RUST IN PIECE & OTHER DYEING ARTS

I'd been intrigued with all the rust dyeing showing up on favorite blogs lately. It looked fun and seemed easy, but I didn't decide to try it until I saw one could capture images. I didn't think I had much rust around, but I remembered a set of seriously oxidized stack chairs with this great grid. I set out to see if I could capture the pattern. I got this ---->

I should have left it on the chair seat longer and should have pressed down to get those little verticle lines which work underneath the cross ones. But I could see the possibility was there.

I also found a few other experimental goodies. Here they are after washing clockwise from top left:

Cable chain link

Arm of stack chair (pink is accidental ink stain)

Mixed bag (box cutter blades, nails, steel wool)

Arm of stack chair (silk/poly cream charmeuse)

Mixed bag (reusing above items)

Stack chair seat

I experimented overdyeing the rust as well as rusting on previously dyed fabric. It works both ways, but my trials were done in haste and I don't have anything showy to display. Couple of swatches can be seen in another picture.

Since I was in the mood, I cleared time and space and went for a second dye session with Procion Mx dyes, trying 6 more colors: lapiz, teal, turquoise, dusty mauve, evergreen and marine. Like my first session I just wanted to see the dyes on different fabrics, and I followed a low immersion, marbly tone on tone technique.

L>R lapiz, teal, turquoise, dusty mauve, evergreen*, marine. Turns out the evergreen Procion was an acid dye and turned everything but the piece of silk chiffon I tried a light blue. The silk was a very pretty green. I intended to try some wool, but didn't get around to it. I did, however, experience some success with a 4 dye process. It was supposed to be 3, but I had so many uncolored areas I went back with a 4th dye and an eye dropper to saturate these places.

Top left is silk habotai, then 2 different pieces of linen, and below is a soft cotton. I did a few other trials like using leftover dyes and times and dutifully recorded everything in my dyer's journal. Below is a sample page and a picture of some other things I dyed including a piece of dotted swiss and a swatch of cream print cotton. Toward the bottom are a couple of from the overdye rust.

A-MAZE-ING STRAIGHT STITCH: TAST 22

Oops! The exercise was supposed to be SATIN Stitch !!! We'll just have to make do. Imagine

a contrasting color in the negative spaces. For purposes of this game, pretend those empty areas are filled with ecru thread, cotton pearl #5. Excuse me while I take an arggghhhh-h-h-h moment.

I remember what happened now. I started out adapting a different design from the same sourcebook . I was working with #3 and #5 cotton pearls along with a #8 silk pearl. It was my intention to create filled space with dimension as in padded satin stitching. I must have frogged the beginnings half a dozen times. The center of my sampler aida cloth was growing black fuzz, and I realized #3 pearl was not a good choice. At that point I also reached the conclusion that I didn't want to waste any more hand painted silk pearl no matter how great the gray-brown tones worked with the tweedy, ecru background.

I went for this Huichol textile pattern because it reminded me of a heavy

cotton woven vest from Central America. My mother and I shared it as part of an apres-ski outfit we wore with a hooded, black wool jersey. I still have it! Several decades later I noticed ponchos and overshirts of similar design were popular. Somewhere betwee

n reminiscing and ripping out horizontal straight stitches that didn't work, I must have forgotten all about satin stitch. Like I said, I could still fill in with an ecru thread and morph from straight to satin, but I like the clean look of the design as is and know the ecru would grow black fuzz...

What I liked about this pattern was that it could be broken down , shortened, widened. I started at the top working 3 motifs across, deciding I didn't want to go farther than the center.

Next I worked vertically with the 2 rows of the first motif to establish the bottom margin. Working down the next motif I was tempted several times to stop, make finishing stitches and leave a tapered design. I contemplated working the opposite side of the sampler in reverse,

leaving the middle area for another design, but I worried by the time I fiddled and frogged that center would become a hole.

A similar Huichol form allowed me to vary the straight stitches from vertical to horizontally worked, giving quite a different look. Nothing seemed to work for the remaining space. I gambled on a scrap of silver and black cord. I thought it was heavy enough to compensate for the less

dense side. I couched it down with a pattern of two diagonal stitches, then connected with a opposing single stitch.

I think this is one of my favorite samplers to date. I love the way it presents from any direction. The motifs on take quite a different look from horizontal orientation to vertical. Up and down I see Z's or S's. Turned on its side the multi repeat can

resemble waves; in fact, I almost used fish motifs as fillers at several points in my progress.

Well, even though I'm pleased with my result, I did not do my assignment correctly. By way of penance I shall attempt some satin stitches on plain cloth on another TAST-y project.

SPIRIT OF FRIENDSHIP DOLL EXCHANGE

This pretty lady journeyed from Colorado to be with me. She was created by Leslie Ehrlich and has found a comfortable stance next to my computer and seems to want to keep an eye on me. Well , actually I'm not sure what her intent is. It's like she's totally absorbed in whatever I'm doing. Could it be she shares my eclectic taste? I've named her Delilah Delightful as she is an amiable companion. Or guardian -- I'm hoping she'll protect me and my technical lifeline from evils of the internet.

There is a site where you can see pix of Delilah's and Rose's friends gathered for a garden party. Crazy Quilters International (CQI) keeps a blog gallery. Labels appear on the left sidebar. While visiting the gallery do check eye candy entries and winners of a recent purse contest!