Last week I tried my hand with a flour paste resist and had excellent results so I thought I'd try it again. I laid out two pieces of fabric and applied the paste but I did not take into account that we were having very different weather. Last week it was warm and sunny while this week it has been cool and rainy. The result of that weather change was that I saw very quickly that the paste would not dry in time for me to apply the dye and complete a piece.
So what to do.....I spied a piece of fabric I showed you a couple of weeks ago. It was the black dye painted piece I used to illustrate my 'undocumented' work for the Black and White Show at Quilt Visions. It had some nice areas but would never do as a work unto itself so I decided to cut into it. My idea was to remove some areas and put another fabric under it and see what happened. That is exactly what I did and it only took a few fabric auditions to decide on the fabrics you see in the picture....the yellow/green patterned fabric.
This is the entire piece of fabric I put together. The version at the top is how I will crop it when I am ready to finish the edges.
I cut the the shapes I wanted and applied them to the fabric underneath by sewing them together. I suppose this is called raw edge applique. Then I did some intense quilting with three different threads.
I really like the look of this piece. It's kind of cartoony (is that a word?). The shapes are not very pleasing but that could be worked with were I to take it to another piece. The color combo of black, white, yellow and yellow green really pops and has a strong voice.
The two patterned pieces are from my Peas and Carrots series which is a never ending series composed of small bits of fabric I dye when I have just a dab of some dye concoction left after doing a larger project. I can't stand to wash it down the drain so I use it on these tid-bits. The Peas and Carrots reference relates to kids (or adults) who when eating, try to make all their foods last evenly through the meal.
On another topic: I have a show of 10 of my small pieces on exhibit at the Fran Hanson Gallery in the South Carolina Botanical Garden in Clemson, SC. Here are a few shots from that show.
For those of you who have been following the Compositional Conversation, I will be publishing the next version on Monday by Leslie Riley. Folks, it is amazing so hope to see you then.
