Freedom Quilt 4 ~ Laundry Day

YAY!  It's time to wash the fabric!  Now to see how it all turned out.

First the yellows:

 Then the blues:

 Then the fuchsias:

Wow, this is starting to feel like laundry day!  Now it's time to iron.  Oooo.... boy!  

Why did I do 40 yards again?  This could take a while... BUT THE COLORS!

MERCY ME I DO LOVE THESE COLORS!!

Happy Creating,

-Carmen Rose

Freedom Quilt 3 ~ Hand Dying Fabric

It's day three of the Freedom Quilt project, it's time to dye some cotton, ya'll! And I'm pretty excited, I always love this part!  Playing with color is my thang!  I started by mixing dyes, dying small samples to see if I could manage to get the colors I was looking for.  I was working with primary colors though I did use some orange, and I also mixed up some black for adding some tonality to colors.  It's not easy to tell if the colors are off at this stage, but once they come out of the dryer there is no doubt.  There is a learning curve!!

I started out with the first ten containers.

Then closed them, made some changes to each bottle of dye and then added dye to the second set of ten.

This is why I call it hand dying... because even with gloves, I will certainly turn colors!

Forty containers, forty yards. 

All that glorious color hidden in there...

No idea which ones are going to work out beautifully and which ones I'm not going to like...

Forty containers of infinite possibility.

Before long I'll send these through the wash and begin to see how they turned out.  Anticipation is part of the fun!  Day three of the freedom quilt is complete.

Happy Creating,

Carmen Rose

Jacob's Ladder Series Continued

The Jacob's Ladder series continues... this time turned on it's ear. This pair has been on the design wall a while but I've just finished up the one on the right. The other was in an earlier post.

I suppose I got a little carried away making "ladders" but they are a little like Pringles.  Can't make just one, can't eat just one... completely addictive!

I wrapped it around a 36 x 12 canvas that is about an inch deep. 

And I'm very pleased with how it turned out.

Put it together with some of the other quilts from the study and they seem happy together..

I have no idea what to title this one either, it's in the "Jacob's Ladder" series but turning it on it's side kind of changed the ladder into a slightly more architectural look.  

"Untitled in Blue"

hand dyed cotton, hand dyed white on whites and batik

fused and machine quilted

12 x 36

$450 framed

Happy Creating

-Carmen Rose 

Jacob's Ladder Quilt

Yeah, it's a theme with me right now... this "Jacob's ladder" imagery. I think it's safe to say that I'm on a "kick." This is one of the earliest ones, it's been on my design wall for a while.  

I quilted it up and stretched it over a 12 x 12 canvas.  I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

I love the piece of fabric on the right hand side.  It turned out with such neat color and texture.  And the fabrics are a combination of mostly hand dyed fabrics, some hand dyed white on the whites plus my favorite rich purple batik. 

"Jacob's Ladder in Blue"

Hand dyed cotton, white on white plus batik

Fused and machine quilted

12 x 12

$199 Framed

Happy Creating,

-Carmen Rose

Another Jacob's Ladder Study

This is another in the "Jacob's Ladder" series, except it just kinda went every which way.

I looked at it for a while trying to decide how to finish it and finally decided to work it on canvas stretchers.

 This is a gallery wrapped canvas, so it's about an inch and a half deep.

Now to decide what to call it.  

Suggestions?

"Untitled"

Hand dyed cotton and white on white, batik

fused and machine quilted

12 x 12 gallery canvas framed

$199

Happy Creating,
-Carmen Rose

Beginnings of "The Art of a Woman" Project

Well, suppose it's time to unveil some of the things I'm working on here in Studio B. I've done nothing but post about snow lately. Thankfully, all that has given me lots of uninterrupted and focused studio time. (Except for shoveling and feeding the wood stove of course.) It all starts with a sketch...

Then it's time to figure out the engineering, LOL! The theme for all the looks will begin with the phrase "She is..." In this case: "She is beginning to bloom." And my idea was to create the model's look based on a sunflower. When she heard this, she jumped up and down and squealed, turns out, sunflowers are her favorite! Yay!
And so I started making petals from some hand dyed cotton that I'd died a few months back.

The olive green parts of the costume are in this muddle of cloth that is soaking in dye solution.
It took me a while to figure out how I wanted to create the petals that they could be worn, and I'm not ready to give away any secrets at this point... but I do have the petals all attached to ribbons now and I've tried them on and the effect is really fun! I can't WAIT to get my hands on the model, it's going to be so much fun! I should have taken a photo of makeup I've designed for her, or the sketch at least, but that can wait. It is fun to be back in the zone with a new project. And as long as the weather cooperates, I should be sharing photos from this shoot early next week sometime. This one is new and different enough that it fits my AD HD hyper-focus quite nicely. So here's to beauty and inspiration, may you have all you need of both!
-Carmen Rose

New Quilt in Process

New quilt in the works, I played with it all evening yesterday... which is why I went to bed at 3 am... (uh o! The waking time doesn't change!)

Now that the bulk of Christmas production work is past and I can get back into the things that I enjoy a little more... I headed for the quilt studio. It doesn't hurt that the wood stove was on full blast last evening, I had a NCIS marathon on in the background, and it was warm and wonderful and I just didn't want to stop working. You know you love what you do when you have to force yourself to quit. I'll live with it a while this way and see what tweaking it requires and then see if I can finish it up. It will be interesting to see what the old Singer sewing machine thinks of machine quilting this baby!

The quilt is all hand dyed fabrics except for two pieces of batik, all cotton and I'm working with "wonder under" for the first time. Not crazy about it but don't hate it either. I've used a lot of "heat and bond" and there is a real difference, so I'm in the learning curve. I bought a whole bolt so I'm sure I'll love it by the time the bolt is empty! LOL!

Happy Creating, thanks for dropping by my blog!
-Carmen Rose

A Scarf in the Breeze

New scarves freshly dyed last week. There are my favorite three, that middle one with all the color grew on me. I wore it to church and hubby snapped a photo of me wearing it which you can see top right on the side bar.
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These are more muted colors in a cut satin style, very rich and wintry looking. Gotta love that 10 inch fringe, sooo pretty! Devore Satin Scarves, 14x72, $49
A few more cut satin scarves in a rayon/silk blend. There are all roughly 14 x 72, perfect size and shape to be worn in a variety of ways! Devore Satin Scarves, 14x72, $49
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These are some cut velvet styles, the middle one is a really rich combination of olive, chocolate and charcoal colors with a little of this and that color showing here and there. Cut velvet, 14x72, $45
Oh, look who popped in to say hi, this is Misde. She's my constant companion. Hard to go wrong with these cool colors in a variety of styles: $45 (Dog not for sale)
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100% silk styles in some interesting color combinations. These are really soft and I love how the silk took the dyes. I went for softer colors this time around. 14 x72 inch Habotai silk scarves - $32 each
I love how the light olive one turned out and the rich charcoal with plumy overtones is kinda cool. Click on the photos for a closer look. 100% silk scarves $32 each:
See some of my earlier scarves in brighter colors here.

Thanks for dropping by,
-Carmen Rose

Mini Quilts *updated to include prices*

Mini Quilt, hand dyed fabrics, batik and commercial cotton,
Machine quilted, 8x6 inches
Available unframed $33
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Mini Quilt, hand dyed fabrics, batik and commercial cotton
machine quilted, 6.75x8.5 inches
Not For Sale - this one is framed and hanging in my bathroom =)
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Mini Quilt, batik and hand dyed cotton
machine quilted, 8.5 x 5.5 inches
Now framed to 17.5 x 14.5 inches behind glass. $84.
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Mini Quilt, hand dyed cotton and batik
machine quilted, 6.5 x 4.75 inches
Unframed $21
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Mini Quilt, hand dyed cotton, batik
machine quilted, 6x6 inches
Now framed in a killer floating frame for $185.
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Mini Quilt, commercial fabric, hand dyed cotton, batik
Machine quilted, 5x6 inches
Now framed in a shadow box frame plus some crystal and glass embelishments. $99
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Mini Quilt, hand dyed cotton, batik
machine quilted, 4.5 x 7.5 inches
Unframed $23
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Mini Quilt, batik, hand dyed cotton
machine quilted, 4.75 x 5.25 inches
Framed and behind glass to 13.5 square for $69
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Mini Quilt, batik and hand dyed cotton
machine quilted, 3.75 x 4.75 inches
Framed in an 8x10 shadow box table top frame, no hanging hardware, $45
~~~
Mini Quilt, batik, hand dyed cotton
machine quilted, 3.25 x 4.5 inches
Unframed $10
I picture these framed behind glass, I think they'd look great that way. So here they are until I have a chance to go frame shopping. Perfect for a small spot in the home that needs a small splash of color!

Birch Trees

I completed this quilt a while back but never got around to posting photos of it. I finished up the hand work one Saturday and have been enjoying it on my wall ever since. It's all cotton, many of the colors are hand dyed and I think there is a piece or two of commercial batik in there. The dotted fabric was created using potato stamps in metallic fabric paint. The trees are a natural unbleached muslin that I thought was a nice contrast to the richer colors. I've used a combination of brights and muddy tones hoping that it would make the vivid ones really sing. The colors are machine quilted and the trees are hand quilted with embroidery floss. It took me a while to get the binding completed, it's a pretty complex trick with all the movement in the edging, but I like how it turned out.

Hmmmm...

A quilt in process... but I can't decide which one I like better.

Which one?
hand dyed cottons + natural cotton, aprox 24 x 45

"Mystical Forest"

a work in progress

Somewhere over the rainbow...

We’ve been back a little less than a week and I still have not had time to get back into the textile studio. While traveling I did a good bit of hand work quilting with embroidery floss through all seven pieces from the series. I’m also adding a line of hand dyed silk through the series and I’ve got three of the seven of those sewn on. Beyond this point I don’t know what is next. It is an improvisational series, that is certain.

This is "Green" before quilting:

With some machine quilting and some hand work plus the row of silk:

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

This is "Blue" but I'm thinking of it more in terms of "Cyan." This is before quilting: This is what it looks like with machine and hand quilting plus the row of silk.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
This one is Indigo before:
After adding some pieces to make this piece the right size, plus some machine and hand quilting. (The top photo's colors are showing more true than the lower one.) This one also has the row of silk along the horizonal line.

I hope to get back to these soon but I don't get the hand work done very quickly when I'm at home. Being stuck in an auto for hours is the perfect time to do quilting, that or mid winter in front of the fire. But this time of year it just doesn't seem like the work I gravitate toward. It will come.