painting vs dyeing

This piece was made with painted cloth. Some of the variation in color resembles dyed cloth but it is painted. I used a small amount of paint to apply washes as needed to create the colors I wanted with the fabrics I already had. Most of the fabrics I used were solid colors to begin with - I used the paint to add some variation. I also used the paint to emphasize edges - darkening with washes inside or outside of a stitched line. 

I used Pebeo Setacolor transparent fabric paints. The big bottles I have had for quite awhile. The small bottles are part of a wonderful starter set available through Dharma Trading Co.

I also used sun printed fabric (sun printed with the same transparent fabric paint) I had made awhile back and just cut choice pieces out of it. 

However, we did dye some fabrics in the gold and amber range with smashed apples this weekend, which yielded some similar colors. I think I have mentioned this on here before but we just made cider this weekend and so here it is again.

My people (and pup) - Brett holding the apples that have been pureed through a garbage disposal system he has built for cider making (not shown). The cider colored bag is full of the pulp before it has been pressed. That bag has been used for several years and retains a beautiful rich cider color.

The one used for years shown on the right. Two new bags shown left and middle - of those two only the middle one was used this time. This is after being washed. Pretty amazing I think - just apples.

The lighting on some of my inside photos are all over the place today. We have crossed over into winter temperatures in the last few hours and it feels like it has been getting dark since about noon today. So -  hot cider tonight. Stay warm.

lines and shaped edges

Celebrating some fall color with those pieced stars. I think in layers as I start to work out the color and then the line of a cloth. The line work eventually rising above the blocks of color and the various depths of line suggested with the color of thread. I haven't made it back to stitching leaves yet, but there are so many similarities in an insect wing.

I also gave a shaped edge a try - a star as fringe.

and Eva has fully claimed the fabric scrap corner in the top of the very big basket next to my sewing machine. The pets stay close as the days get colder.

Have a great weekend.

starry light

Sorry for the delay, all is very well - and this is where I spent my extra hour this morning.

time warp

Last week my dad had a serious health scare, but he is doing well now. My mom is faced with the fairly difficult job of trying to get him to take it easy for awhile. This is the first day it has felt okay to think about anything else except all of this. I guess I am just noting all this here for sake of my personal timeline. Last week was like a time warp.

The boys and I are making a few small trips here and there over the next few days. I will be back to posting here in about a week.

I am still working on the redbud leaves and I think something is about to happen with these patchwork stars.

redbud family

Nighttime and daytime photos but the same cloth. Right now I am liking the heart shape of the eastern redbud.

It has been a crazy week and next week my boys are on fall break. When I get back - let's talk about leaves again.

the light, the cat, the quilt and the pup

studio and golden

I tidied the studio this week in moments between computer work and everything else. It was time - it just wasn't much fun to be in there it was getting so crazy. I feel like I can think more clearly now. A tidy is also always a nice reminder that I don't need any more fabric probably ever. Lots of to do/to sew things resurfaced. I am so happy to have found my favorite tiny embroidery scissors and altoid tin full of straight pins - both of which had been missing since spring.

The fall light is completely different which can feel pretty tough on a cold rainy day - lots of dark corners. It seems like it changed kind of fast. I think there will be lots of shuffling around of the lamps all over the house.

This week, I finished one thing started long ago. I started piecing this compass rose almost 3 years ago, when our Beandog passed away. It doesn't sound right at all that it was that long ago. I finished the piecing not long after I started it. The stitching has been done for awhile too and the little quilt has been keeping me company in the studio all this time. So I finally made it into the big cushion cover I had always intended it to be - just in time for Beandog's favorite time of year. She always had a sassy little burst of puppy energy in the fall when the heat of the summer was over.

family

My parents are the "Fletcher" in my name (as well as my boys') and the foundation on which my sense of family has been built. They are encouraging and supportive and so when I started taking ceramics classes a year (or two?) ago, my dad surprised me by making a custom clay tool. It stamps my initials into the soft clay on the bottom of my work. He is a woodworker but can really make anything he puts his mind to - he's pretty amazing. The stamp works beautifully. He modeled it after my own configuration of hand writing/carving of my initials, but these letter forms are pleasingly clean and simple - beautifully influenced by the materials used.

Dad's stamp also works well on other materials and so I can stamp lightly onto fabric and then stitch over it.

I am working through a stack of pieces - many started quite awhile ago. Some of them have become overwhelmed with my original intention of what I hoped for them to be or mean. When that happens I eventually put them aside and now there's a stack of them - looking all lonely. In the midst of normal family chaos of day to day life it is the meditative stitch that I so often need. So they won't all turn out to be what I originally intended because I am going to lighten their load of intention just a bit. In the end I think cloth just begs to be lived with and useful - part of a family.

If only just a sense of all that can be stitched into what I make then it will be enough. All the comforts, the calm and sometimes chaotic - past and present of home. It's all in there.