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

The New Skirts

Here are a few of the hand dyed skirts I recently dyed at Studio B.  I'll post more info on them soon, they are going pretty quickly.  In this photo #2 and #7 are both already sold.  More photos coming of the rest of the collection as soon as I get a chance.

Happy Creating,
-Carmen Rose

She is... Beginning to Bloom

Some floral inspiration:




That's some great inspiration, right?
Great inspiration and some great raw materials:
A beautiful woman, her name is Jill.

A couple yards of hand dyed fabric in a color gradation from yellow to fuchsia.

Some olive (about five different shades of greens and earthy tones) procion dye for the clothing...

A little time and attention to making petals...

Plus a handful of sunflower seeds, some moss covered wire, some spirit gum and mineral makeup

And then a very patient model who let me put it all together...

And a funny little red cardinal who sat on her shoulder for a moment.  (And then fell off!) 

I don't have any photos back from the photo shoot yet, that will take some time.  This was just one I snapped when I had the chance.  So... more photos coming.  I think one of my favorite parts were the jewelry on her wrists and ankles/feet which you can't even see.  And another angle would better show her head gear, but patience... photos are coming.

Nothing like a creative day in the studio hard at play...  If I could give that to you as a gift, I sure would.  Because there is nothing like loving what you do!  Nothing like it!

Playing hard,
-Carmen Rose 

Taking a look back at 2009... Textiles!

I spent a while the other evening looking back at the year, giving some thought to the water under the bridge. Some of my favorite moments along the way include the winter months at the beginning of 2009, I was buried in my textile studio exploring the world of art quilting in a whole new way. I remember a visit to a local quilt shop where I saw a calendar on their wall, I snatched it right off its hook because I’d never seen such quilts before. I was completely taken with a quilt by Kathy York and I came home and googled her name and found her blog, which led me to a world of blogging quilters that I never knew existed. I fell in love with the aesthetic of Simply Robin, her art quilts are rich in color and design excellence.  I also discovered the amazing Melody Johnson, who has become a real source of inspiration on many fronts! I love her work, and I ever bought a painting from her this year.  I drooled over one and a friend of mine wondered aloud how a piece of my soul ended up on her canvas!  That painting is now one of my treasures in my home!  With inspiration from Melody, I began to dye my own cottons, linens and silks and that’s addictive! I’d dyed fabrics before but never with Procion dyes, and that opened up a brave new world! (Add dying textiles to my list of art media that I work in! Score!) I also learned to make a kind of bread that takes 18 hours to raise and is baked in an oven with steam - Yum! I even tried knitting a sock, inspired by Melody, but that’s rather dismal since I never finished and it’s a little wretched looking, but it was fun! Te he! I’d fused fabric for banners for years, but I’d always preferred piecing when working with quilts, but my latest quilt was entirely fused! I'm tellin ya, I could get used to that! I have learned SO much from this amazing group of phenomenal artists (too many to mention, just check out the blogs I follow!) and they are among the best treasures of my year! Oh, and in there somewhere a representative of Hoffman saw my blog and sent me a couple yards of some DELICIOUS batik! That was fun! I have created more quilts in 2009 than ever before, and even between all the other production work and the other media that I work in, working with fabric was a personal favorite. And when (if) I get my kitchen makeover complete, I hope to spend some quality time in my quilt studio again, the ideas are brewing and it's that time of year again. Plus the wood stove is going full tilt, and I love being in the toasty studio with my fabrics!  Here are some photos from my latest batch of hand dyed fabrics. I was going for the most difficult color to dye of them all: PURPLE!

I like dying white on white commercial fabrics, the white printing on the fabric takes the dye differently than the body of the fabric, creating any number of cool effects. 

A little more white on white.

These are all squares of gradient tones, and each was folded in half when I dyed it creating roughly 20 x 42 inch pieces of fabric that are like photo copies or mirror images... that was a fun experiment!

A closer look at one of the dyed tonal pieces.  The process is simple.  I put the fabric out on the kitchen counter on a trash bag.  Fill the squeeze bottle with dye solution and squeeze some on the prepared fabric, add a little water or dye and then squeeze out the solution on the next row and continue on like that.  One can make various gradations of the same color, light and dark blue for example, and one can morph from one color to the next like I did above.  My lines show but if you don't want them to it's possible to do it more gradually!  I <3 color!

This large chunk of fabric turned out looking like I tie dyed it, but that design was entirely accidental.  A few shades of purple went into the can along with the fabric, and it was dramatically forgotten for a day or two and then washed.  Don't ask me to repeat that color, it was just the last of all the purple dyes just thrown into one can along with some fabric.

I've got a bunch of these fabric chunks in a wild combination of blue, purple and fuchsia and everything along the way in between. 

Oh, and a few more of these white on white pieces, the more pastel ones to the left and the darker majenta purple ones on the right.

Yay for the color PURPLE!

Happy dying, Happy New Year

"For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we'll take a cup of kindness yet,
for auld lang syne."

New Fabric and a New (Old) Singer

I've dyed some new fabrics a while back, I was looking for a certain shade of green I'd seen in a magazine and played around some to see if I could come close.  This one has some beautiful subtle textures that I think are very pleasing.  Wet procion colors look very different after they've washed and dried, so getting a true color match is tricky business.

I also tried out a very interesting dying technique that is designed to give a very smooth transition between colors and was really pleased with how it turned out.

I tried this one with four colors and two plys of fabric, so I now have two pieces that look like this.  I've already cut into this for a new quilt project, what a TREAT!

A whole bunch of greens and fuchsias in a variety of intensities and hues:

And also some blue/purples to go along.  These are much more nuanced colors than my early procion work.  I had an art school professor that would tell us that an artist shouldn't use a color straight out of the tube, "Make it your own!"  He would have been talking of oils or acrylics but it applies to procion dyes.  Of course I'm not going to mix every single color just because an old professor said I must, but I respect the opinion that colors should be "owned."  Sometimes they just don't need tweaking, and I'm running out of some of my favorite colors in the early batches, so I'll be back into this again soon enough.

I finally learned my lesson, I bought a box of disposable gloves for use when dying. It took about two weeks for my hands to lose their acquired colors last time I dyed (actually, don't look too close under my fingernails!!) I looked like an auto mechanic!  And this time I remained unscathed. It took me a while, but I learned my lesson. 

Soon I'll be sharing photos of my new quilt project.  I'm past the most intense part of Christmas production and ready for winter activities like cooking and keeping a fire in the wood stove and sewing.  Oh, and I was given another old Singer sewing machine today, this one doesn't have a presser foot and I haven't gotten it to work properly yet.  I'm up to four old sewing machines now, just hoping Studio B doesn't become a home for tired old Singers... though maybe if I keep them upstairs with the piano then we'll all be happy.  =)

Thanks for dropping by my blog!
With love from a tired old singer, sewer, and dyer,
-Carmen Rose

In the zone

It started with this new chunk of fabric

And then I added a few others, mostly hand dyed with a few commercial ones thrown in.
And I was just minding my own business making something for my kitchen to replace the winter scene that just has to go.

And something really unexpected

started to happen

and I found the flow

and I got lost in the work

and remembered...

why I do what I do.

Yeah.

The Dye Babies

I recently picked up some seaweed stuff to make marbled fabrics. It’s an interesting process and when I had the gallery I sold many silk scarves by a local woman who hand marbles fabrics. I’ve never actually seen it done in person and would really love a class. I know I don’t have the right dyes for it, mine were a bit on the thin side and just spread out too much to leave behind much vibrant color for the fabric to soak up. I’m pretty sure I’m doing some of the other stuff wrong as well but I enjoyed the process and have some interesting fabrics as a result. So no complaints here. Though I have a big marbling tray in my kitchen with three gallons of seaweed slime laced with dyes. And I have no idea what to do with it! Does this stuff kill grass? Should I just throw it outside? (And hope the dogs don’t get into it.) I don’t think hubby would approve of dumping it down the drain. Hmmm… decisions, decisions.
So here are some results. They aren’t marbled so much as just an exploration of what the dye did when it hit the surface of the seaweed, I found that far more interesting than the ones who are swirled in the traditional marbling way. It’s the Jackson Pollock in me I guess. Honestly though, there are a lot of experiments left in this process. I think I’ll keep exploring. Which ones do you like best? I can't decide.

Dying for Color

In between all the adventures of the last week or so I dyed some fabric. It was stolen time in between everything else, just me in my studio playing with the things I love best... colors and more colors. I ended up with 22 silks:
24 white on whites, these were an afterthought and just tucked in to containers that already had fabric in dye so they only got the leftover dyes and attention. Some of them actually got some color and others are much softer but they make nice contrast with the vivid ones.

I also came out with 32 cottons; none of them are perfectly solid which makes me happy because I really wanted the hand dyed look. They are completely delicious!

I have 14 multi colored chunks of fabric in a bunch of different color ways. Some of these are really marvelous and I can't wait to sink into them.

I have 20 chunks of a heavy woven linen that took the dye in marvelous swirls and blends. These are so pretty and I even like the frayed thing that started to happen around the edges.

As all of these went through the dryer I also ended up with the most beautiful dryer lint, bet you think I'm joking. I've saved it, it will turn up in something but I don't know what yet.

I need to spend a little time mixing up the colors that are missing in these color ways. It was a good experiment with the 26 ready made procion dyes I was working with, now I need to see what can be done about mixing up the other colors that I would like to finish out the blends.

Plus, I have the seaweed and flowable paints and I'd like to try marbeling some fabric. Sometime soon, but not likely today. I'm still trying to recoup from last week. Seems like I feel every one of my forty years right now. So I am trying to take it easy. But color... nothing restores my soul like color.

For the Love of Color

I’ve got 26 colors of procion dye and instructions from the amazing Ms. Melody. I’m dangerous now, nothing in my house is safe at this point.

I did the little chemist thing, mixing all the stuff together and loving those colors as they soak into the fabric. I’m working with silk, cotton and linen. Oh, and some white on white as an afterthought.

I’ve got these laid out but they are not dry yet. I wanted some texture and color blending in these and I just can’t wait until they are dry enough to iron so I can see how they turned out. And I have one batch of all the fire colors in the washer and I’ll tell ya, I’m really impatient. I can’t wait to see how it all turns out.