Kristin Shields Quiltmaker

Fiber Arts Stroll!

Tomorrow (Sunday) is the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show Fiber Arts Stroll.  I will be there to demonstrate watercolor techniques on fabric, which is how I did the fabric postcard above.  I'll be in front of Melvin's Fir Street Market from 12-4pm.  

I'll also have for sale many of the items I sell in my Etsy store, including hand dyed fabric Inspiration Packs, greeting cards and small art pieces.  Hope to see you there!

Friends

Don't you love it when a friend really "gets" you?  Last week was so busy and I was truly exhausted by Friday.  That evening there was a Mom's Night Out with some of my homeschooling friends and I was almost too tired to go.  I am so glad I went though.  In addition to a wonderful evening with friends (oh, wow, the food was amazing, as was the laughter and friendship), I was gifted with a ratty old shirt with holes.  

Now, you may be thinking why I would be so excited about that.  I had been recently bemoaning the fact that I have no old, worn Pendleton shirts in my stash.  These 100% wool shirts are reknowned around the Pacific Northwest for their high quality, made-in-the-USA fabric.  And, they come from just a few hours away in Pendleton, OR.  I really wanted to have some of this old fabric to play with and Myria was on the lookout!  I was thrilled and she was tickled to be able to contribute to my creativity and thriftiness.  Isn't this a wonderful color combination too? I promise to use it well!

Language of Flowers Sneak Peek

I have begun my next book quilt.  This one is based on The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh.  This one is for my Undercover Quilters Book Club.  This is a story of a girl who grows up in the foster care system and what happens when she ages out on her 18th birthday.  She needs to learn to love again and finds herself through the flowers she has come to know so well.  The book is set in San Francisco and since I said someone needed to make a Golden Gate Bridge quilt, it turned out to be me!  This has some machine piecing, fusible applique (on the bridge), hand applique on the rounded shapes.  There will be flowers and I don't know what all, surrounding all sides of this center.  I believe this is the first quilt that I have made with all my own handdyed fabrics.  More to come on this one, but I've got a few other things to work on first.

The Spirit of the Wood

My Novel Idea quilt is done!  The Spirit of the Wood was inspired by The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey, which was chosen as the Deschutes Public Library Novel Idea Book this year.  This fabulous story was itself inspired by the Russian folktale of The Snow Child or The Snow Maiden.  It is set in Alaska in the 1920's and tells the story of a childless couple who somehow come to know a small girl who survives in the Alaskan winters in the company of a red fox.  Previous posts are here and here.

I read this book during the snowiest part of our winter, just after Christmas, and it was magical.  There are so many passages that are evocative of the time and place, so many opportunities to be creatively inspired.  I took notes and could have made a dozen different quilts.  It was very hard to pare it down to the things I most wanted to have in my quilt.  In fact, if I had the time I have two other ideas I'd love to make into quilts!

The fox was the very first thing I wanted to have here and it was a bit of a challenge to try to get an approximation of the colors and the eyes.  Faces are always a challenge for me, but in the folk art tradition, eyes do not have to be symmetrical and perfect.  In this quilt, the Spirit of the Wood may be the fox, the owl, or even the trees.  I needed a title that wasn't just "The Snow Child" and spent a 1/2 hour browsing the pages to find something that would fit.  How perfect is this name given that embroidered "S"!  

While there were many different animals mentioned in the book (I made a list of over 30), I didn't notice owls.  However, this one just begged to be included and adds the touch of color I wanted up there by the moon.

The "S" could signify snow child, snow, snowflakes, snow angels, stars, swan feathers, spirit or even Shields.  I think it looks a bit like a cloud in the sky.  

Subtle elements I included are the snow angels and swan feathers, both important to the story.  In addition to the wonderful plot of this book, there are many references to hand sewing and embroidery.  I tried to emulate Mabel's hand stitched snowflakes.

The book title is couched to the bottom of the panel with some of my hand spun yarn and embroidery floss.

The panel itself is made from a vintage table runner that already had the crocheted edging.  I cut it in half and dyed it in indigo last summer, before I knew about the book project.  I love reusing vintage textiles this way.  In fact, the "S" fabric is an indigo dyed vintage hanky, the snow is made from two different vintage (and well used) kitchen linen towels.  The edging at the top is an indigo overdyed linen table cloth.  It's the only part that was machine sewed because I was running out of time and my fingers were too sore to contemplate hand sewing it down.  The trees and fox were hand dyed by me (except the trunks which are a commercial batik).

I hope you enjoyed this mini tour of The Spirit of the Wood.  This piece will hang in the QuiltWorks gallery for the whole month of April.  The reception is Friday, April 5, 5-7 pm and there will be 50-60 quilts in this Snow Child exhibit.  I've seen many of them and it's going to be amazing!  We hope the author will have a chance to see the quilts when she comes for her lectures the first weekend of May.

Blue and Orange

Blue and orange seem to be taking over the studio.  I was just standing in my studio, looking at my table and realized that this is quite a coincidence.

First there was the liberated cat quilt that I got out and started making more blocks for over the weekend.  

Then there were the piles of fabric I just pulled for a liberated star quilt for Ryan.  You see, his graduation is coming up and I just realized that he'd be due a quilt!  Hurray, another quilt to add to the growing list.  Fortunately, I know I will love to make this one and I think it will do double duty and be in the show this July too.

For the past two days I've been obsessed with trying to make a plan for my next Novel Idea piece.  This year the book that has been chosen is The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey.  If you haven't read it, you must!  It is a marvelous book, universally liked by everyone I've talked to and very quilt friendly.  After two days of poring over books, illustrations and re-reading passages in the book, I've chosen a simple folk arty design with a fox, some trees, and a hand dyed moon.  Nearly all the fabrics are ones that I hand dyed and they also include several vintage linens, including the marvelous background piece with the attached lace.  I'm looking forward to this one!

So, I guess I'm all about the blue and orange.  I just looked back at some older posts and realized this is not a first for me.  Both of my quilts in the Sisters Quilt Show flyer are blue and orange and that January AAQI quilt, Dandy Lion, is blue and orange.  Hmmmmm..  Wonder what that says about me?

Breast Pockets

My breast pockets are done and will be sent off tomorrow.  The one on the left is made from a soft-as-butter vintage tea towel that is stained and worn.  I loved the printed butterflies and got it because I knew it would make some interesting additions to my slow cloth pieces.  I think it's perfect for this.  In my mind we are all beautiful even when our bodies are worn and stained through the rigors of cancer treatment.  I have the tattooed dots to prove it (required for radiation therapy).  The butterfly signifies new birth and what do you think about that little horse and carriage on the flap?  There was only that one motif on the whole towel, perhaps the maker's logo?  I also placed a vintage button there.  Anyway, I like this one an awful lot.  

The green one was created from some linen pants that never fit properly.  I loved the fabric though and have used it many times.  I was so happy I had enough to make a pocket.  Both of these are actual pockets and I will place a note inside like the maker of these beautiful pockets.

I got my mammogram results just now and all is clear!  Hurray!  That is great news, but it always reminds me that my cancer wasn't discovered by mammogram.  I found the lump almost by accident and even after we knew I had cancer, further mammograms didn't see the lump.  Mammography is a very helpful step in early detection, but it's not the only one.  You should also be doing your self exams and getting regular checkups.

Remember, this project is to highlight the women who have chosen not to have reconstruction after breast surgery.  In my case, I had a lumpectomy and so I am a bit lopsided, but not flat.  Melanie says, that's okay- everyone is assymetrical.  The truth is that if I had ended up with a mastectomy, I would not have had reconstruction.  I consulted with a plastic surgeon as we made the decision on what kind of surgery to have.  I knew immediately that reconstruction was not for me. I salute the flatties who have made a decision that goes against the cultural norm!

Before I made my breast pockets I wrote this page in my art journal, sort of to plan out the making ahead of time.  If this is helpful for you to make a pocket, or if you want to link to this page, go right ahead.  Remember, the deadline for mailing is the week of October 22!  Read about the project here: Breast Pockets.

Dye Series Part 8- The Last, Indigo

You knew indigo would show up sooner or later, didn't you?  That's a pile of stuff that was dipped in the vat without any shibori techniques (plus a little sample of something overdyed in walnut).  I decided I needed to use the itajime shapes on indigo and thought this is probably the best use for them.  There is no need to let the shapes stay clamped on unless you are going to re-dip the pieces.  So, I made moon after moon, and some of Jude's butterflies.  I over dyed commercial cloth and dyed over thrift store linen.  All around, a very good time!

The orange is a thrift store shirt overdyed with indigo.  Makes nice spooky sorts of moons.

I did a lot of quarter moons too.

What fun.  Indigo is always an experiment for me, but now that I've got all these shapes, they'll start showing up in some slow cloth pieces over time.

I hope you enjoyed the Dye Series.  Maybe you noticed the page in the header.  You can click there to see all the posts in one spot and if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask!

My October has been terribly busy with a full week Rosalie Dace workshop last week, a guild workshop on Tuesday, community quilts day on Wednesday, and today is homecoming.  My son has been chosen as a Homecoming Duke so it's a busy weekend.  Next week what may be my last days of class with Gwen Marston since she will be retiring next year.  Meanwhile I've got hundreds of photos from activities this summer that I wanted to post.  Don't worry, I won't go overboard with that.  This blog has really been in the background these last few months, but I hope to get back to more regular posting in a few weeks.  

I hope you are having a wonderful autumn.  It's my favorite time of year and leaves are starting to turn.  We are set to get our first real rain of the season this weekend.  Hopefully, that will keep down the dust and smoke that have gotten a little out hand this year.  See you soon!

Dye Series Part 6- A Rainbow and some Thread

After doing all the other dyeing, I still had plenty of dye left over, so I decided to make a rainbow, but these are mixed colors in each cup.  One fat quarter of Kona Cotton and one fat eighth of linen in each cup.  I mixed various yellows, or reds, or oranges, etc, until I got a color I liked.  

I also did some thread dyeing.  This is DMC embroidery floss.  Red and green are my favorites for pops of color.

When washed and dryed I always have a challenging mangle of thread to sort out.  I still haven't gotten to these, but they are ready to use!  On the left is some thread that I dyed in  my walnut pot.  I didn't let them sit for long, so they are pretty light brown.  I still have a couple more tricks up my sleeve, so I'll be back soon.

Dye Series Part 5- Single Colors & Cinnamon Buns

On my second dye day I decided to be strict and make single dye colors.  I planned to be able to identify the different colors after washing and drying and make myself a color chart.  That didn't work out so well.  I can identify most of them, but not all.  Part of the problem is that I used different fabrics in each cup.  Oh well, there will be another day to try that again.  Above are the Dharma raw silk and Kona cotton.  This time I decided to try some folding shibori and see what I could get.  Each fabric was folded and twisted into the "cinnamon buns" you see above.

I did keep the colors and cups ordered so I could make sure I didn't duplicate colors.  I wish now that I could have marked the fabrics with the color names, but would have needed to do that before the presoak.

I did take photos of all the colors this way.  Color changes after drying, but you can get the general idea like this.  These are some of my new favorite colors.

Mmmm, I really, really love goldfinch!

Also pomegranate!

Here are those colors after drying (all with Kona cotton).  Nice palette!

This is what the cinnamon buns end up looking like.  Fun!  There's still more to come.  I'll be back soon.

Dye Series Part 4- Color Gradations

Here's a little more about color gradations.  The basic method was mentioned in Part 2.  First of all, I like to use larger pieces of fabric for this.  Usually 1/2 yds or full yds.  The fabric should be presoaked in the soda ash.  Then arrange your fabric in a large container such as a dishpan or basin.  You can try lots of ways to arrange, including pleating.  I just sort of sqooshed it around until it seemed good.

When you choose colors to use, you can do the obvious color wheel combinations (red-blue, blue-yellow, yellow-red) or choose something more subtle like the blue-purple.

I like this brown-blue version.

Scrabble likes the combos too.  Lots of inspiration here!  By the way, the ironing is done!  Yay!  Time to get on with some other activities now.  More dye posts to come!