Figure it's safe to finally blog about.

You might recall back in January I decided to set some new goals for 2011. 

Goals are to: Sign up for quilting swaps (possibly found online), to participate in  quilt a-longs (possibly found online) or w/ guilds and to enter quilt challenges.

Well sometime during January I came across this challenge on the Modern Quilt Guild's website. [ the modern quilt guild - challenge-2 ] 

 I was excited because the timing seemed perfect. Seeing the challenge was to create a monochromatic quilt also worked well with another goal of mine; to use from my stash as much as possible. My first step was to look through my stash to try to decide on a color, this could prove difficult since I’ve never met a color I don’t enjoy. Since Jan–March can sometimes be a rough time of the year due to seasonal snow storms it made me think of blue. Blue would be my choice,  I would call it Winter Blues.

Once my color choice was made; it was now time to begin the challenge.

I gathered blues from my stash placing them in piles by value sorting out blues I felt did not seem to fit. I left the blues sitting spread out in a row for about a week weeding to and from the stack while I let my thoughts go to brainstorming a design. Traditional log cabin popped in and out along with other traditional patterns but in the end I decided to just gather my fabrics, cut some selvage to selvage strips and begin to sew them together into groups of  3 or 4 usually groups of dark and light value along with wide and thin strips.

After ironing the strips (new fabrics) I cut them up into various size shapes (rectangles and squares) and began a composition on my design wall. 

After piecing the main rectangle design together I decided to complet the quilt top by adding a border. The border of my quilt was the toughest design step for me, it took the longest for me to create. I seemed to have a problem with overkill ;-) 

Can you say OVERKILL?

in the end after stepping away from my quilt for a few days I came up with a solution I felt worked for a border.

I did post some photos back when I was working on the project, yet did not explain the quilt or why I had chosen to create a monochromatic quilt.  I then realized I probably should NOT be posting or share my entry till After the challenge deadline had passed. 

I completed the quilt and sent it off as entry. Just this past week I've noticed at least one other quilter blogging about their entry  so figure it might be okay to now share my entry  completed for The Modern Quilt Guild Challenge Two - 'my first online challenge' "Winter Blues" Quilt.

My completed monochromatic quilt "Winter Blues"

close up of Winter Blues

I am happy with my monochromatic quilt “Winter Blues” AND  I look forward to attempting more challenges in the future.

I also can't wait to view all the entries when they are posted to see the many ways 'we quilters' deciphered make a quilt that is monochromatic. ;-)

Arashi Shibori! Lesson 4 ;-)

I am continuing with my "shibori w/ silk" lessons and have been enjoying the various exercises using color-hue dyes w/silk and various shibori techniques.
I ordered about 9 different styles of silk scarves from Dharma Trading Company to use for my class lessons. My goal in ordering the various scarves was to help me try to experiment with as many different types of silks as possible. I have silk habotai, silk charmeuse, chiffon, crepe de chine and a silk/wool blend. The trick now for me is to try to remember which silk is which. ;-)
This week's technique was Arashi Shibori (pole wrapping); I have done some pole wrapping in the past using cotton fabrics and indigo dyes so I feel a little comfortable with the process of wrapping fabric on a pole, the part that was completely to me is once again was the use of quick set dyes and how they would react during the process.

base color dyeing

wrapping silk on pole

dyeing wrapped silk scarves

drying

More silk dyeing & shibori pattern stitching - class lesson

This past week in the evenings while sitting in front of the boob tube with the hubby I have been working on stitching shibori patterns on a couple silk scarves.

this scarf is 63% silk & 37% wool

this scarf is 100% silk

After the stitching is completed you then pull the threads tightly before completing the dyeing process.

I lightly dyed the one green and one beige before pulling threads 

 The next step of the shibori process is to dye the silk. I am learning how to dye silk with color hue dyes, which I am learning quickly why they are called instant liquid dyes for silk,linen,rayon & wool. colorhuedye.com

attempted to stick with earth tone colors

tried to think blues,greens,violets

After dyeing the silk, you rinse well then let them dry.

Scarves are dry next step is to remove the threads.

I consider my lesson a success, I love how the one scarf turned out, in fact I would like to say it turned out close to what I was hoping or planned as much as shibori let's you control. I consider the second scarf a semi disaster or maybe I should just say it was an opportunity to learn ;-) I learned a little more about what quick set dyes are and how they can react on the silk. I imagined that since we work with the silk wet that the dyes would blend or mix to create new color shades on the wet fabric;  such as putting yellow on wet blue silk would turn green but as you might be able to notice from my photos the colors set as blotches of various color versus blending into mixed colors. In other words I will mix my colors before applying them next time and see if that works as planned. ;-)

I look forward to completing my next shibori class lesson.