Teaching Kids and Slow cloth progress

The first two images show some examples of stitching using the straight stitching:  running stitch and the ladder stitch that I used for the classes I taught at my local Island Art Association's youth art classes.  I taught elementary aged children, none of whom said they've never stitched before.  I had a good time sharing my love of stitch.  Most seemed to enjoy themselves.  I hope I inspired the rest to stitch some more. 

 These below are just my stitching along side the children.  Way too much fun!

 

Here's some works in progress.  I am sure enjoying the needle and thread, stitching in and out, filling up the spaces.  Added some words:  machine stitched and hand stitched.

 





Decided to machine quilt the woven strips of my own silk tie dyed fabrics, then tacked the silk red heart down.  I've done some more work on these two.  I'll take some more work in progress images to document my journey.

The background is hand painted and printed on this last piece.  All the fabrics are recycled ones:  a blouse, ties, dresser scarf.  Even the painted and printed background - I clean my brushes and brayers on a damp old bed sheet. let it dry all scrunched up and then leaf print and stamp it. 

Dyeing using Silk Ties

Isn't this absolutely beautiful!  My sister and I layered a piece of muslin, layered a white silk scarf, added cut pieces of silk ties(whole), placed another silk scarf on top and ended with another piece of muslin.  We rolled it up and tied the roll.  Placed the roll in a pot, covered it in water and 2 tablespoons of vinegar and boiled the roll for 20 minutes.  Rinsed in cold water, unroll, and were tickled with the results.  The scarves are beautiful and fun to wear.  The muslin caught some of the leftover dye but turned out mostly pink.  The red and blues turned out the best, green next best.

We went on to experiment with silk broadcloth.  This time we didn't use the muslin, just the broadcloth.

We just used half the silk for the ties and then folded over the other half.  Simply beautiful.  By the way, the tie pieces can be used again and again.  And of course, I plan to use the pieces in some kind of fiber art project.  Stay turned!