resist exactly four lines of stitching. And obsessively rubber-banded the remainder of that piece of fabric. I tried to be fairly regular with where the rubber bands were placed but of course that got harder as the space between the rubber bands disappeared.  I was very intrigued to see how this one would turn out.

 In Maureen's sunny backyard, she'd set up a great space for us to get to work, dipping and sloshing the indigo all over with abandon. Our workshop teacher, Zoe Umholtz was wonderful, clear instructions, presented with a lot of energy. She does does a regular drop-in indigo workshop at the New Museum of Los Gatos. I might just have to head over there and join in, because this was very fun having everything set up, so we could just play.

 Here's how the pieces I dipped and dyed in the indigo buckets looked after a week of drying in a plastic tub. The instructions were to keep everything still bound up and clipped. We were warned not to forget about it and let it get molded/mildewed. No way, was I forgetting, I was dyeing (no dying!) to see how it would turn out.
  I wish I could have taken an in-process picture of how it all looked as the indigo dye soaked up the oxygen and went from green to blue, it was super pretty, but my hands were rather messy at the time. I dipped each item at least three times, some were probably four times.

 The clothespins got very nicely dyed, huh? The raw birch wood just soaked up the indigo. And the clean-up paper towels as well. Those will get used in collage at some point I'd imagine.

So I ended up dyeing three lengths of fabric, and one t-shirt that Rhonda so very nicely gave me at the workshop. I did a lot of folding and binding with clothespins, popsicle sticks and rubber bands.

It was a long wait to see how it would all turn out...a whole week, but you'll just have to wait a day to see how it all turned out once I opened it up and washed it out....

New ATCs

 Another 4 lovelies added to my ATC collection at the last CQFA meeting. Aren't these great?

 Maureen Lardie made this one using indigo dyed fabric and lace.

 I really like the stem stitching on this one by Jaye Lapachet.

 Beautiful painting from Nancy Riffle.

Angela Obeso has been working on this stitch-sketching technique, love how cute and happy this one looks.

Continuing With ICAD

 Nearing the end of the ICAD (Index Card A Day) and I let myself go into a more collage direction. But first there was some playing with pearlescent watercolors. They're hard to photograph to show off the shine but I managed it a bit in this first photo.

From the Archive Binder

 When I was filing away my ATCs, I found these two pieces from way back when. The first is a 4" square quilt let (yes I've always been making these!) that I'd stamped with a wooden stamp. Thought it was interesting how well this sentiment fits the current political zeitgeist.

This rubber stamp of the smiling woman I always called "Marge" not sure why, but that's the name that stuck. I also found this political sentiment to be something to re-consider.

August ATCs

The ATCs (Artist Trading Cards) that I made for CQFA this time were a mixed-media collage process as usual.


I started out with a mottled dark green fabric and stitched it to a batting/backing in parallel lines.

Then I started changing the fabric, first with big dots of Tee Juice in gray.

Then using the fine point Tee Juice I connected the dots.

 I then added some dots of gold with a Zig leafing pen and lighter green splotches with a Seta Skrib marker. I liked the overall look especially when chopped up into ATC size (2.5 x 3.5")

 Here's all 6 that I made.

 Measuring tape printed cotton knit ribbon was chopped up to show one number in each section.

 I dug through my button stash and found a bunch of brownish buttons that looked good with the green fabric.

 Lastly I stitched some X's on by hand with lime green cotton thread.

 There were a lot of buttons in my stash that worked, plastic, wood, metal, leather.

This wonky-edged one with the messed-up button was the one I kept for my collection.