Silkscreening with Colorhue dyes

Today was part 3 of playing with Colorhue silk dyes. I pulled out my favorite Ginkgo leaf silkscreen and shaving cream and went to work.  This was much easier than using stencils. It goes very fast and a little goes a long way. This could get addictive! I had some left over dye solution from the other day so I twisted scarf #3 and dumped it in a small container. I didn't want to dilute the colors more and there wasn't much left ( I suppose I could have added more dye) but I poured it on. It really doesn't spread a lot and there are still some white areas. I normally do not like white but it looks OK here so I might leave it.... or I could add a bit of gold paint... I will think on this.

I think I have to go order some scarves!

Learning curve

.. or what not to do when playing with Colorhue dyes. Today was phase 2 of learning to use the dyes on silk scarves. I decided that I was going to use shaving cream with the dye to stencil some designs onto the base color that I had previously dyed. I got out my tools and went to work. It was quickly apparent that there are some things you must do to get this to work. 1. Fabric needs to be wet or the shaving cream spreads under the stencil... not good. 2. Shaving cream needs to be thick enough.... not runny with dye, or it also spreads under the stencil. 3. Don't mix the colors anywhere near the piece you are working on.... splatters happen! You can also put the shaving cream on a stamp... works very nicely.
The big blob in the middle is shaving cream that is too runny along with a loverly pink splotch from being careless. I figure that by the time I bunch this up, no one will really notice?
The next one should be better.

Colorhue silk dyes

Several years ago, at the first Houston Quilt festival that I attended, I picked up a sample pack of Colorhue silk dyes. I was really excited about them as I had just taken my first class in fabric dyeing. When I finally got home reality set in. I really wasn't into using silk in my quilts! The dyes got buried somewhere and I forgot I even owned them.... until a few weeks ago when one of my Facebook friends started posting about her experiments. Gerrie Congdon started to explain what she was doing with these and I got excited all over again. A bell started going off in my head and I finally remembered that I bought something similar in Houston along with some silk scarves. I went out to the garage and unearthed the package and found they were indeed Colorhue! I was in the middle of doing something else at the time and knew if I started playing that I would get distracted... happens to me all too often... especially since I have been in a creative funk for most of the summer. I finished up what I was working on and of course looking for an excuse not to start the quilting, I washed the scarves in preparation for dyeing.
Yesterday afternoon I took a deep breath and decided to play with 2 of the scarves. I did not know how deep the colors would be so I started light thinking that I would put a base layer of color on them and then stencil, stamp, or silkscreen over it with either more dye, ink, or paint. These are the photos of the base layer. The lighter one I am going to stencil leaves on it as it looks sort of autumn to me. I have no clue yet what I will do to the other one. These were very easy to do with very little mess or clean up. The blue/green one I scrunched up and it dried like it was shibori. I may have to order wider scarves. These are only 8" wide and good to experiment with but not really wide enough for what I would like to do. I probably will not get to the next step till tomorrow.

Isn't it loverly

My husband and I just got back from a trip to Louisville (Luhvil), Kentucky. He had a convention to go to and they do up a special program for spouses. One of the activities was to make up "Derby" hats which we had to wear to the formal dinner on the last night. We had a blast making them. All of the hats were spectacular and none of them were the same. I love hats. I wish there were other places we could wear them and not look idiotic.

Yesterday morning I went with a couple of ladies to the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft and was pleasantly surprised to see an exhibition of quilts there! It was called Water Quilts from the collection of Jack Walsh. Some of the quilts were by Sue Benner, Ellen Anne Eddy, Ruth B. McDowell, and Judith Content. They did allow photos but I do not think it is right for me to post them here.

After a catch up day today I am hoping to get back to work.

Garden Surprise

Imagine my surprise this morning when I went out to my patio and found a Day Lily in bloom! It has 2 other buds on it as well. I did not realize that Day Lillies bloomed in the fall, but I do not recall this one blooming in the spring or the summer. It was a nice surprise. I need to go check some others and see if they have thrown buds as well.

Goodies

My hubby got home from his latest trip to China last night and brought me back these wonderful new Pashminas to add to my collection. Looks like the Chinese have gotten into hombre dyeing. Yummy colors.

In the home stretch

I have finally done all the applique and stitching on my piece. Now I have to take a deep breath and figure out how I am going to quilt it. Wish me luck!

Sun Bathing

Sammy has the right idea!

Art for Autism auction

I just bid and won this fantastic piece of art by Gerrie Congdon who donated it to the Art for Autism auction. There are some lovely pieces there folks and it is a good cause. This piece is titled Spooner Lake Aspen #3.