Passion or Obsession: My Journey into Hand-dyeing and Surface Design

This is one page from the surface design book I'm making for the exhibit. It's a painted piece of cotton which I hit with salt while it dried in the sun. If it's a hot day, you can actually see the salt doing its thing. I used a 50/50 mix of Setacolor paint and water. It's easy and fun-- good for a group, no chemicals, water clean-up. Dried fabric has to be heat set with iron or you can just let it sit for a couple weeks if you really dislike ironing (use a presscloth) The other pages of the book cover rust printing, overdyeing, resists, discharging and others.

I've challenged myself in this project to use cloth/fiber in the majority of the signage/display items. I've had my test kitchen (same room I used to cook in) working on "will this work on this?" "will this show up well enough for a sign?" and the like.

Exhibit debuts at Minnesota Quilt Show and Conference at the St. Cloud Civic Center in St. Cloud, MN June 17-19, 2010. Stop by if you're in the area!

First Cave Blog

The first Cave blog.

I just put the binding on a large wall piece and now my design wall is empty. Looks weird. But today may be warm enough to dye fabric so will pre-wash some cotton. It's not like I'm low on fabric but there are some dye colors that I want to mix and try out.

I'm also working on the MN exhibit parts. One will be a sample fabric "book" showing some of the surface design techniques I use. Exhibit is in June at the MN quilt show and conference, details at my website: www.thefibercave.com I'll post pics when its worthy. . .