Blue Shibori Blues : Serendipity and the Art of the Quilt

Blue Shibori Blues

January 15, 2010 4:43PM | Filed Under Blog Admin, Technique:Dyeing, Twelve by Twelve |

After reading an article about “extreme shibori” by Sue Cavanaugh in the December/January 2010 issue of Quilting Arts magazine, I was keen to experiment with some mokume (woodgrain) stitch resist shibori in blue and white, the current Twelve by Twelve colorplay challenge palette (with a dash of black).

So I spent several evenings stitching. Then I pulled the threads tight and applied the dye solutions:

I ended up with this:

Given my stitching pattern, I shouldn’t have been surprised but I wasn’t expecting such a chequerboard result. I had been inspired by the Monk’s Belt motif that I saw on the website of Catherine Ellis but Catherine uses a “woven shibori” technique which may account for some of the difference.

The whole process was quite time consuming (removing the drawstrings afterwards is very tedious) but I am not discouraged. Maybe I have a little blue dye in my blood. I’m a quarter Hungarian (thanks to my maternal grandfather) and I’ve just been learning about Hungarian blue dye fabrics. Some of you may have seen the exhibition of Hungarian Blue & White Quilts curated by Anna Dolanyi, the former President of the Hungarian Patchwork Guild. According to the Material Obsession blog, Sydneysiders will have a one-time opportunity to view the exhibition at:

Hungarian Blue Dye Quilts
South Hungarian Social Club
31 Glendenning Rd, Glendenning (M7 Power St Exit)
Friday 22 January from 5:00pm - 9:00pm
Free Admission
If anyone can make it, I’d love to hear a report.

4 Comments

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Beautiful. After looking at Catherine’s website I am surprised at the checkerboard look as well. Who knew that having the threads woven in instead of stitched in would make such a difference!
Can’t wait to see what else you do with this method.

Comment by Lisa — January 16, 2010 1:57 AM#
That is a lovely piece….and I so appreciate all of the hours of stitching and then unstitching after dyeing!

xo

Comment by Judy — January 16, 2010 11:38 AM#
To overcome the tediousness of removing the drawstrings, I’ve used coloured ones (non-cotton), cut them at various lengths after dyeing, and opened out the fabric, leaving them in - then used the fabric for book covers.

Comment by margaret — January 21, 2010 4:47 AM#
Wow - that IS a labor of love! This is why stitched shibori has never called out to me - it looks like so much work! Your piece is lovely though!

Comment by Candy from Candied Fabrics — February 3, 2010 8:08 AM#

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