back to Shelter

Finally, a good stretch of time last weekend and the mental state needed to get back to work on Shelter. The photo above is one section of the turquoise tier, just basted for now, but I'm liking it.

The problem comes as I move across into bigger areas. There is going to be some "stubbiness." I think the piece about in the middle above that ends in a stub is OK, but that the piece that starts with a stub, below the top edge of the tier (like the light green piece) is not. This section further is pinned only, not basted, so no problem making changes. I might try changing the angle of the stub, but it will probably be better to have everything either start from the top edge, or be tucked under another piece. If you are able to follow this somewhat convoluted description and have any suggestions, I'd be glad to know them!

Another challenge is that this tier is so much larger than the dark blue tier that I can't use the same construction process. For the smaller one, I pinned the whole thing up on the design wall, and then moved it back and forth from table to wall to work and look, work and look. This is too big for that, so I am having to work on it just on the table, relying on a stepladder for getting some distance on it. I also am attaching the turquoise strips directly to stabilizer, which I didn't do for the blue piece (though I had the stabilizer cut, and basted the fully pieced blue tier to the stabilizer once it was done). So, more bricolage, figuring things out as I go along.

And in case you're curious about the big project at work that kept me so busy all summer and into the fall, you can see the end product here.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Overdyeing

Image
Today I did the overdyeing for Accident-2.  Since I was doing this on the cloth alone (no screen stretched over the top), I realized I could do this step on my large padded work table, rather than on the floor.  The photo below shows the top edge of the quilt pinned to the table.  (Ignore the messy splotches on the drop cloth under the piece--it's been through the wash.)  The rest of the piece is hanging over the table and resting on the floor.  After I finished each section (applying the four colors across, from right to left), I pulled the piece up and over the back of the table.  I put a sheet on the basement floor to protect it. I ran a line of thread loosely down in the turquoise section, to mark where I wanted to extend the royal blue.   (I removed the thread as I worked--otherwise it would have served as a resist and left a line in the fabric.) The next photo shows me at about 2/3 down the piece.  Here I'm finishing up scraping on the new l...
Read more

Folding and dyeing

Image
While I continue to develop screens for printing designs on napkins, I thought I'd also try some folding techniques, while I also tried out a few more colors.  In these seven napkins, each fabric square was dyed one color, low water immersion, and washed out.  Then I soda-soaked again, folded in various patterns, and overdyed with a 3% solution of Dharma's MX Indigo dye.  Depending on the base color, the dark blue Indigo overdye either stayed dark blue (over light blue and lavender) or changed as it merged with the base color (most noticeable on the rust colored fabric, where the orange and blue together turned the darker color to more of a brown).  Here's a record of the folds, starting at the top and going left to right for each row: Light blue base:  a diagonal accordion fold, with dark blue applied in horizontal bands. Gray base: diagonal accordion fold Pumpkin base: folded in half to make a triangle, then accordion folded perpendicular to base of triangle. ...
Read more