As I began to think about TC #5 I found another piece of fabric I had made in response to the video on Committed to Cloth entitled Creative Fabric Dying. My results were not pleasing or interesting (or so I thought at the time) and the color was bad. It was done using a piece of fabric that is not my usual fabric and it is kind of thin. However, I feel my eye for marks is changing and I spotted a stack of strips I had cut from some of this fabric and decided to attempt to use the discarded fabric in a piece.
The photos show clearly that there is a front and a back to this fabric. I liked the back. I selected three three strips, each with a different pattern.
This is of the front of the fabric.
This shows the back of the fabric. There are much stronger linear markings.
This shows the 3 pieces I choose to work with.
I pieced them together and turned the unit 90 degrees clockwise.
Here you can see the Unit. I then choose to keep things simple by using red, yellow and green thread to quilt and add details and texture.
After quilting I decided I needed another element and I discharged the 12 dots with Soft Scrub. The fabric discharged to yellow which worked well with the red/yellow spiral. Because I discharged the dots I had to wash the piece so there is more overall texture.
Observations:
1. The stripes created on the back of this fabric make me think of strip piecing. I think there are some nice possibilities here if the color were nicer.
2. I like the overlapping background spirals made by the quilting. A nice way to repeat an element.
3. I may dip this little fellow into another dye bath just to see if I can pump up the color. I'll let you know how that works.
The color in this study is so unattractive that I could not resist playing with it a bit in Photoshop. Still not good but perhaps better.
Next week I am going to return to TC #2 and attempt to do another piece like that but this time WITH INTENTION. Better color and the knowledge gained while making the first piece.
