fabric dyeing | Tag Archives

Posted July 25th, 2012 by Roxane Lessa

Editing New Work

So, I’m getting ready some new pieces for the show at the Piedmont Gallery next month. I hope you can join me on August 3rd at 7-10 pm. at the gallery. If not the show will be up all month. I’m also doing a free motion quilting demo on Aug. 30th from 6-7 pm. So come on down and see what’s new!

INDEX

Editing Art Work

Where’s Roxane

EDITING ART WORK

Do you ever second guess yourself? I do that too. Especially when making art. Luckily, I have folks around that can look at things objectively and help. My sister, Sylvia, who is also a trained artist, is here visiting. She took a look at the Felt Scapes I’ve been working on, and made some suggestions.

I had tried putting fabric behind the felt, and also painting the canvas. We decided the painted canvas was less successful.

Before

This one has the painted background.

After

This one has a hand dyed, and quilted background that moves the quilting out into the background. This serves to integrate the felt and silk into the background.

Detail

Like so….

Felt Scape #2, felted wool, silk, yarns, machine quilted cotton, hand stitched, 20″ x 16″, 2012 Before

Here’s another one that’s really obvious. The pink felt was just floating on top of the quilted green background, and it was really bugging me.

After

So, I got out my colored pencils and started playing with some colors and shapes coming in and out of the felt. I likee much better! Sometimes it’s just a simple tweak that can make a big difference.

Soon, I will post a short tutorial on how to make a felt scape. They are so fun and colorful.

WHERE’S ROXANE?

Piedmont Craftsmen Gallery

STICK AND STITCH: ARTWORKS IN WOOD AND FIBER

August 3-31,

August 30th I’ll be doing a DEMO from 6-7 pm.

Opening Reception Aug. 3, 7-10 pm. I’ll be there!

601 N. Trade St.

Winston-Salem, NC 27101

336-725-1516

www.piedmontcraftsmen.org

Permission to duplicate: You certainly can use this blog, just be sure to credit me and include this link, Roxane Lessa.

Machine Quilting Unlimited: The Seasons Challenge

Last year I was invited to create a piece for a Seasonal Quilt Challenge for the fabulous mag. Machine Quilting Unlimited. The only stipulations were a size of 18″ x 24″, and using machine quilting. Most of you know I love to machine quilt, mostly free-motion, with minimal or no pre-marking the surface of the quilt. Sometimes I use the fancy stitches on my Bernina 1530, but mostly, I drop the feed dogs and put on a darning foot and let my hands control the stitching and patterns. I find it, well, very freeing!! So, I created a piece for Summer called Desert Dunescape, using my hand dyed shibori and pour dyed fabric. I liked the way the markings on the fabric looked like ripples on the sand dunes. Here’s the cover, with the fabulous machine quilting of Caryl Bryer Fallert: Click on this link.

May 2012 Cover Page

Here is the link if you would like to purchase this issue:

http://mqumag.com/store

And here is my piece, Desert Dunescape, fiber, 18″ x 24″, 2011. It is for sale if it speaks to you, just email me roxane@roxanelessa.com.

Two Ways to Dye

There are two ways I have been dyeing lately: platter dyeing and shibori, which I recently learned at NC Quilt Symposium for Jan Myers-Newbury. Here’s a quick tute on platter dyeing. I first got some insulation board at Home Depot and had them cut the pieces up into 4 large pieces. Then I sealed the edges with packing tape. I had all my dyes mixed already and my PFD fabric was pre-soaked in soda ash solution. (I ordered the fabric from Dharma Trading Co). Here’s a platter in a laundry basket to catch drips.

platter

Here’s my dye table and after the dye is applied to the fabric, I put it out to dry and cure in the hot sun. When it’s dry, it’s done!

drying in the sun

dyes

dyed 1/2 yard

And now Shibori:

shibori wrapped on poles

The pre-soaked fabric is twisted and scrunched down on pvc poles and held in place by rubber bands. Then these poles were soaked in buckets of dye. Wherever the dye does not hit, there is a resist created.

Some results- dyed and over-dyed with shibori method: these were pretty boring to start with, but look at them now!