Stitch A Day, 2017: Day 8

Just a few more stitches today with the aim of getting a nice big area laid out to begin decorative stitching. I'm still using the cotton core thread that I use when pole wrapping cloth for the shibori indigo vat as the stitching thread. It's a nice weight, and given it's a poly core under the cotton it's very strong. The cotton top layer of the thread takes the dye nicely. The pole wrapping creates interesting variations in color, all the way from clearest white to dark indigo blue.

Stitch A Day, 2017: Day 2

I had a small scrap of upholstery fabric left from a client's project that worked perfectly with the thread I had leftover from my pole-wrapped shibori indigo dye vat. At this point I'm most stitching around the edges of the scraps, just to get them attached, then I'll come back through and add stitches to make sure there aren't any gaps and sags in the finished piece.

New Day, New Year, New Project

I started 2017 with a thorough brooming of my workspace, which kept my body busy as my mind pondered what new project to start. Most of the things I'm working on now involve a very long process without many interesting interim stages to document, or to sense the progress. I came across a post somewhere on Instagram, that I, of course, cannot find today, about doing a bit of embroidery each day. So I pulled out an old jacket that I love the shape of, but don't much like the fabric. I'm not sure I've ever thrown out a scrap of fabric, so I have a box of tiny pieces that I thought I could use to repurpose the old jacket in the Japanese boro style. I had some thread I'd used in tying off my shibori pieces in the indigo dye vat, so I started stitching. Hopefully, I'll spend 10 minutes a day stitching, and document the progress each day. 

Arashi Shibori Fat Quarter

As requested, I've come up with some fat quarters for my quilting friends. One of the challenges has been finding a pole that will yield a piece that's the traditional fat quarter size of 18" x 22". For this piece, I lashed two poles together which created some vertical interest as the dye penetrated the spaces between the poles differently than it did when the fabric was directly on the pole. I can manipulate where the verticals appear by changing how I place the piece on the poles. I was trying to do an off-center version here with enough variation that it would give a quilter interesting options when cutting and piecing. Even as I write this and the picture is in front of me I'm getting new ideas. Stay tuned, I've got another dye session at the end of the week.

Arashi Shibori Dyed with Indigo

One of the easier pole wrapping practices is to loosely wrap a piece of cloth that's about the same size as the circumference of the pole. 

Arashi Shibori, on the pole, by Carlyn Clark

On this one, I kept the wraps very loose and manipulated them to move in different directions, varying the spaces between the ties.

Arashi Shibori, after 8 dips in an indigo vat, by Carlyn Clark

It took eight dips in the indigo vat to get this color.

Arashi shibori pole in the indigo vat

ready to go into the indigo vat

After unwrapping the arashi shibori pole, the panel is clamped between wood boards and dipped again in the indigo vat.

Arashi Shibori Panel by Carlyn Clark

The clamped piece has been dipped 10 more times in the indigo vat. The original arashi marks are still slightly visible in the background.