Lots of new stuff to share this evening. First, here's my weekly quilt, 31/52.2009 ~ Forest Light. It was kind of a scrap piece, with leftovers and odd bits. The honeycomb vertical piece is a strip of handwoven cotton and tencel. This was one of several samples I wove in the Woven Shibori class I took several years ago, fabrics that I've been using in quilts recently (see Lunar Influences for more use of handwovens). Back when they were woven, they were dyed with natural dyes that weren't lightfast, unfortunately. So I overdyed them, stamped on them, etc.
The fabric in the upper left with the large color areas is cotton flannel. I had about a yard that was LWI dyed recently. Flannel is really lovely fabric to work with ~ it dyes magnificently, is really soft, and quilts well. I recommend it if you haven't tried it yet.
Here's black shibori batch number three. I used Procion MX #44. It looks really similar to batch two, on which I used Procion MX #300, but the #44 is just slightly purpler.
Last night I had a couple of great ideas for using these black shiboried fabrics, so today I did my fourth black batch, this time with Cibacron Rich Black #F61. I actually shiboried with this black dye a while ago but thought perhaps I'd made a mistake -- because the white pattern areas turned out pink! Well, it happened again today and now I realize that this particular black dye, although great for overall dyeing (I had a pair of Scotty's jeans in the pot and they turned out beautifully), it's not to be used for shibori. One of the Procion black dyes, #250, specifically says it shouldn't be used for shibori, although it gives a deep black in full immersion, and I suspect this is the same dye as the Cibacron Rich Black.
Well, black and pink isn't so terrible, if you're into the 1950's, poodle skirts, T-Birds, and all that, but since the black in these shibori pieces is really more of a navy blue...in short, the fabric is pretty icky looking. I think Scotty just got more custom dyed RAGS for work!
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