The garden is very happy after a nice

soaking rain.

I have been experimenting with more

fabric manipulation before dyeing.

Including some sun prints - I love the 

results of this piece.

I used 100% Kona Cotton The thread count for kona cotton is 60 by 60
a tighter weave and a heavier weight

I do not buy PDF(prepared for dyeing) fabric - I wash all of my fabric in very
hot water and washing soda to remove sizing and chemicals - at this point the fabric also shrinks. What this means to you is that you should not have any significant shrinkage after washing my (pre-treated) fabrics.

I used two different technique in this piece

 - stitch resist and pole wrapped Arashi 

Shibori -- Colors are Aqua and black with 

some greys - very striking!

Have a great week!

Summer is my dyeing time and it gives

me an opportunity to try new techniques

or just try to improve some old ones.

I love the ghost like images in the

background of this shibori piece!

This piece came out a little lighter

and I was using the same colors - always

a surprise. 

I think either piece would make nice

background fabric for a quilt or use

in an art quilt as Tree Bark.

I used Greys, Blacks, Browns and Raw Sienna.

This piece has fine wavy lines of greys with

 a light hue of pinks.

Heavier on the pinks here and I didn't

push the fabric down as tight.

All are Pole wrapped - Arashi Shibori,

which I am hooked on right now.

Happy Quilting and Dyeing!

Posting for a customer

Remnants

Group #1

                                                                       Group #2

                                                                            Group #3

More Shibori fabric

Did you ever tell your young children....
'The Moon is made of green cheese"

... the Servian tale where the fox leads the wolf to believe the moon reflection in the water is a cheese and the wolf bursts in the attempt to drink up the water to get at the cheese.

Fantasy Fabric

Getting a little out of my comfort zone

with brighter and bolder colors which

I love! I used Arashi Shibori technique

(Pole wrapped) for this Fantasy piece.

Available in my Etsy shop.

This piece I did with a technique

called Kumo shibori (spider web) 

It is pleated and tied and then 

dyed. To me it looks like a giant

sunburst!

Available in my Etsy shop.

Spring Clean Up

I read somewhere that "A gardener's work is

never done"  How true that is!

Because the garden is always changing;

some plants multiply rapidly. They need

to be separated and replanted in another

part of the garden. This is a labor of

love and the gardens keep evolving every

year.

I started out with just one plant of

Solomon's seal and now have over 100

plants! 

It's the same with the Hostas and the

Sedum ground cover. 

There is a story behind this Sedum

ground cover - when my mom bought

her house in the early 80s in Queens,

N.Y.; her elderly neighbor had passed

away. The Sedum was overflowing from

her garden into my mom's yard, so I

took a couple of  hand fulls and 

planted them in my yard

on Long Island. When I moved here to

Lancaster; I took a large pot full of

them with me. Now my gardens are over

flowing with them! They also have to

be separated because as you can see

they will crowd any plant they are 

near, such as my Hostas.

One day when I was weeding; I found

an empty nest falling off of a bush

in the back yard.

I had to laugh when I saw the blue

ribbon. It's a boy! Or the bird 

thought that it's nest deserved a 

"Blue Ribbon"!  

Gardening is a lot of work but it's

a great source of joy!

I also find it to be an inspiration

when it comes to quilting and also

dyeing my fabrics.

This Shibori rainbow piece that I

did reminds me of all the colors

in my garden.

The colors in this pieces reminds me

of my Iris'. I love this color combo!

May your garden be your source of 

inspiration - Imagine and create

something beautiful!

Happy Quilting, Dyeing and Gardening!

Wordless Wednesday

Adventures in Shibori

Shibori pieces fascinate me!

What is Shibori?

Shibori is traditionally dyed with indigo 

but when I first started to dyed fabrics 

several years ago; I experimented with 

setacolors paints instead.

Hardly anyone was doing that at the time;

now a lot of people are making


beautiful colored shibori pieces.

I have been making Shibori pieces on and off 

for a couple of years now.

Trying different experiments and asking 

myself "What if" - going beyond

the traditional.  Sometimes making a 

traditional piece but the a twist.

And twist I did with this Arashi shibori.

(This is one of my first)

Which is basically fabric wrapped

around a pole but you can use a 

PVC pipe.

The way I did the pole wrap about

to experiment with is - I hand 

sewed runny stitches horizontally 

every couple of inches and then

gathered them  but not too tight.

I then wet the fabric and wrapped around 

the pipe twisting as I went around.

I then applied the paint with one of 

those sponge brushes. Waited until it

dried and then removed the fabric.

I was pleasantly surprised with the

results!

Lately I've been doing another "What If"

experiment 

again, I used Arashi shibori technique.

I call it Shibori Sun and it's done

in pastels - I love the way this one

turned out!

Then I used a larger piece of fabric

and made this "Blue Moon" shibori piece.

I'm very happy with both of the results!