Food Fight

I came up with this idea from the name of a TV show"Food Wars". I overlapped the drawings onto a piece of white cotton. Using a water soluble resist I outlined components, let dry, painted these sections with Seta color paint, heat-set and washed out the resist. This process was done numerous times. I continued till I got the effect I wanted. Then I used a light wash of Fabrico Craft Ink over the background.

Now, the scary part, cutting it apart into smaller sections. I say scary because the painting took so long. I cut it into grids, then began rearranging the units for disorganization. When I was happy with the "arrangement" I transferred the pieces to backing and batting. Using invisible thread, I zigzagged each piece to the other.

Then I outline quilted all the elements and added details. When the quilting was finished I sewed an irregular zigzag stitch with variegated thread to reinforce the pieces and add texture.

The edge finishing was zigzag stitched to close all 3 layers together.

After I finished I thought of several different methods I could have used to make the process easier and quicker. I really need to think through the whole quilt process before starting.

Dyeing Results

I finally rinsed, washed, dried, and pressed the fabrics I dyed last week. All the heat from last week kept me at a slower pace. Most all the fabric I was very pleased with, some not as much.

The screen print and one of the monoprinting I really liked. The overdyed colors are very light which as what I was aiming for.

The colors don't photograph well because of the lightness. I did learn though when printing with black I need a more concentrated dye solution for it to come out black and not a very dark gray.The combed through monoprinting that was overdyed with red/orange and red/violet came out darker than what I hoped for. This will probably be used cut up.
The two fabrics that were dyed upright on foam core turned out okay, but I dyed them on dry soda soaked fabric. I think there would have been more blending if they were wet.

The tray fabric that caught the run-off drips came out very interesting and could be used in many different ways.

The fabric with blue stamps and overdyed yellow, bronze and chino could have been blended more but since the fabric was still damp when I did it, I didn't want a lot of mixing with the blue. Allthough I did like the added green elements inside of circles and ovals.
Next time I'll start with dry fabric and then wait till the stamp prints are dry before dyeing over it.

The 3-layered fabrics came out great. They speak for themselves.

The cup dyeing of oranges and grays came out just as I expected, some mottling and dark to light. The nickel and pewter ranges turned out great.

The oranges were stronger than expected, was going for some corals and salmons, but they are beautiful.

All said and done I was pleased with my work and experiments. The heat is still oppressive so I'll work in my studio till it cools a little.

Martha is done with all her rinsing, etc. also. Go to http://marthahallart.com/blog to see her results.

Dyeing Tuesday

Yesterday, my friend Martha and I got out the dyes and set to work(I mean FUN!!) I had a couple of pieces that I monoprinted and screen printed last week, so I added background colors. The monoprint was swirled with black, then overdyed very light yellow, yellow/green and blue/green for the background colors.

This monoprint I used a hair pick through the black dye, then added a red/orange dye for the background. Its not looking to good but I'll see after rinsing.

The screen print was overdyed with diluted yellow, yellow/green and light red.

Also I wanted to try squirting dyes down fabric that was pinned to foam board. I used a yellow, light red and burgundy on this one

and yellow and ultra violet on this one.

I put a third fabric in the bottom tray to catch the drips and got an interesting fabric from it.
This next one I used thickened blue dye and stamped with a pool noodle and luffa sponge, let dry a little

then overdyed with yellow, bronze and chino.

This one was squirted with yellow, burgundy and violet, then I smooshed them around.

These are a few fabrics that are low-water immersion dyed.
Grays


and oranges.

Lastly, I layer dyed fabric starting with yellow on the first piece, crimson on second, and blue on the third.

Can you tell I like orange!!!

Check out Martha's fabrics at www.marthahallart.com/blog to see her works in progress.

They all are being processed and need to be rinsed and washed. It was a busy day but I hope the results are worth it.

I'll post again with the finished results.