fabric evolution

This is a quilt top that uses a piece of fabric that did a lot of evolving!  The original piece of fabric was a multi color dyed fabric that lacked a lot.  The color just didn't work for me.  It got overdyed with a medium concentrate of black.  Then it was discharged using a silicone ice cube tray for the square pattern.  Next it was covered with freezer paper and dye painted with a raspberry color, shown in this photo below. 

 Here is the finished piece of fabric

And a close up

 And the final quilt top.  I love the way this turned out. !

New Surface Design Toy?

 I was at Home Depot last week when I came across this new toy.  Not really sure what it is called, but it is a metal panel insert of some sort.  It is a coated aluminum, and it wasn't cheap, so I figured I would start with just one of the patterns before I got carried away.  There were several to choose from. 

I took a soda soaked piece of fabric and layer down a water based resist using my new toy as a stencil.  It didn't go down very uniformly, my resist was a little thin, and it sort of ran through some of the holes.  The panel is a little thicker than a typical stencil, so I really had to load the foam roller up. 

Once the resist was dry I painted it with thickened dye in raspberry, strong orange, and fire red.

Here it is batching.

It got its first washings last night.  I think it needs more.  It is calling for some screened on math equations in black. 

The Leftovers

Never one to waste any dye, I had some thickened dye from painting left over.  I put some of the yellow in the bottom of a cup, shoved a piece of pre soda ash soaked fabric in, and dumped some of the blue on top and mushed it around a little.  I love the result.  It is a scrap piece, but I don't think I am going to cut it.  It will turn into a long panel whole cloth piece, definately with some beads.  Stay tuned in the future for the finished result!

This first photo is the whole piece, and the rest are closeups.

Getting it all set up

Welcome to the Free Spirit Quilting Blog!

I am a quilter, both traditional and contemporary, a fabric dyer, and a textile surface design addict. Here is where I will share a glimpse into my world of experimentation with different products and media. 

For the past couple of weeks I have been slogging away at getting my online store going.  I have spent more time on the computer than I ever dreamed of.  Thank you to Squirrelcart for providing an affordable user friendly shopping cart software. 

Stay tuned for more to come...