The large tree in the foreground is a dark maroon leather applique.  I have been enjoying using leather in my quilts over the last year and do not feel I have finished exploring its use in quilting.

stamped and thermofax screened trees

I used the tree challenge fabric to make a similar hand carved stamp that I used with thickened dyes on hand dyed fabric, the unobstructed tree in the photo to the right. The tree on the left partially covered is a thermofax screen print and is from a photo of a tree I took in Bolzano Vicentino, Italy,  Where I lived for three years.  My sister and her husband came to visit and we decided to take a walk and found a path with a sign about an old church that led back behind houses and into a field where the church was.  The old church is utilized once a year for a communal celebration.  We enjoyed seeing the old church (look for a quilt with photos of the church in the future) and found a tree with the trunk covered in ivy.

The other thermofax screens were made with my photographs as well, one in Italy and one since moving back to the U.S.  I enjoyed using so many different techniques and exploring the use of various methods to overdye and remove color from the commercial fabrics.  You can scroll down to earlier posts as I worked on dyeing the fabrics.

Pole Wrapped Shibori Overdye

I jumped right in and did some pole, clamp, and stitched shibori.

Clamped Resist Using Plastic Electrical Outlet Faceplate

I used corn syrup and mashed potatoes as resists with mixed success.

Corn Syrup Stamped Resisted and Overdyed

I am also working on some fabric for a fabric shop challenge, but I’ll save that for the next post.

I wanted to match a color in a challenge fabric and had a fabulous success on the first shot.  Gotta love that!  It is only the second time I’ve gone for a particular color and it worked last time as well.  I look at either pantones or print colors and the breakdowns of the colors used to make them and use those basic percentages when mixing the dye powders.  Hopefully it hasn’t just been beginners luck.  Below is a small sample.  The wheat print on the left is original.  Next is the overdyed shibori pole wrap.  Top right is two test yellows which matched the original golden yellow in the prints and on top of that is the all over tree print that I overdyed with a very very closely matched red.  Below right is the wheat print shibori overdyed with test swatches of some premixed dyes which were not quite the right color.

Overdyed Commercial Farm Print Overdyed to Match the Red in the Trees.