Work in Progress: Oriental Fuchsia

Two weeks ago I taught a workhsop here called Working with Specialty Fabrics. I have posted two of the samples that I started during the workshop. I will post images of them when they are finished.

This piece is shantung silk that was dyed with Procion dye. It was first wrapped diagonally on a pole using the arashi technique, and it  came to to be a light peach color. I am not a pastel person, so I decided to give it a little oomph. I used a combination of resist techniques in the overdyeing process, and I was much more pleased with the results. The fuchsias were stenciled on with one of my new stencils in the Botanical Series. I used Neopaque paint, and I will probaly go back and lighten it up a bit as the fuchsias look a little drab.

The shantung should have been scoured first, as it would not accept any dye initially. Live and learn.
 There are more images of the Fuchsia Stencil on my website.

For this piece, I have decided not to quilt the center panel. I could stitch through it, but I really feel that it would detract from the delicate quality of the image. However, I have chosen to quilt the borders. I am using cotton backing, wool batting, and silk dupioni for the top layer. The stitching is done in a light purple thread as I didn't want I it to be too strong of a contrast. I always back silk with cotton as it gives it more stability.

It looks like a wrinkled, puckered mess right now. When I am finished with the quilting, I will cut out the center section of the borders, add a flange in a darker value of silk, and then attach the center panel.

Here is a closeup of the border. I am making what I think of as kite tails as an embellishment for the borders. I really want to work on this piece, so I am going to sign off for now and finally get to it.

Work in Progress: Passion Flower

This is the first actual piece that I have done with my new Passion Flower Stencil. I have been printing lots of samples lately, but it is really nice to be finishing a project at last.This wall hanging began as a piece of Radiance that I had done in a kumo shibori pattern. The circles were perfectly suited for the flower. I painted this piece with Neopaque and a little bit of Lumiere. I am very happy with the soft hand that the fabric retained. I really love layering the shapes and blending the colors.

Here is the back of the piece. I do not want to stitch in the flowers themselves, so I have added pieces of wool batting to fill out the shapes. I hand baste the wool on, and then after I have quilted the entire piece I will remove it. In this way I will not have to get the piece wet. One of my students had done some marking on a small silk piece, and she spritzed with with water to remove the marks. The moisture relaxed the fiber and caused it to stretch out. It never resumed its shape. I haven't had this problem, but it never hurts to be careful.

Here is a full shot of the wall hanging before quiting. I still need to do something to the borders, but I have not decided what as yet. I think that I would like to put a little reddish shade in the border to neutralize the teal. What fun!