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:
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.
Lisa says
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.
Judy says
That is a lovely piece….and I so appreciate all of the hours of stitching and then unstitching after dyeing!
xo
margaret says
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.
Candy from Candied Fabrics says
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!