Revision Quilts

For this second year in a row, Fibervision had a Revision Challenge. Each participant put a quilt or quilt top that they made, but no longer want, in a brown paper bag and trade their bag with another participant. The challenge is to take whatever piece your receive and Revision it into a new, wonderful, useful object or quilt.

Some people remove pieces and reuse them in some way. Some make additions and turn them into useful items like bags or boxes. Some change the look by dyeing, discharging or painting the fabric.

I received a finished quilt, complete with binding, a label and a poem. It's a pretty traditional pattern, but it had bits of yarn and tulle running through it a lot of beads. I had a very difficult time with this piece, because I know it took many hours to make. I didn't want to destroy it. I stared at it for months and often used it to cover up when I was chilly in my studio. I knew I had to do something dramatic to change it but what? Cutting it wasn't going to be enough and I couldn't take it apart because the quilting was quite dense. I decided to paint it.

Here's the quilt after it was painted with Setacolor, stamped with Neopaque and rubbed with Shiva sticks. It's very different, but it still isn't quite finished. Now I'm needle felting wool roving on top in a swirling circle pattern.

I told everyone that I was going to turn it into a bag, but they all thought it was great as a quilt and didn't want me to cut it.

What do you think? Keep it whole or turn it into a large tote bag? Hmmmm

The big reveal was today at our holiday party. Everyone made fantastic Revision pieces and fabulous food. We spent the afternoon at Cathi's beautiful house enjoying each other's company. It was a great day . . . a very welcome break from the ever present landscaping project.

More Stamp Carving & Fabric Printing

I'm back . . . Here's the second installment of my stamp carving and fabric printing experiments.The first two photos show the carved stamp and the printed fabric made with that stamp. I used Neopaque paint to print the stamps in an all over design and let it dry.I layered this batch a little differently than the last one. I put a white piece of fabric down first, then layered the blue printed fabric face up. I sprayed it with water and squirted apple green and blue Dyna-flow on top.Then I added the red printed fabric face down and squished. Here's a photo of the stack when it was still wet. This is a great way to add a bit of background color to white fabric. I'll show you the final outcome in the next post.

Stamp Carving and Fabric Printing

I led the Fibervision design workshop this month. It was loosely based on Jane Dunnewold's book Finding Your Own Visual Language. A creative group of artists really doesn't require much in the way of instruction. Place materials in front of them, give them a general idea and off they go. Everyone enjoyed carving their own stamps; some used Exacto Knives, some used carving tools. I used Jacquard Neopaque to print my stamps on cotton fabric. After drying for a couple of days and heat setting, I began to play with the printed fabric.

I sprayed the fabric with water and squirted some violet, blue and green Dyna-Flow on top. As expected the Neopaque acted as a resist and the Dyna-Flow bled together around the stamped area. It was pretty juicy and I didn't want to waste good paint, so I added a layer of fabric on top and squished (technical term) the layers together.This was pretty good, but it needed a little something. Hmmm . . . Apple Green and Red should do the trick! It was pretty juicy again, so I added another layer of fabric and squished.
I couldn't wait to see what it looked like, so I peeled back the layers and took this photo. I can't wait for it to dry! I also painted two other pieces that I'll show in the next post.