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.