Now I've gone and done it

Dangit. I've been successfully resisting the lure of dyeing my own fabric for YEARS. Too many chemicals, too messy, too much work, I can just buy them, I like using commercial fabrics, blah, blah, blah.

Yeah, well, resistance is futile. Dyeing is too much fun and the results are too freaking yummy. And I can make the colors I want instead of hunting high and low. It's that last part that got me. I REALLY wanted an 8 step gradation of a bright clear pink (also a bright clear yellow, but I haven't gotten to that one yet). The most I could find was 4. And so 2 weeks ago on a Friday afternoon I got a crazy idea and this is the result:



Here are some of the individual pieces:





These are actually a little more mottled than I want for the particular project I have in mind. Just on general principle however, I completely love the mottled effect.

Much credit must be given to Melody Johnson and her wonderful blog post, The Lazy Dyer. Because, hey, I'm lazy too. I've read this post many times and it's the thing that convinced me that maybe I could dye fabric without the too many chemicals and the too much work.

The method I used to get the gradation came from the book Dyeing to Quilt, Quick Direct Dye Methods for Quilt Makers by Joyce Mori and Cynthia Myerberg. Nice simple methods similar to Mrs. Mel's and excellent step-by-step instructions for a wide range of gradations, color runs and different effects. I had every intention of buying this book until just now, when I looked it up on Amazon and discovered it's out of print and a used copy will set me back $85. I guess I'll keep checking it out from the library.

Spokane Quilt Show

The big WSQ-Spokane quilt show is this weekend so I headed to the gigantic new convention center after work last night. I only had a couple of hours at the show and I have my priorities well in line, so naturally I headed straight for the vendors after a quick dinner with mom. There are over 500 quilts in the show and I saw only a fraction of them, but there were a few things I liked quite a bit in the art quilt category.

I'm really liking Kris Calney's work right now. She did the Marble Manifesto quilt in the Kress show that I have pictured below in my post about the opening of that show. And then last night there was this:



Improbable Conspiracy of Genetically Modified Organisms by Kris Calney

I also really liked these two by Lisa Calhoun:



Three Pink Flowers by Lisa Calhoun



The Blue Cup by Lisa Calhoun

Helping Hands

This is the block I'm donating to the 2007 Cheney Relay for Life raffle quilt project. I think they're hoping to make 3 quilts to raffle off this year with all proceeds going to the American Cancer Society. I had planned to do some embroidery on the flowers, but the block is due and, well, I'm tired.

Cool new(ish) stuff

Well, it's day 35 of the Sinus Infection from Hell. I've got a new and different antibiotic and now a corticosteroid to reduce the swelling in my sinuses. Still not much going on here - yesterday I read a book and listened to the football game as my Huskies beat Arizona. Go Dawgs!

I did get something really excellent and lovely in the mail on Thursday so I decided it's time for a photo-roundup of a few of the cool things I've managed to acquire during this strange interlude of being so dang busy and so dang sick.

Rayna Gillman does wonderful and amazing surface design work. I love her blog and I love to drool over pictures of her work. Lucky me, Rayna put some pieces of her art cloth up for sale a few weeks ago and now I have my very own piece to drool over:



Yummy!

Next up is this adorable apron that my aunt gave me back in August. It belonged to my grandmother and goes perfectly with my red and black retro kitchen decor:



Also way back in August, at Pacific Northwest Quiltfest, I couldn't resist this little package of buttons or this little package of retro fabrics. I have no idea what I'll do with the buttons, but I had to have them. I do know what I want to do with the retro fabrics...a quilt with circles!



And finally, on the way to my cousin's wedding at the end of August, mom and I noticed a little quilt shop about a block from the grange hall where they were having the wedding. We were a bit early, so naturally, we stopped and I got these:

conversation at the art store

I had some time to kill before picking Dave up from work yesterday so I popped in to Spokane Art Supply and picked up 2 tubes of oil paint and a small tin of Prismacolor pencils. And then I had a conversation with the art store cashier guy that put a smile on my face:

Art Store Guy (ASG): So...do you work in oils or in colored pencil?
Me: Oh, neither, I work in fabric.
ASG: Fabric, really? So what are the oils for?
Me: Paper plate lithography...you know, with lazer copies? It's a great way to put text and images on fabric.
ASG: Really? It works on fabric?
Me: Yeah. And the Prismacolor pencils are great for shading, they blend so well. They work on fabric too.
ASG: Really? On fabric? So do you do a small picture on fabric and use it as a mock-up?
Me: Oh no, I just do surface design to create my own fabrics and then I make art quilts with them.
ASG: Oh.
Me: Yeah, I have a piece at the Kress right now, although that piece is all commercial fabrics, not surface design...
ASG: Oh. Really? Wow!
Me: (as he hands me my bag of stuff) Yeah, anyway, thanks!
ASG: Thank you, have a nice day...

Hee hee. Still giggling about that one...

In other news, I've been sick sick sick and not much is getting done around here. I'm starting to feel better, it's like emerging from a fog. I finally started stitching again this last weekend, just finishing up some postcards I started ages ago. Anything to break up the inertia of not sewing.

Shibori class

Way back at the beginning of August, right at the beginning of this stretch of being way too busy, I took a Shibori class from Debra Lamm. Here's a shot of some of our pieces drying on the line outside Debra's garage.



Here's a pole-wrapped piece, dumped in fuschia dye:



This one is a stitch-resist:



Here's one that was clamped with a circle template. Debra and her husband are developing a line of templates to sell for this type of dyeing. I'll post a link once they get their website up and running. I'm really intrigued by the possibilities of this technique.



Near the end of the day Debra said "Ok, feel free to do a couple more pieces in whatever technique you like." It's always the stuff I do on the spur of the moment without much of a plan that I end up liking the best. I did a bit of pleating on this black piece, then clamped it with my plastic clothespins and threw it in the discharge bucket. I love the result:



Overall, I liked the clamping techniques best. I can see a lot of possibilities for combining surface design with hand embroidery with these pieces. When I get completely healthy and have a minute to sew again.

Imagination Unleashed opening

We had a really great opening for Imagination Unleashed - Art Quilts from the Inland Empire at the Kress Gallery on Friday evening. The downtown Spokane galleries have their openings on the first Friday of the month and there's usually a big preview in the Spokesman Review the Thursday before. Our show was the featured show for the First Friday preview in the newspaper! Tons of people came through, I don't know how many, but the room was always comfortably full. The gallery director told our group it was the most people they had ever had for an opening!

I was tired and excited and failed to take pictures of all the lovely people, but here are a couple of pictures of some of the quilts.

Here's me with my quilt, Summer, looking like I have a sinus infection. Yep, all that fun and running around in August finally took its toll on me:



Here is Road to the Zyder Zee by Lorraine Gilliland:



This is Interference #2, a wonderfully surface designed piece by Debra Lamm. Debra lives just outside Cheney and was the instructor for the shibori class I took back at the beginning of August. That I still need to post pictures from. Debra is taking a City and Guilds course and I'm hoping to get to see more of her surface design work soon.



This is Marble Manifesto by Kristine Calney. Because I'm still thinking a lot about circles.



Sunday, on the ride home from yet another trip to Seattle, in somewhat of a delirious haze from the sinus infection, I came up with two new quilt ideas. Neither one features circles, but they both feature the type of scrappy pieced strips background I did in the Summer quilt. Hmmm.

Signed, Sealed, Delivered

Whew! Despite the usual last-minute obstacles (ran out of lint roller tape, ran out of printer ink, had to stuff timtex in the top to make those uneven edges stand up straight, etc.), the Summer quilt is finished and out the door.

What's the big hurry? That's the exciting part! Back in June, Anna Turner of Sew Uniquely You asked me to make a quilt for a show she's curating at Kress Gallery in Riverpark Square, the fancy mall in downtown Spokane, during the month of September. The conversation went something like this:

Anna: Are you going to make me a quilt for the Kress?
Nikki: Ummm, sure. When does it have to be done?
Anna: Oh...August.
Nikki: Yikes. How big does it have to be?
Anna: Well...at least 30" by 30"
Nikki: Aaannnaaaa! Oh man. OK. I'll try.

Obviously way bigger and way faster than anything I've accomplished for quite some time. But what an incentive!

So, the exhibit is Imagination Unleashed - Art Quilts from the Inland Empire and it's at the Kress Gallery for the entire month of September. There's also a one day exhibit on Sept. 16 of additional quilts in the main atrium of the mall and two other dates with quilting demonstrations and book signings by local quilt authors.