Field Trips in Fiber - Adventures in quilting, hand dyed fabric and fiber art.

Custom Dyed Gradients

One of my favorite things about dyeing fabric is getting a request for something custom. Occasionally I am unable to do do what they want, but when it comes to custom dyed gradients I can usually meet the challenge.

Here's one I just finished last week. Barbara sent me that narrow strip from a commercial print gradient and I created this hand dyed version that closely approximated the colors.

These custom order can take a while though. Sometimes I need to go through a couple of dye cycles to test blends to get the colors just right.

I can also create gradients oriented lengthwise. In January I created a 3 yard version of Blue Sky with the customer specifying exactly where he wanted the darkest color offset from the center gradating to the palest colors at the cut edge. He's using it as a background for a 6' aquarium.

 

The most interested lengthwise gradient that I've done so far is for this spectacular quilt made by Cheryl and her sister, Joyce. Cheryl is a wonderful longarm quilter and she and Joyce split duties on this one. Cheryl sent me some swatches of the reds and blues and I created the gradient that she used on the border. By dyeing the gradient along the length of the fabric she only had to make 4 cuts for that simple-to-piece border. You can read more about the quilt on Cheryl's blog.

If you have made something with my fabric I'd love to see it. You can send photos to me or upload them to my customer Flickr group. Once a month I draw a name from the entries and that person gets a 3-month 25% shop discount.

 

Customer projects

I've very excited to share a new customer project with you this week. You may remember Yvonne as the person who won that cross stitch cat that drove me insane. Yvonne is also a great customer and shared this project with me recently.

A gradient fabric as picture matting! How cool is that? She had the frame so she did not spend one dime on this great project. Here's how she did it:

"I had the frame.....36"by 11.5". My first thought was to have a mat made but since I'm trying to limit my spending,  I thought I could do something. I had some old 11 by 14" oval mats. I measured and cut those to fit.....they were short on the long sides by about 1/4" so I cut s strip of timtex. It was the perfect addition. Next I layered the fabric over the mats and spot gluesticked. I cut the oval out leaving a good margin. I clipped the edge and then glued it to the back. I center the photos and taped them. Once it was together the birds seemed a bit lost in the fabric. I thought a black outline would be good. I had some big red rickrack but no black. I decided to try painting it black. It came out a sort of dark rusty color but was a good contrast. I took tucked it in behind the mat and use lapel stick to spot stick it. "

How clever is that?

I can't tell you how exciting it is to see my fabrics used in so many ways. Just this week I have an order for some custom gradient fabric that will be used as the background for a 6' long aquarium.  I hope I get to see a photo of that one done too.

Please consider sharing your completed project in the Customer Flickr Gallery.  Every month, in the newsletter, I draw a winner from the entries that month. The winner received a personal 25% off coupon code that is good for 3 months. The only way to ever get 25% off is with this gallery discount. The next newsletter drawing is February 4th.

Yvonne, thanks for sharing your great project!

Customer projects

I'm excited to have 2 more great customer projects to share with you. Before I do, remember to check out all of my customer projects in the Flickr Group. If you have made something with my fabric please add it to the group. Each month I will draw a name from that month's entries. The winner will be announced in my newsletter and will receive a personal 25% shop discount that is good for 3 months!

First up is this beauty from LuAnn Kessi.

This was a challenge quilt (I believe it was a guild challenge). LuAnn sunprinted the leaves and then used the Sugar Maple Gradient for the borders. The green, gold and orange of the sun prints blend perfectly with the gradient colors. If you don't follow LuAnn's blog, you should, it's always full of inspiration and she is always creating something new. Check out this post for a great slide show of the creating of this quilt.

This next quilt was made by Summerset Banks. You will know her primarily as an art garment maker. She has won many awards at all of the major shows for her spectacular art garments. If you are into garment sewing you should be following her blog because she shows great detail of her work with lots of tutorials. She is also an avid mountain climber and spends a lot of time on the mountains of New Hampshire.

It's not an art garment, it's an art quilt! This one was based on a photograph taken by a friend while they were hiking on Waumbek Mountain, NH.  Her friend captured this photo just as the sun was streaming through the trees. She used the photo for the quilt and added the hand dyed fabric for the frame and back.

I love the detail stitching that Summerset did to enhance the photo. Beautiful!

Customer projects

There isn't anything better than seeing what other artists make with my fabrics and I have 2 great ones to share today.

Before I get into that I want to remind you that if you make something with my fabric and share it in my Customer Flickr group, you will be entered to win a personal 25% discount for three months! Your project can be anything that uses the fabric and can blend my fabric with any other materials or fabrics. Just put a photo of your project in the Flickr Group. The next drawing will be with January newsletter.

This first quilt is a baby quilt made by Emma of Sampaquita Quilts. I love seeing so many of the gradient fabrics together in one quilt.  She calls this one Colour Play and she has lots of detail photos on her blog.  If you do not follow Emma's blog, you should. She is incredibly creative and makes a lot of different kinds of quilts. Much of her work is published in Australian quilting magazines. 

Aurora Borealis was made by Caron Mosey. I believe this was a guild challenge project. She used the black gradient for the star points. I think that the texture of the fabric makes it look like marble.

Caron blogs at Michigan Quilts! and is another blogger I recommend following. She is a very talented hand quilter and has started another blog called Celebrate hand Quilting which is self-explanatory! If you are a hand quilter you will want to check it out. On her main blog she is working in hand quilting a group quilt that is being made for the Obama's. You can read all about it and follow her progress on her blog.

Thanks to Emma and Caron for allowing me to share their projects. This is what inspires me to get in the dye studio and create new fabrics.

Coming Home Fabric Palette Projects

Several months ago when I was working on developing the Coming Home Palette I received a messages from quilt artist Stephanie Wilds looking for just the colors I was developing. I am so thrilled to share her project instead of my normal post of EQ projects. Stephanie had taken Marilyn Wall's Fabricating Faces class. That's how she learned this technique and heard about my fabric.

Faces of Music

Stephanie Wilds

Stephanie is not only a talented quilt artist but she also restores violins and inlay. She and her husband own a music store in North Carolina and this quilt is a tribute to influential musicians. It hangs in their store, Acoustic Corner.

Stephanie used all 4 colors of the Coming Home Palette in 4 value steps.  You can see detail photos of each artist on Stephanie's web site.

If you are interested in the Coming Home Fabrics, you can get all the details here.

If you want to learn how to create beautiful art quilt faces, check out Marilyn's teaching schedule on her web site.