Stitch a Day 2017, Day 42

I'm finding some little spots to add variations in scale. The small triangular piece of cotton is a leftover scrap from a piece my daughter did years ago in the Pre-College Summer Program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She used steel wool to rust dye cotton which I dumped into the indigo vat. There are little pieces of her all over the jacket. It will be lovely to brush up against them and think of her as I do. And knowing her, I expect she'll be wearing it once it's finished.

Stitch a Day 2017, Day 36

This piece of cotton was one of my first attempts at pole wrapping, known in Japanese as Arashi Shibori. I love the process and have amassed quite a collection of poles of different diameters and lengths to accommodate different widths of fabrics. The Japanese, who have made this process into a very precise art form, typically use narrow fabrics that are pieced together to form traditional kimonos. I am not terribly precise, for now at least, and love the random nature and surprise at the moment I pull the fabric off the pole. I've gotten more disciplined with my oxidizing and rinsing, so I'm now able to get much crisper lines and whiter whites than this piece has. I'm using it here to cover a pocket.

Stitch a Day 2017, Day 35

I manage to use up even the rough edges of my shibori dyed fabrics. The linen develops a really nice softness in the indigo and the many steps in the process give a nice fringe, which can create quite a mess in the dryer and require a good bit of patience to untangle.