I Need Your Opinion

I'm hoping you all can help me with this next project. I'm trying to decide what border/background to put on my painted, beaded, and thread painted moth project. I'd appreciate your input and suggestions for a border/background that works with this piece. For each of these pictures, I have tacked my moth project onto a different piece of fabric on my design wall.

In Picture 1 the background is a bleach discharged shibori piece I just finished. Should I include this much background if I choose this arrangement? Off center, centered, leave it where it is, cut down on the border????

 In Picture 2, I have used the fabric just as a border.

In Picture 3, I used a "striped" shibori fabric. The question again is whether to use the fabric as a background or just a border and which placement looks best. 

Picture 4 is the same "striped" shibori used only as a border. 

Picture 5 is a copper batik border. (The copper color is a little more toned down than it looks here. The true color isn't as orange as it is coming off.)

Picture 6 is a black border. 

Picture 7 is the copper batik border with a sinemay ribbon on top. I like the texture the sinemay ribbon adds to the piece. What do you think?

Picture 8 is the copper batik with the sinemay ribbon used as a border. 

Picture 9 is the "striped" shibori with the sinemay ribbon added. 

Picture 10 is the "striped" shibori with the sinemay ribbon (again used as a border). I'm really not crazy about covering up this much of the shibori piece if I use it only as a border.

Picture 11 is the black fabric with the sinemay ribbon as a background. 

Do you like any of these? Any suggestions of something else to try? Comments on design? I'd really appreciate any comments/suggestions/opinions you all can give me. (I know, I know...just do it! Chalk this up to my curiousity.) I can't wait to hear from you.

Discharge with Bleach--New Projects

I decided to do a bit more discharge shibori before I put all my supplies away. First, is my favorite piece. I loosely rolled my black fabric onto a piece of nylon string (on the diagonal). Then I scrunched it up as tight as I could and tied the string together to keep its shape. (I ended up having to do this twice; the first time, only half of the fabric had discharged.) I think it looks like some kind of animal skin.

This piece was wrapped around a pole on the diagonal and then nylon string was wrapped around the fabric on the pole.

This is what the pieces looked like before bleach discharging. I do know that this fabric is 100% cotton by Blank Textiles.

This fabric content is unknown. I bought it at a yard sale. I think this piece looks sort of like bones or connective tissue of some kind. I loosely twisted this fabric and secured it with a rubber band. This piece is about 18" X 18".

This piece is larger--approximately 18" X 36". I folded it in half, wrapped it on a pole, and secured it with a jute string. The right half was the inside half. This picture doesn't show the subtle markings on the right side very well. You might be able to see them better if you click on this picture, then click on the picture again. 

Now, I just have to decide how to use them.

I also discharged a piece I had dyed earlier. I really don't like either piece. I'll just have to find some other technique to use on these fabrics to be able to use them. The fabric on the right is what I started with. The fabric on the left is what it looked like after discharging it. (I'm not a big pink/rose/light red fan.)

Snow Dyeing/Bird Pictures of the Day

Okay, you are all probably sick of hearing people "talk" about snow dyeing, but... I've never done any before. I thought I'd give it a shot; I'm glad I did. Here are the two pieces I did yesterday.

I took hold of the middle of this fabric and twisted it--making a spiral--before I put the snow on top. 

I just rumpled and scrunched this fabric a bit before I put the snow on it. I put both of these pieces in the plastic container shown below. When I look at this piece I am reminded of my trip to Yellowstone. I remember one of the geyser pools that had the most unusual, beautiful color. The bottom right quarter of this piece looks like that pool.

I drizzled the dyes I had left over from my day of trying shibori earlier in the week. I used an orangy yellow, sun yellow, red, and turquoise. I had more turquoise dye than anything else, so I was surprised that the pieces didn't have more green and blue in them.

This is what it looked like right before I dumped it out. As you can see, the turquoise is very prominent. Doesn't it look like a luscious snow cone?

...and now for the birds. I just LOVE watching them each day. Every time it snows, the birds flock to my feeder and my birdbath "spa." (I have a heater for my birdbath.) Today, this female cardinal was enjoying the sunflower seeds on the ground.

I'm not sure about all the names of the birds. I think my sister told me this is a titmouse??? I love the little tuft of feathers on his head.

I don't know what kind of bird this is. It looks like a sparrow to me (except for the stripes on its head). 

A blue jay showed up today. I think it is because I put some crackers and popcorn out on the ground. In these pictures, though, he was enjoying the sunflower seeds. I couldn't resist taking a couple of pictures of him--that blue is just so beautiful. 

My First Experience in Dyeing/Shibori

Yesterday was a "play day" for me and a friend. We wrapped fabric around poles then dyed it, twisted fabric upon itself and dyed it, rolled and scrunched fabric and dyed it, and I painted fabric with dye. A picture of my day's work is at the bottom of this post.

In this next picture I started with one of the flour-paste resist pieces I did awhile back (See http://quilterbeth.blogspot.com/2010/08/play-day-pictures-flour-paste-resist.html. This piece is the bottom piece pictured in the earlier post.) I used the dyes I had mixed and painted onto the fabric with a silicone pastery brush. I used an orangy-yellow, green, and red.

This is how the piece turned out after it was rinsed, laundered, and ironed. I don't know where the green went! Okay, what do you think I should do with it now?

Since I signed up for the technique blog ("And Then We Set It On Fire") I've tried some things that are new for me, and I'm learning a lot.

If you'd like to see pictures of the shibori pieces (and explanations of how it was done), please head on over to the "And Then We Set It On Fire" blog. Shibori is the technique of the month. Click the "And Then We Set It On Fire" icon at the top right of this post.

I'm having SO much fun, and you can too. Try the technique of the month with me.

If you are a reader of my blog, you know that I've had a thing with birds this whole past year. Well, I took some more pics.

I just love cardinals. They seem to like the sunflower seeds I put out in the open "pan."

These little birds were trying out all my new feeders. I think the bird on the snowman's eye looks a little creepy. I think it looks like he is pecking out the snowman's eye. I guess I'm still affected by Hitchcock's "The Birds."

 How do you like my snowman feeder?

My First Shibori Project and Color Discharge Using Bleach

Be sure to click on the "And Then We Set It On Fire" icon to the right to see pictures of my shibori. I'm really pleased with the results (and excited that I finally got a post on the blog)!

While I was working on my shibori pieces, I also did some pieces using bleach in a spray bottle. If you would want to do this, I suggest you do it outside (which I did--even though the temperature was in the 30s). You MUST HAVE good ventilation when working with bleach and anti-chlor. I thought the pieces turned out interesting. I'll be doing more of them.

This is what I started with...some string and two keys strewn onto my fabric.

I used straight bleach sprayed from a spray bottle, and this is what I got... 

After I sprayed the fabric with bleach, I let it sit a little while (until the color was a bit darker than I wanted). Then I removed the objects from the fabric and put the fabric into an anti-chlor solution (for five minutes) to stop the discharge of the dye. I waited a bit too long on this particular piece. I think it turned out a little too light. What I think I'll do with it is overdye it with a color. The anti-chlor solution I used was 1 teaspoon of anti-chlor to 2 1/2 gallons of water. I rinsed the fabric in cold water after the anti-chlor bath. I followed this same procedure for all of these pieces.

This is what turned out when I used "Jet Black" fabric from Blank. The color is a beautiful rusty/reddish brown. The picture doesn't do the color justice. On this piece, I again used the keys, some jute, and three bottle caps. 

On this piece, I sprayed bubble wrap with the bleach. Then I placed the fabric face down on the bubble wrap and lightly pressed the fabric into it with my gloved hands. After that, I put the fabric on the table, added some string and a glove and lightly spritzed the whole piece with the bleach. I let it sit for just a little bit before putting it into the anti-chlor solution. I like the depth in this piece.

I have lots of ideas about things I can use to make more of this unique fabric. It was great fun. Why don't you give it a try?

"And Then We Set It On Fire"

I'm SO excited...January is the beginning of my art quilt/surface design adventure! This is sort of like a New Year's Resolution...but one that I'm really anxious to do...not like my usual "I'm going to lose weight" resolution! I got in on an opportunity to work with eight quilt artists to try a new surface design technique each month for nine months. Each month the chosen technique, web/video/print resources, and each artist's endeavors (successes/failures and, hopefully, some finished products) in the chosen technique will be entered as posts to the blog. YOU are invited to join us in learning and experimenting with something new (or something you'd like to try again). There is a place on the blog (http://andthenwesetitonfire.blogspot.com/ or click on the "And Then We Set It On Fire" icon to the right) for you to become a "Follower" if you so choose. Let us know how you are doing by leaving comments and links to your posts about the technique. Even if you choose not to actually try the technique with us, check in on our progress anyway.

This month we are focusing on shibori. I have never done ANY dyeing, so I'm very excited to try it. I am anxiously awaiting the dyeing supplies I ordered from ProChem around Christmas. As soon as I get them, I'll be experimenting. For now, I'm collecting dishpans, buckets, rubber gloves, dust masks, plastic bags, measuring spoons, etc. While I'm waiting for the dye supplies, I may try some shibori with paint and/or shibori using discharge...we'll see how that pans out! Stay tuned...