Kim Eichler-Messmer

West Elm!!!

2012-01-03T14:13:00.000-06:00

Oh my goodness. I have been keeping this to myself (well, mostly to myself) for months and now it is for real so I can share it. Usually I don't talk about things until they are for real in case something happens to make them not for real anymore. You know? So here it is.

My quilts are in the West Elm catalog, y'all! The first Spring 2012 catalog came out today and two of my quilts are featured on page 106/107. I could probably be happier, but I'm not sure how. They look so good. Don't you think?

This news totally hijacked a post I was planning about my trip to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. I guess that will have to wait. Now it's time to dance around the kitchen with an unwilling cat in my arms.

Deck the Halls NYC

2011-12-16T13:23:00.000-06:00

A few weeks ago I sent some quilts to Caitlin Mociun (a clothing, fabric, and jewelry designer in NYC). She is going to be opening a shop in Brooklyn sometime early next year. Until then, she is showing her work and some of the artists and designers she will be including in her shop (including me!) at Deck the Halls. Anyone lucky enough to be in New York City this holiday season needs to get themselves over there. It is 12 days of shopping, from December 10 - 22, at the Old School, 32 Prince Street, NYC open each day from 12 - 8pm. It looks so fabulous. I'm totally jealous of anyone who gets to do some Christmas/Hanukkah/Winter Holiday shopping there.
For the rest of us, here are some pictures of what we're missing (pictures borrowed from core77):

My quilts. I think they look great on this ladder.

Mociun's table full of goodness

BKLYN Dry Goods

fabric scraps for everyone

2011-12-06T19:20:00.000-06:00

The semester is almost over and today was my first official day off in which I had absolutely nothing that had to be done. Of course there are always things that should be done, but those can wait. I went grocery shopping at the good grocery store and went down every aisle. Then I came home and decided to tackle my fabric stash. After gentle nudging and friendly reminders from Andrea in my quilt guild, I have finally gotten my sh*t together to start selling my extra fabric. This afternoon there was an explosion of fabric in my sewing room as I dug out all the little scraps from quilts I've been saving and all of the color samples and shibori examples I've been hoarding. I put together little bundles that are for sale in my etsy shop. Here is a sampling of what's available.

1/4 lb scrap bags of hand dyed cotton

there are 8 of them

1/4 lb bundles of shibori and screen printed fabric pieces

6 pack bundles of shibori, each piece is 1/8 to 1/4 yard of hand dyed cotton


and fat quarter bundles of 2 solid and 2 mottled dyed fabrics each (1 yard total per bundle)

Sorting through everything made me excited to start a fun new project. Now I just have to decide what to make...

sometimes you make a rainbow on accident.

2011-11-23T16:01:00.000-06:00

Dang, November. Where did you go? Oh right, you flew by while I was busy making these new quilts. These quilt friends are headed to New York very very soon. I just finished sewing the bindings and washing them last night. They still need to have all their little threads tucked in, labels sewn on, and mega lint rolling. Please forgive the rough studio photos.

65" x 65", 16 hand dyed colors

also 65" x 65", 16 hand dyed colors (I like this one best, it feels tropical)

there's a pattern here. see the other two for details.


queen size (85" x 92"), 40 hand dyed colors of rainbow goodness

I can't wait to get photos of them on beds. Especially the last one. I'm uncertain about how much I like the last one. It is rather like a rainbow explosion. In my head the colors did not form a rainbow, but I suppose when you gradate between red, yellow, and blue you really ought to expect a rainbow. I realize that now. At first, I felt sick when I realized that I had made a rainbow quilt, when I had intended to make a sunset quilt. But now I am embracing the rainbow. It feels playful and fun and happy. We'll see what the response is, but worst case scenario: I have a new quilt for my bed.

Wonder Fair is Wonderful!

2011-10-25T18:09:00.000-05:00

A couple of weeks ago I was invited to participate in a show in Lawrence, KS at Wonder Fair. The Wonder Fair is an amazing shop. Seriously. You walk up a narrow set of stairs and emerge into a sunlight filled, high ceiling-ed, wooden floored treasure house. It is one part shop filled with hand made goods and prints (including two of my favorite makers Donna Wilson and APAK) and one part gallery space. I bought Simon a sweet George R. R. Martin t-shirt there today.
Anyways, the upcoming show is called Hibernation and I'm more excited about this show than pretty much any other show I've been in recently. If you live within 60 miles of Lawrence, make the trek to the opening this Friday 10/28 from 6 to 10 pm. It will be worth the drive.


don't you love this image they made?

In addition to four of my quilts, there will be work by Christa Dalien and Kelly John Clark (two of my classmates from grad school at KU) and work by Dan McCarthy and Cat Rabbit (double love!).
Meredith and Paul wrote this description of the show, which I think is lovely:

As the crisp chill of autumn creeps up the stairs of the Wonder Fair, we've begun to gird our loins for another long winter—Wonder Fair style. Preparations begin with Hibernation, an installation-based exhibition and D-I-Y idea kit designed to inspire winter-time productivity. Hibernation transforms the gallery into a cozy cabin, complete with custom-designed screen-printed armchairs, hand-printed brick fireplace, snuggly screen-printed firewood, and a charming menagerie of winter-ready stuffed animals. In their midst, Wonder Fair is thrilled to present a selection of hand-dyed quilts by Kansas City-based artist Kim Eichler-Messmer. In four stunning quilts, Eichler-Messmer translates Midwestern winter landscapes into beautiful, functional pieces of art.

At a special opening event (Final Friday, October 28,) visitors are invited to crawl through an extensive blanket fort to reach the Wonder Bar, a pop-up cantina stocked with hot mixed drinks, cocoa, and gingerbread. Throughout the month, the gallery will feature printed installations by Kelly John Clark, Christa Dalien, and members of the Wonder Fair Family; quilts by Kim Eichler-Messmer; fiber-sculpted woodland creatures by Cat Rabbit; and prints by Jonathan Metzger, Dan McCarthy, and Ashley G. (Goldberg). A series of hibernation-themed knitting/crochet events and performances are planned for each weekend of the run of Hibernation; details will be made available through the website.

I hope to see you at the opening!

Fabric Dyeing Workshop 10/23

2011-10-04T09:57:00.001-05:00

In a couple of weeks I will be teaching a fabric dyeing workshop in my studio. This is the first time I've thought about doing such a thing and with the support of my quilt guild, I decided it was time to go for it. It's going to be fun.

my studio!

I've been working on getting dye kits made for the students and planning out what projects we will do. The workshop is designed mostly for quilters, but anyone who is interested in learning how to dye cotton or silk using Procion MX dyes would benefit from it. This workshop is going to cover the basics: solid shade dyeing, gradation dyeing, and some low water dyeing (Ann Johnston's technique for getting interesting mottled colors).

a lovely assortment of hand dyed fabric scraps

I'm sort of waiting to see how well this goes and what the interest is, but if it goes well and people want more I'm thinking of additional workshops that would be a little more advanced, like shibori, color matching, and percentage dyeing (the method I use that is precise and reproducible). Here is the flyer for the workshop:

As you can see, members of the Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild get a discounted rate of $40 because the guild is sponsoring the workshop. Non-members pay $75, which is still a really good deal. There is also a $20 supply fee that covers a dye starter kit with all the dyes and chemicals to get you started and two yards of my favorite fabric for dyeing. And guess what! There are two spots left in the Sunday, October 23 workshop! Anyone in Kansas City interested? Go to my etsy listing to grab a spot!

the quilt that is testing every ounce of my patience

2011-09-22T17:22:00.000-05:00

I've been having a pretty good run of creativity lately. I made a bunch of new quilts (7!!) for my show at Park University in the span of about two months. They all were easy peasy - get an idea, dye the fabric, piece the top, quilt the thing, done. No issues, no ugliness, just a series of good quilts. Then it all went down the drain. There is going to be a Kansas City Art Institute Faculty show in October and of course, I wanted to make a new quilt for it. And of course, it should be kind of big. At first I thought queen size, but there will be 35 of us in the show and a queen size quilt seemed like a space hog. So I went with twin size (65" x 88" ish).
Nothing is going right with this quilt (you can read more about it in my last blog post).

Here it is in phase 3. I didn't take pictures of phases 1 and 2 because I forgot. And they were just too dreadful. To be fair, phase 1 wasn't really that bad. It just wasn't great. You know? It was fine, but boring. Phase 2 was pathetic and looked like I was trying too hard. Phase 3 is everything that happened on Saturday night, if you're following along. I really love the piecing in the lower left quadrant of the quilt. That will have to come back in another quilt, with slightly different colors.

In phase 4 I decided this was a winter quilt. So I dunked the whole bottom half in thiox (a really pungent chemical that strips dye out of fabric) hoping it would turn white. It turned a weird light greenish-tan. I knew that would happen, I'm not sure why I thought thiox would do something different this time, but there it is. So then I thought it would all be magically fixed if I dyed the bottom half a really pale blue color so it would like kind of icy. It didn't. It looked green. Bright, acid green with some sections of pale blue. Gr! So phase 6 was stripping the color out again (!!!) with thiox. Phase 7 was to dye the bottom half black.

All of the lovely piecing is still there, its just now all brownish and blackish and purplish. This is the thing after I quilted it for the second time. That's right, second time. The first time I quilted the bottom with some green thread that is really very lovely in theory, but in practice it looked like hell so I spent nearly 2 hours ripping out all the quilting. I'm happy. I think. Maybe I'm just happy to be nearly done with it (only binding to go).

Does anyone remember the Barbie doll who would say "math is hard"? There was a commercial for her I think when I was in high school, which would have been the mid 90's. She was annoying and made an even worse role model for girls than she already was. Anyways. Quilting is hard.

What I did on Saturday night.

2011-09-18T16:07:00.000-05:00

I worked. That is what I do most Saturday nights...and Friday nights, too. Pretty much every night and every day. Sometimes I waste time watching lame tv on my computer or talking to the cats that live outside while pretending to pull weeds. Sometimes it feels unfair that my work is also my favorite hobby (if you can call it that) because it leaves me very little time for other hobbies and the long list of fun things I would like to do. But then I think "hey! your work is your hobby! that's lucky. don't complain". So anyways. Here is a glimpse into my Saturday night (times are approximate):
6:45 - eat supper with Simon (after working in the sewing room since about 4:00)
7:05 - eat a little more supper because I'm still hungry
7:15 - go into the disaster area that is my sewing room and take a great big breath because it is such a mess and boy am I stressed out
7:17 - start ripping some seams because all the work that I did on Thursday, Friday and Saturday afternoon looked terrible and things need to be rearranged
7:18 - curse quietly to the cats about how much I hate ripping seams as I accidentally rip the fabric
7:19 - get over it and start ripping again. then iron. then trim. then start sewing strips together
7:19 - 8:09 - sew strips together, iron them, cut them up into vertical strips, sew those strips together, repeat until there is a 70" x 30" piece of patchwork fabric
8:10 - stand back and look at what I just did. it's good, but not great. brilliant idea! cut the piece into strips on a 45 degree angle and then rearrange and sew back together.
8:29 - this sucks. what was I thinking? gr. power through. just keep going.
9:47 - done. it is badass. now sew that part onto the rest of the quilt.
10:00 - good! now hang it up and look at it because it's going to be so great and I'm better now than I've ever been before.
10:04 - despair. it looks like crap. the color is all wrong and it is way too busy. damn.
10:04 - 10:13 - sit on living room floor staring at shitty, ugly quilt and having a mini freak out session.
10:13 - 10:18 - eat some nice bread with some lovely strawberry jam and drink some hot tea. talk to the cats about how cute they are and what good kitties they are.
10:18 - unpin the quilt from the living room wall and start seam ripping again
10:19 - 12:17 - frantically seam rip, iron, cut, sew, iron, cut, sew, iron, cut, sew, iron while singing loudly along with Roseanne Cash
12:18 - pin the quilt segments back together, pin to living room wall, step back. still not good, but better. fixable. I can see how to make it good.
12:24 - turn off lights and iron and sewing machine.
12:25 - go to bed.

Quilt Guilt and other non guilty quilts

2011-09-04T15:44:00.000-05:00

I have been so busy lately with teaching, getting ready for my show in Parkville, and stuff I'm not supposed to talk about yet. It feels like there aren't enough hours in the day and when I try to make my fingers sew more quickly they won't listen. With all the craziness, I have been working on something I shouldn't. I call it my guilt quilt. I started it a few weeks ago and it was inspired by two quilts in the book Amish Crib Quilts from the Midwest: the Sara Miller Collection that I bought at the International Quilt Study Center last fall. It's a pretty traditional quilt using the Hole in the Barn Door (HIBD) block. Here is a picture in progress on my design wall:

I have a couple of parameters. First, all of the blocks have to be HIBD. Second, I can only use scraps of fabric. That part isn't really too hard because I have a ton of dye mistake fabric - things that I didn't measure right, or made too much, or whatever. Third, I can only spend an hour cutting pieces and then I have to make as many blocks from those pieces as possible before cutting new pieces. That forces me to make decisions I wouldn't normally make such as making things asymmetrical and putting strange colors together. At the end I will put in 1" undyed cotton sashing and it will be a queen size quilt. I'm pretty much in love with Amish quilts and using traditional blocks. This quilt will go on my bed when I'm finished, so I'm thinking of backing it with flannel for extra warmth.

Yesterday I went up to Park University in Parkville, MO to hang my show. Simon went with me and was a big help. I forgot to get a picture of the show all together but I will try to do it before I take the show down in October. I made seven brand new quilts for the show (in less than 2 months) and finished sewing pockets on the back about 15 minutes before we had to leave for Parkville. Last week was the week of very little sleep.

In some of the quilts, I used the quilting lines to mimic wind or rain or rays of sunshine. You can see the rest at my website: www.eichlermessmer.com. Now I get to cut some more pieces for one hour and then make more HIBD blocks. Yay!!! (totally not sarcastic, I really am very excited.)

Binding Confession

2011-08-12T10:18:00.000-05:00

What my binding used to look like.

I hate sewing binding on quilts. I really hate it. It's my least favorite part of the whole process and one I constantly have to remind myself "do it right or pay the price"*. It is normal for me to have a stack of quilts laying around waiting to be bound. If I was rich, I would pay someone to sew the bindings. One of my many mental blocks, as evident in the picture above, it the thickness of the binding. Up until about 2 months ago, I was making really thick binding. I don't know why. Maybe I was worried that it wouldn't wrap all the way around the quilt? Who knows. It looks fine, there's just a wide strip of binding on the back of all my quilts.

This is what my binding looks line now.

So, then I realized I could make my binding thinner and it would take less fabric and look much cleaner on the back of the quilt. But I still hated sewing binding. It all has to be done by hand, and I was using a slip stitch, which takes forever and shows tiny little stitches.
It reached a point yesterday where I did something that I wish I hadn't. I machine sewed a binding. Ugh. As I was doing it, I thought two things: 1. This is going so fast. Yay! and 2. This feels wrong. I shouldn't be doing this.

Machine sewn binding (front of the quilt).

But then, last night at quilt guild, I learned something that may change my life forever. Our president Jacquie (of Tallgrass Prairie Studio) showed us how she sews bindings that are invisible and much faster than the slip stitch. It's called the "Invisible Ladder Stitch". There is a great tutorial at Turning*Turning with pictures and instructions. This weekend I plan to tackle my stack of quilts and see how I do with the magic ladder stitch.

*I just finished reading The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin and started my own happiness project that I call "Kim's grow the f*** up project" and one of my personal commandments is "Do it right or pay the price" (which really means don't take shortcuts). If you don't know the book, go buy it or check it out at the library. I was a little put off by it at first because I feel like I already know everything she recommends doing. The hard part is actually doing everything. Once I stopped judging and being negative about it, I realized that I could definitely benefit from a lot of her ideas. One of my other commandments is "Don't be negative. Ever. About anything.".

Pillows!

2011-08-09T17:22:00.000-05:00

A couple of weeks ago I made three pillows with some of my shibori fabric that had been sitting around. The fabric was originally meant to be used in quilts, but none of them came out quite right and I was feeling less than enthusiastic about making the quilts. I was still excited about the fabric and decided pillows were the answer.

They are each 16" x 16" and are lined and quilted in a pattern that compliments the shibori pattern.

There is an envelope style closure on the back so the covers can be removed and washed if they get icky (you know, spilled on or used as a cat bed).

Aren't they cute? I think so. It was a fun project and while I was making them I kept thinking "I could make a ton of these" but so far there are only the three.

new quilt in the making

2011-07-18T22:18:00.000-05:00

I started a new quilt today on a whim. I went to my studio with a list of things to accomplish and instead, dyed the fabric for this quilt:

It's going to be a crib size quilt, 40" x 50", like most of my other quilts, but I did take good notes so it could be made in any size. The color is a bit off in this photo and the top hasn't been ironed yet. It just felt so good to dye the fabric and get it all trimmed and sewn in one day that I had to share. Hopefully tomorrow I will make the quilt sandwich and start quilting this thing...in addition to the list of things I meant to accomplish today.

And this photo is just for fun. I always think the piles of scraps from trimming are so pretty. So this time I took a picture. This picture also shows the color a bit better. The light gray has a slight purplish cast to it and the greens aren't quite so acid.

Arrowmont = permagrin

2011-07-13T19:46:00.000-05:00

My class and myself demonstrating effective use of a dust mask.

I spent last week at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, TN and it was supremely awesome. In 2007/2008 I was an Artist in Residence at Arrowmont, which means I lived there for a year with four other "emerging artists". As part of the residency, each person gets their own bedroom and bathroom in a shared house, their own private studio, and loads of opportunities to learn, network, and teach. Gatlinburg is a crazy tourist town complete with airbrushed t-shirts, fudge and funnel cakes, haunted houses, and something like 5 Thomas Kinkade galleries (shudder). It is also at the entrance to Smoky Mountain National Park. It was one of the best years of my life (even though I was away from my husband and that part was difficult) and last week felt like going home.

Arrowmont is mostly known as a sort of art camp for grown ups. People from all over come to take week long art and craft workshops. I was there teaching a workshop on screen printing repeat designs on fabric. My students were all fabulous and blew me away with their enthusiasm and the amazing work they did.

Jennifer invited me to teach a workshop in Columbia, MO last fall for MOFA (Missouri Fiber Artists). She just couldn't get enough of me so she signed up for my class at Arrowmont. This is her on the last day of the workshop, showing off all of the fabric she made.

Sarah is a studio assistant this summer at Arrowmont. She had never dyed or printed fabric before and decided to tackle a complicated 3 color print. Her work was fabulous and she says she will make sun dresses out of all of the fabric she printed.

This is something I was working on during the week. One of the techniques I taught was using hand cut stencils made out of tyvek as an easy way to screen print. This interpretation of a Ralli Quilt was printed with dye from three separate hand cut stencils. I'm nerdy excited about the idea of printing traditional quilt blocks and instead of piecing a quilt top, printing it. I have at least two of these that I think will almost definitely be made into quilts in the near future. Maybe. We'll see. I might need to think about it some more.

Go to Arrowmont!!!

quilts on beds (gasp!)

2011-06-23T14:33:00.001-05:00

Quilts go on beds, right? Those of you who know me, know that up until a year ago I firmly believed that my quilts were only for walls. Now, after making quilts specifically to be used for a year, I finally have a picture of one of my quilts on a bed. Tammy, in Iowa, commissioned my purple/yellow skyscape quilt in queen size earlier this spring. It is finally (almost) finished. I feel a bit guilty posting pictures of it here, when I should be getting it ready to ship, but I just couldn't hold in my excitement.

I am not a stylist. And I only have my own bed to use as a model. Taking photos of artwork is difficult enough, but taking these photos made me really appreciate how much work goes into styling a product (I feel a little sick for saying those words). If anyone at Crate and Barrel or Anthropologie or Dwell wants to be my friend I will trade them a quilt for help taking awesome pictures.

And now to show off my new summer quilt. The top was purchased at an estate sale or antique store by my mother in law ages ago. She had it quilted by a friend who also added the black and white border. It is fabulous. The first night it was on my bed, Owen the big fat cat jumped up for her nightly cuddles and immediately freaked out. She thinks the colors are alive. Poor Owen needs order.

ps. my new sewing room is evolving. it is almost ready to be shared.

pineapples!

2011-05-22T17:25:00.000-05:00

I have been working on so many different things lately and haven't posted in so long that it's quite difficult for me to decide what to share first. So...Pineapples!! Ever since going to the Textile Society of America conference this Fall and seeing the amazing International Quilt Study Center in Lincoln, I have been freaking out about traditional quilt patterns. Specifically Amish patterns and the Ralli quilts of Pakistan. Well, not freaking out so much as really really excited. In both of these quilt traditions solid colors (vs. patterned fabrics) and simple geometric shapes are the focus.

I'm trying to figure out how to express something new in traditional patterns. If not something new, then at least something "Kim". Sometimes I feel like it's impossible to improve on what has already been made because there have been so many amazing quilters and quilts around the world for hundreds of years. But I keep trying to remind myself that all I can do is try to express myself and make something honest and "Kim-ish" and hope that I can add to the history, not just repeat it.

So - here are my attempts at Kim-izing the traditional Pineapple quilt. I'm playing around with my own hand dyed gradations, piecing and then simulating different quilts in Photoshop.
The blocks:

The patterns:

the quilt that was supposed to be first but wasn't (or was it?)

2011-04-19T20:05:00.000-05:00

Which came first?

or #1?

Number 1 the first came first if an idea counts as existence. But number 1 the second came first if physical form counts as existence.

Number 1 the first was the vision I had in my brain. Number 1 the second was how the vision manifested itself in the real world (after my tricky brain reconsidered her original idea and those pesky hands got in the way). Number 1 the first is the quilt that my brain wouldn't forget and wouldn't forget and wouldn't forget. So I had to make it eight long months after attempt #1. Sometimes you just have to make something. again.

A new look

2011-04-14T16:40:00.000-05:00

So you might have noticed that I spruced things up around here. In the spring I get the decorating bug and right now it is manifesting itself as a desire to paint my living room Martha Stewart's "Salt Glaze" and possibly paint the kitchen cabinets (oh boy do I hate my cabinets. and my counters). Instead of doing all of that, I decided to update how my blog and website look. Did you notice the new banner up top? Did you notice that it matches the banner in my Etsy shop? Of course you did. You are very observant today.

This is the updated website. It is much less dark than before. I'm pretty pleased with myself. You might also notice that the quilt on the front page is one of my new small landscape quilts. They are slowly making their way onto Etsy and all four in finished form are posted on my website here. I am not a big fan of shameless self promotion, so this blog post feels a bit...er...awkward to me. But. I am trying to put into practice some of the things I learned in my Artist, Inc. class and through the helpful etsy blog about continuity and (gasp!) branding.

Quilt guild is tonight and my Robert Kaufman Kona Solids quilt is officially finished. Or it will be once it comes out of the wash.

I've been dreaming about big striped quilts lately. Like rugby shirts, but quilts. Hm...

What if I was einsy weinsy?

2011-03-22T19:20:00.000-05:00

And Iowa was the quilt I pulled up over myself at night. Would it look like these?

Maybe.

(mini Iowa quilts in progress. finished mini Iowas coming soon)

three tops in three days

2011-03-13T14:10:00.000-05:00

Oh boy. I am rich in quilt tops. There are currently six tops waiting patiently for me to quilt them (plus one that still needs binding). That means that this week (Spring Break!) should be spent quilting said tops. For some reason I am not looking forward to quilting them. Dyeing the backing fabric and binding, putting together the quilt sandwich, quilting, and binding are my least favorite steps. They're really not that bad and go relatively quickly, but they are just not as exciting as planning, dyeing the fabric, and piecing the tops.

Here is what's what:

You might remember my plan to make a cmyk quilt? The photoshop sketch is on the bottom, the quilt top on the top. This quilt top was completed last night while watching Jersey Shore with my husband. I know you're jealous of my very exciting Saturday night. This quilt top is nerdy because cmyk are pure colors but to create the dye colors for the quilt I had to mix 8 different dyes. While I was dyeing the fabric I kept cracking myself up becasue I had to create my own primary colors by mixing them. Yes, I am a nerd. And very easily amused.

These are two sister quilts. The one on the bottom I made a while ago and is available in my etsy shop. I had left over fabric from this quilt (it was supposed to be twin sized but honestly, I got lazy) and I was inspired by my quilt guild to try some improvisational piecing. The new quilt top was made on Friday.

And this is my Robert Kaufman Kona Solids challenge quilt for quilt guild. From my charm pack of 43 "darks", I used 36 for the top in a very basic rainbow gradation. The remaining 7 colors will be included in the back of the quilt but didn't fit in my rainbow. This was my first attempt at using only commercially dyed fabric in a quilt and my first attempt at using block construction. It was finished just in time for me to brush my teeth and jump in the car to rush to quilt guild. I'm pretty happy with it.

A much needed trip to Our Nation's Capitol

2011-02-06T20:36:00.000-06:00

I just got back from the best trip to visit my dear friend Kathryn who makes me laugh until I cry and then I cry for real when we say goodbye. She lives in Washington DC. It's quite unusual for me to take a trip to visit a friend during the school year. I'm usually way too busy and stressed out to go anywhere not family or school related. But Kathryn is getting ready to leave DC and I haven't seen her in about a year, so I made an exception and went on vacation. It was awesome.

At times, I felt like a country mouse in the city. Most of you know I live in Kansas City, but Kansas City feels small and cozy to me compared to DC. There were so many people everywhere. Even the grocery store on rainy Saturday morning. I flew into Baltimore, then took a train to Union Station - the ceiling is shown above. The patterns in the architecture were truly inspiring.

We went to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum and met the little guy above. He is a pink fairy armadillo. Really. I'm not kidding. It's real. It looks like my guinea pig (may she rest in peace) wearing alligator feet and a pink shell. It was also quite small - actually not much larger than guinea pig size.

And I also got to see the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef. It was huge and awesome. There were different parts of it to show how coral reefs die - like from bleaching and pollution. Very interesting. Since I suck at reading signs in museums I can't tell you many specifics, but their website will.

Most of all this trip made me step back and breathe for a few days. I get so wrapped up in Getting Sh*t Done and trying to Keep Up that I forget about what is important and what truly fuels my art practice. More than anything, I am inspired by life. How can I expect to create something great if I forget about the things that make living worthwhile? Like friendship, and pie, and possibly made up creatures, and walking in a strange city, and taking a breath once in a while. Right, yo?

Robert Kaufman what are you doing to me?

2011-01-15T22:04:00.000-06:00

Oh my goodness, Robert Kaufman. Why do you make such beautiful, juicy kona cotton? And why must you have 221 incredible colors to choose from? And why did you tempt me into using them by donating charm packs for everyone in my quilt guild? Did you realize what this would do to me? Don't you realize that it takes me eight whole hours to make just a fraction of these by hand? Probably not. Are you even a real person, Robert Kaufman?

I'm totally having an existential crisis over this. Wouldn't it be nice if I could just pick fabrics out of a stack and not have to go through all the labor of making my own? It would make the whole process so much faster if I could skip the dyeing step. I wouldn't really say I'm losing sleep over this (it takes a lot for me to lose sleep over something) but I have been chewing on this issue since Thursday. I realized today that what it comes down to is I love dyeing fabric. It is my favorite part of making a quilt. I love making different color combinations, weighing the fabric, figuring out the equations, mixing stock solutions, adding small amounts of dye to a dyebath with a tiny syringe. It's all fun and interesting and always a different challenge. So, yes. It would be much easier to buy these incredible Kona cottons. But it wouldn't be as satisfying, and I wouldn't be in control of the colors, they would always be someone else's.

But seriously, y'all. All I could do Thursday night was fondle my charm pack and flip through all 43 little 5" squares, constantly trying to find my favorite in the bunch. These kona cottons are so beautiful and the people at Robert Kaufman are so generous.

meep meep moop. sorry for the neglect.

2011-01-11T15:05:00.000-06:00

Poor little blog has been sitting here all by herself for months with no Kim. I have been such a strange combination of too busy and too lazy this winter. Everything was going well before Christmas. I was excited to be on winter break and I had a big project to work on (a twin size skyscape quilt). Then some stuff happened that turned me lazy (including snow). Now I only have a week and a half until spring semester and I am freaking out, yet still unable to get off my ass and make something. There are too many ideas in my head and not enough time to execute them all, so I find myself sitting around and looking at Etsy and worrying and watching True Blood instead of just working.

Maybe if I write out my ideas here, that will start something going. Right?
1. More paint chip quilts - focus on color theory
2. Skyscape/Landscape quilts using silk and linen based on my winter sky photos
3. Different patterns (embrace the triangle)

I have been a little productive. I'm re-making the Orange Paint Chip quilt and the Purple/Yellow Skyscape quilt. The tops are done, I just need to dye the backing and binding, and then quilt them. I also made these sketches in Photoshop:

This one is RGB, the green/blue column is a bit off - too gray.

Here we have CMYK (but it's really MYCK)

This is a modified color wheel. I'm not so good at color blending in Photoshop, but the colors are supposed to mix and become more neutral in the middle.

The End. For now, but hopefully not for long.

inspiration: the sky from my bedroom window

2010-11-22T18:08:00.000-06:00

Every morning I open the curtains in my bedroom so the sun will help Simon wake up. For a while it was dark when I did this. But with the time change it has been getting light out while I'm still at home and every morning right around 7:10 the sky is amazing.

11/21 - do you see that jet stream?

I mean truly honestly amazing. Shockingly so. I am still trying to figure out why the sky is such a revelation to me, when it has been around my whole life.


11/10

The night sky is pretty great, too. I guess.

11/18

11/19

I am completely awed by the difference in cloud structure, color, quality of light, and mood within a span of a few days. These skies only exist for a short amount of time, so unless you are really paying attention, they are easy to miss. If I wasn't such a slave to time, I would wake up with the sun every morning and take a picture. A project for winter break perhaps.

cough, cough, etsy, cough

2010-11-21T19:17:00.000-06:00

I am officially a Sicky McSickerton with runny nose, cough, headache, and general unpleasantness. It's no fun. It's hitting especially hard now that I am back home in KC, away from The Most Adorable Nephew Ever.

Instead of an invitation to my pity party, I will leave you all with a very short blog post and some eye candy. Check out this treasury I made on Etsy.

Sneak peeks:

Moldy Linen Pin by elinart

Quilt Card Set by krankpress

Again, the link for the treasury with a side note that anyone who wants to send me a Christmas present need look no further than this delightful list (hint, hint, no pressure).

pretending to be a designer again

2010-11-02T17:29:00.000-05:00

option 1

Alright ya'll. I'm coming at you again for some advice/help. This time I'm requesting input on postcard designs. I am making an effort to "put myself out there" as it were and finding that I need an actual, physical object to give/send people with my information on it.

option 2

This thing is going to have an image on one side and just a small amount of information on the back (like my email, website, etc.). I've been playing around with some detail shots of my quilts to try and come up with a postcard that is colorful, shows the texture of the fabric and stitching, and has my name on it. They will be 4" x 6".

option 3

I would really appreciate some feedback. Nothing is precious, I could use help with which image is best, orientation of the card, where the text (my name) should be, etc. I want to try and order them by late this week.

option 4

Thank you, thank you, thank you to anyone who writes me a comment with suggestions!!

Quilts from TSA part 3

2010-10-30T17:10:00.000-05:00

So I meant to post this a week (or two, or three?) ago. Things happen. But please don't let the late-ness of this post in any way hinder your delight or amazement of what I am about to offer.

In the market part of the TSA conference, which turned out to be very dangerous for my wallet, I encountered a table stacked high with brightly colored, hand made quilts. Quilts for Kids Nepal is a microfinance project, based in Kathmandu, Nepal. Its mission is to provide work for economically-challenged women and to finance education for underprivileged children.
Founded in 2006, the project operates in an encampment of Indian street beggars located in a large field in the Boudhanath neighborhood of Kathmandu.

This is the quilt I bought. The quilts are entirely hand -pieced and hand stitched. You can't really tell from the photos, but the quilting is all done in thick running stitches of varying colors of thread. It took about 45 minutes to decide which quilt I would buy and the back of this one is what sold me. The back is solid maroon fabric, and you can clearly see the lines of stitches. Also, note the tiny triangles of fabric and fabric tassels around the edge of the quilt. Amazing.

The quilts are made from materials either found or purchased at local tailoring shops in the Boudhanath neighborhood of Kathmandu. Often they are made from scraps of old saris or from the pieces left over from the making of Buddhist monks' robes.

Go to the website and you can see more pictures and read more information about the program. 100% of your donation to Quilts for Kids Nepal goes to fund women's salaries as well as school tuition, school uniforms, shoes, pencils, books and backpacks for the kids.

productivity vs progress

2010-10-24T16:51:00.000-05:00

This was a very productive weekend in that I got a lot done. However, I'm not really sure if I'm making progress. I've gotten off track slightly, but I think it's good.

This is what's up. Months ago, like way back at the end of August, I started a twin size quilt. It was in the "Skyscape" series, but based more on bright summer skies and green fields. Here it was in progress (hanging on my studio wall):

This thing had something like 26 hand dyed colors in the top and 35 hand dyed colors in the bottom. It was crazy. It took me about 4 days just to dye all the fabric, not to mention cutting and sewing the strips together. Twin size might not sound very big, but it was 66" wide x 88" tall, which is way bigger than me. The quilt top sat in my studio for quite a few weeks and was always in the back of my mind as this huge thing I had to tackle, but didn't want to. So on Friday I decided to cut it up into two smaller quilts. I planned, and sketched, and did math to figure out how best to cut this quilt top up to make two really great quilts out of it. Then I cut it wrong. I measured twice. I think I even measured 4 times, but to no avail.

Here is what I ended up with:

The first one, I'm happy with. The second I was really skeptical of, but Jaime suggested cutting the big yellow piece on the bottom mostly off and now I'm feeling better about it. I'm going to cut it tonight. Both of these are back to my comfortable size of about 40" x 50". Both are quilted. The first one has the binding almost all sewn on. The bottom one needs to be trimmed up and then bound. The more I look at them, the happier I get.

There is also a secret third quilt in progress. If I can keep using the dining room as my sewing studio and tear myself away from the Sookie books, I might complete three quilts this month.

And this was the sky last night as I was working. Strange and beautiful. This might be the color palette for my next quilt.

Quilts from TSA part 2

2010-10-14T16:50:00.000-05:00

The International Quilt Study Center in Lincoln, NE has an amazing exhibition up called South Asian Seams: Quilts from India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. All of the quilts were truly incredible - all hand pieced and hand quilted, with an amazing use of color, pattern, and repetition. I was particularly mesmerized by the Ralli Quilts from Pakistan. I have known about Rallis for a few years, but this was my first experience seeing them in person. Its impossible to know what the future will bring, but I have a feeling that the impact of seeing these quilts in person will change my work.


detail of the above Ralli

Ralli from Pujab, Pakistan. This ralli has the traditional Punjabi patterning with a mixture of geometric blocks and fine line applique. The appliqued blocks remind me of paper cut artwork and Hawaiian Quilts.

From Khairpur, Sindh, Pakistan. Features fifteen 8-petaled lotus flowers in bright colors. The multiple, patterned borders are typical of the region.

All of the hand-stitching and hand-applique make me feel pretty lazy for machine stitching everything. I need to reconsider time and commitment in my work and the expressive quality of a hand-made stitch.

Quilts from TSA part 1

2010-10-10T17:11:00.000-05:00

Okay friends. I feel totally rejuvenated and inspired and ready to make some amazing quilts. All because of the Textile Society of America Conference that was last week in Lincoln, NE. It was a great conference and I'm still mentally sorting everything - the people I met, the amazing quilts, weavings, embroideries, and other fiber work, and the lectures. Not all of the lectures were mind-blowing, but enough of them were great that the mediocre ones will soon be forgotten. There were way too many highlights to showcase in this one blog entry, so I will pick out my three favorite quilted things from the conference to share in three parts. Parts 2 and 3 will come later this week.

First: I got to see Anna von Mertens' quilts in person. (that sentence does not properly describe my excitement about the event).There was an exhibition of 6 of her quilts at the Project Room. In one room there were two quilts, Dawn (Anna Zerissa Morse Thurston, born February 6, 1841, Surry, Maine) and Dusk (Anna Zerissa Morse Thurston, died April 11, 1886, Oakland, California) 2008, hand-dyed, hand-stitched cotton, 54" x 100" (each piece). In the other room were four of her Aura Quilts, two are pictured here:

Philip IV's aura, after Velázquez

2009, hand-dyed, hand-stitched cotton, 80 x 38 1/2"

(with me)

Mona Lisa's aura, after Leonardo da Vinci

2009, hand-dyed, hand-stitched cotton, 34 3/4" x 25 3/4"

I have been a big fan of her work for about 4 years but had only seen pictures of her amazing quilts. As you all probably know, fiber work does not really translate into photography. These quilts, well, I just don't know what to say about them. The color is the main thing and it is bright, dark, light, juicy, smooth, vibrant. They are all hand quilted and you can see (if you look closely) the portrait that they are based on in the stitching. If you don't know her work, go to her website now.
coming up later this week:
Part 2 - Ralli Quilts from Pakistan
Part 3 - Quilts for Kids Nepal

issues and goals

2010-09-27T17:01:00.000-05:00

I have been so busy lately. I'm sure you don't want to hear about it because everyone is busy, right? But I feel like the three week chunk of time I am inhabiting is unbearably busy. Luckily, Simon bought groceries yesterday and made a big fall dinner of roasted pork with rosemary, butternut squash, apples, and cabbage. I can't think about food when I am this stressed out. I'm to the point of stress where I just want to shut it all out, put on my winter pajamas, make some hot tea, and read my Sookie Stackhouse books.

So I'm just going to whine for a minute. Everyone is invited to my pity party. I'm taking this class called Artist Inc where artists learn how to be grown ups about everything from marketing, to paying taxes, to talking and writing about our work, etc. It's good for me. I'm grateful to be in it. The bad thing is that last week we had to make one manageable short term goal and we had to tell the people in our small groups what the short term goal was. Mine was to finish the quilt I've been working on since before school started. There's not much left - just iron the top, make the sandwich, quilt it, trim it, and sew on the binding (I guess that's kind of a lot). So I made a plan where I broke it down into manageable chunks and I really thought I would get it done. It felt so good to have a plan and a goal and people holding me accountable. I haven't touched the quilt all week. Fail.

One of the reasons is that I spent all weekend getting ready for my workshop in Columbia next weekend, preparing two slide shows for class this week, doing my other Artist, Inc homework, AND getting things ready for Apartment Therapy Design Showcase final round. Poor me, right?

So I don't have any pretty picutres to share. I don't have any progress to report. I don't have any inspiration photos. Blerg. You can see a video of me over at AT talking about my skyscape quilts.

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/design-showcase/skyscape-quilts-by-kim-eichlermessmer-design-showcase-2010-finalist-128070

we grew figs

2010-09-18T17:17:00.000-05:00

That's right. Figs. In Kansas. It's very exciting. So far we have harvested 6 figs. Our tree is only one year old. Next year there will be many more figs.

I also decided I should show the fabric from yesterday even though its pretty mediocre. My biggest issue is that most of the dye washed out. I get so frustrated with myself because I know better. I know how to dye things and print with thickened dye. I know how much dye and how much soda ash to add and I know how long the dye will work once everything is added. Yet, I ignore all of those facts far too frequently. I suppose I'm a big fan of shooting myself in the foot. Is there a facebook page for that? Others who like "shooting yourself in the foot" also like "paddling upstream" and "digging your own grave".

fabric one, on the print table (pre wash-out)...

and post wash-out.

fabric two on the print table...

and post wash-out.

Right. So they both just need a few more layers of printing and then maybe some embroidery. Blerg. The figs are pretty exciting though, right?

mama thinks so, too.

not myself today

2010-09-17T18:20:00.000-05:00

All of the Apartment Therapy* excitement sort of wore me out. I had a very mediocre studio day today. This going to the studio only once a week business has got to stop. All of my creativity builds up all week and my head is full of ideas and then I get to the studio and panic.

Today I left my dye notebook at home and was too lazy to walk/drive the 4 blocks and get it. So my plans to make another paint chip quilt fell by the wayside. Instead I decided to practice some alternative screen printing processes for the workshop I'm teaching in a couple weeks. It was just...bleh. I didn't make anything mind-blowing. I did print about 5 yards of fabric that need a few more layers before they are something. I also dyed some backing fabric and binding fabric for a new skyscape quilt that is twin sized.

While I was working and feeling not too excited I heard a song that made me feel better. Here are the lyrics:
Acony Bell by Gillian Welch:

The fairest bloom the mountain knows
Is not an iris or a wild rose
But the little flower of which I'll tell
Known as the brave acony bell

Just a simple flower so small and plain
With a pearly hue and a little known name
But the yellow birds sing when they see it bloom
For they know that spring is coming soon

Well it makes its home mid the rocks and the rills
Where the snows lie deep on the windy hills
And it tells the world Why should I wait
This ice and snow is gonna melt away.

And so I'll sing that yellow bird's song
For the troubled times will soon be gone.

*If you haven't voted for me yet, it's not too late! Go there now and vote. There are some other really great designs, too. I love Snuggles and the Cat Hammock. Support independent designers!

I'm on Apartment Therapy!!!

2010-09-16T14:40:00.000-05:00

Oh my goodness, I almost choked on my toothpaste this morning when I read the email from AT that my submission for the Design Showcase was going to be posted! Just last night as I was falling asleep I thought: "It's okay if they don't choose me. There are a lot of good designers in the world and I'm just starting out. It made me get a little more organized and put myself out there and no bad will come of it."

Seriously, ya'll. Being on Apartment Therapy is exciting all by itself. I read that blog almost every day. But to be chosen to be in the Design Showcase is a huge honor. If you don't know what I'm talking about go check it out right now. And while you're there, vote for me! You have to register, but it's fast and free and then you can give me three stars...or, you know, however many you think I deserve.

And now, a juicy picture treat.

This is wax block printed fabric from the South American / African Grocery at River Market in KCMO. My new friend Lauren from Aunt June told us all about it at quilt guild and then I went out and bought some. Don't you want to lick it? I do.

log cabin (on a lake) love

2010-09-13T18:24:00.000-05:00

This summer I got to spend 3 1/2 glorious days at a charming little cabin on a lake in Minnesota. It was so quiet there and calm. At night it was so dark that it seemed like I could reach out and grab the stars. The lake was so clear that I could look down and see the fish looking back up at me. It was just the best.

So. Then I came back and started teaching. Not that I'm not totally thrilled to be teaching - I am. I love my job and my students and can't believe this is my life. But sometimes I close my eyes and try to smell the sunshine on the water and feel the quiet breeze.

When I'm old I want to retire to that cabin and make quilts entirely by hand. Here are three variations on the log cabin block that I just made out of scrap shibori fabric to spread the cabin on a lake love.

I did it!

2010-09-11T14:49:00.000-05:00

After much encouragement from all of you, I finally submitted my work for the Design Showcase! There seemed to be the most interest in choice #4 from the last post. So I cheated a little and submitted #3 and #4 as one design. I guess that's not really cheating because they are the same idea, just different colors. Right? I'll let you all know if they choose me so you can go vote for my quilts.

I also decided that this would be a good opportunity to set up my new etsy shop. If you look over there to the right, you'll see a little preview of it. You can also see it at www.etsy.com/shop/kimem. Feel free to check it out and let me know what you think. I plan on adding more quilts and more custom options, but it will take me a little time.

I need some help!

2010-09-10T10:58:00.000-05:00

Hey all you blog readers out there! I need some advice. So far I have four quilts in my collection that I am very happy with (4 out of 8 isn't bad...) but could definitely use some feedback. Tell me which quilt or quilts you like best and why. Leave a comment. Don't be shy.

I'm trying to work up the courage to submit my work for Apartment Therapy's Design Showcase. I feel a little strange thinking of myself as a designer and stranger still considering entering something like this but it feels like the right thing to do (even if it is the scariest scary thing ever).The deadline is coming up really soon so please please give me feedback. I need to choose one of these to submit:

1. Paint Chip Quilt in Blue: 25 hand-dyed blocks gradating from bright blue to black, dark to light. 100% cotton, pieced and then quilted in radiating X formations.

2. Paint Chip Quilt in Orange: 25 hand-dyed blocks gradating from light yellow to dark red with all oranges in between. 100% cotton, pieced and then quilted in straight horizontal lines.

3. Skyscape Quilt in Yellow and Purple. 23 hand-dyed strips gradating from dark purple to light yellow, then dark green to light green. 100% cotton, pieced, then quilted in horizontal straight lines.

4. Skyscape Quilt in Rust and Blue. 21 hand-dyed strips gradating from dark blue to light blue with rose in between and then from light blue to dark rust. 100% cotton, pieced, then quilted in horizontal straight lines.

Ok. Those are the quilts. Please let me know what you think and which one I should choose!!

Good News Bears

2010-09-08T17:02:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I received some very exciting news. This summer I applied for a grant from the Kansas Art Commission that would fund my studio space and supplies to develop and make a whole line of bed quilts. And they chose me! They cho-cho-chose me! This news is so big and so exciting that I'm sort of in denial. I've only told my mom and Simon so far. I also scooped up Owen cat and made her dance with me until she put her claws out and yelled (that took about 5 seconds).

That's Owen with Simon. Owen is a girl and she has a fat belly.

She is also called Owey, O-face, Thriller, Fatty-Bear, Bun Head, and Bobbin.

As most of you know, I've already started developing the line of quilts. The sky/landscape quilts and the color block quilts are part of the series. But with this funding I can go crazy and make as many prototypes as I need and explore as many different colorways as I can think of. Now there really are no excuses...well, other than being busy with teaching.

Yay Yay Yay Yay! And now some pretty pictures of surface design samples:

stamps and low water immersion

direct application and shibori

direct application and crackle

Open Studio (friday the 13th)

2010-08-12T22:03:00.000-05:00

The what: Open Studio and Quilt Exhibit
The where: Pressroom Studios and Kaw Valley Arts and Humanities
The other where: 750 Armstrong, Kansas City, KS
The when: Friday 8.13.10 5:00 - 8:00pm
The why: because you love quilts and you love me and you want to support the arts in KCK (and you love live music and free food)

(this quilt is not new. but it is beautiful and will be on display and for sale tomorrow night)

Ok. So I failed in my mission to have 8 new quilts. Life got in the way a little. So did procrastination via Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I do have 6 totally finished brand new quilts and 2 that are nearly finished but still need the binding sewn on. What are you going to do? But really, there's way more than 6 new quilts to people who have never seen my work. Right?

the sky in july (and august)

2010-08-11T14:03:00.000-05:00

I've posted before about how I'm trying to notice things more. It's a continuing battle but I'm making a consistent effort. Keeping my camera nearby at all (well, most) times is helping.
Something that I've been noticing and documenting this summer are the amazing skies in Kansas City. Our house is on top of a hill and there are no other houses close by - at least by city standards. It gives me a great view of the sky in 360 degrees.
I've based two of my most recent quilts on our summer sky:

(I love this one. It seems like little cherubs should be flying out of those blue spots)

these two skies were the inspiration for:

full quilt / detail

and these two inspired:

full quilt / detail

Both quilts are completely hand dyed. The top one has 19 different colors and the bottom one has 23, if I'm remembering correctly. This is a series I'm excited to continue.

goodies in the mail

2010-07-28T18:00:00.000-05:00

Last week I got in the mail three packages which means on three occasions it felt like Christmas. The cotton quilting thread from Connecting Threads came, as did quilt batting and more quilting thread from Quilting Warehouse. The new thread is on the left, Mettler on the right. I also ordered a set of quilting feet from Sears. It was all very exciting. So far I am quite happy with the new quilting thread. It is just as soft and thick as the Mettler quilting thread and much less expensive. It doesn't come in as many nice colors and I will have to see how it performs after a run through the washing machine, but I have high hopes overall.

The set of sewing machine feet included (clockwise from top left) a free motion embroidery foot, open foot, walking foot, quilt guide, and a stitch in the ditch foot. I already had the free motion and open feet and the guide, but it doesn't hurt to have extras. I bought the set mostly for the walking foot. It is supposed to reduce bunching on quilts by feeding the top layer and the bottom layer through at the same time. After quilting with it all afternoon I must say it worked pretty well. I'm not sure if it reduced bunching but the stitches look more even and it handled a bit easier than my regular 1/4" quilting foot.

Yesterday was spent dyeing fabric for another landscape quilt. Overall, I dyed 19 different colors. There are four dye cups missing from the picture because I had already started washing them out when I remembered to take a picture. Here is the fabric post dyeing and washing:

Tomorrow I will cut and piece the strips together. The colors didn't turn out how I expected. Those who know me well know that organization, tidiness, and careful execution are not my favorite things. Normally I am very messy and energetic in my creation process. BUT, I have been trying so hard to be careful and pay attention and do things right so that I can make things more than once. Yesterday it wasn't happening. The colors came out a lot more purple than they were supposed to. I had gray in mind and my fabric sample and recipes should have led to gray fabric. I blame the humidity. Then again, as I always say, things are more interesting when you let the unexpected happen. (I only say that when things don't turn out how I expect).

I am now completely moved into my new studio. It is so big. And empty. But nice. I pretty much love it.

The end.

(the heat is getting to me. I need a rootbeer float)

busy busy little bee

2010-07-23T16:20:00.000-05:00

(quilt parts waiting to be assembled)

The past couple of days have been very busy in Kim-land but not very exciting to blog about. This week has been all about grunt work - dyeing backing and binding fabrics, wrapping up quilting on my shibori quilts, trimming off the uneven edges, sewing on binding and more sewing on binding. I have also been way busy in the garden, harvesting tomatoes, beets, peppers, okra, and green beans. A large chunk of next week will be dedicated to canning.

(quilts with bindings partially sewn on, waiting to be finished by hand)

I'm going to start moving into my new studio on Monday and am so excited (but not ready). My current studio has about 200 square feet and I'm moving into about 480 square feet. I'm a little worried I'll feel lost and tiny in the new space.

(Back and front of the quilt I am currently finishing. Hand sewing the binding takes me forever, but is definitely worth the effort.)

(The landscape quilt pieced together)

That's all friends. Simon and I are off to Granny's for the weekend. Maybe I will absorb some of her master quilter energy.

Patterntastic

2010-07-20T16:15:00.000-05:00

I found out about Bev Hisey earlier this summer when I was researching textile designers for the summer course I was teaching at KCAI. She is a textile designer based in Toronto, Canada. In my research I was looking for artists or designers who use simple shapes. It was all for an assignment on repeat pattern design using hand carved stamps. Anyway - I was in love with her work from the start and still find it inspiring, as I hope you will, too.

hand tufted rug

die-cut cushions

laser cut room dividers/blankets

laser cut table runners

I have been trying for years to grasp the "less is more" concept. I'm getting closer and looking at these designs helps.

She also has some really amazing "dirty dishes" rugs. They don't really fit with my theme, but are definitely worth a look.

paint chips and landscapes

2010-07-19T18:33:00.001-05:00

Everytime I go to the hardware store I have to pick up some paint chips to take home. It doesn't matter if I'm planning a painting project or not, I just love paint chips. The best ones have at least 3 color values on them, usually more. Sometimes I feel like focusing on one color, only getting red paint chips, or gray, or blue, or whatever. Other times I like to get a few from each color family. Writing it all out like this makes me feel very abusive of the paint chips.

The quilts I've been working on last week and this week are inspired by my paint chip collection. They are hand dyed gradations using another of my favorite things: percentage gradation dyeing. Yay for math!

These two are sewn together and waiting to be sandwiched and quilted. Please forgive the wrinkles.

These are both crib/lap size quilts but could be made any size. I'm planning on doing many more color variations including complimentary color sequences (red+green, blue+orange, yellow+purple) which make lovely neutrals and perhaps some rainbow gradations (gasp!).

In addition to these color chip quilts, today I started a quilt based on the Kansas landscape right before a thunderstorm. I'm not sure about the color arrangement yet. There are two options below. I'll decide tonight and start sewing it together tomorrow.

option 1: dark, light, dark (this was how I originally meant it to be)

option 2: dark, light, dark, light (this is the direction I'm leaning)

I'm also very excited because I have some new cotton quilting thread coming to me in the mail. I'm trying some thread from Connecting Threads. They have mercerized cotton quilting thread 1200 yards for $2.99. Usually I buy Mettler mercerized cotton quilting thread which is 500 yards for about $6. I'm crossing my fingers that this new thread is as nice as the Mettler. As soon as the thread and my quilt batting get here I can start assembling these. My goal is to have 4 shibori quilts and 4 gradation quilts finished by the second friday in August (for the gallery walk in my NEW studio!).

KCK - jackpot of hidden treasure

2010-07-15T15:59:00.000-05:00

I've realized recently that I don't pay attention to the things around me. It was a startling realization because I used to be so aware of my surroundings. I took pride in noticing interesting things like textures, colors, and shadows that were hidden in plain sight. I'm not sure if it's part of growing up - the fact that I have a lot more on my mind than I used to- or if it's that I've become too detached and take things for granted. Either way, it's no good at all.

So. With my trusty camera in hand, I went about exploring the alley behind my studio. This is a place I walk by very frequently (I would say every day, but that's just a lie) but have never taken the time to actually see. There are some pretty amazing things going on in that alley.

Garage doors:

Blocked off windows and doors:

(this one is the back of my husband's building)

And loads of pattern on pattern action:

Also of interest, I'm moving into a different studio at the end of this month. The studio next to mine has been empty all year and just recently I've started looking at it longingly and fantasizing about the things I could do with twice as much space. That means my current studio will be open in addition to two others in my building. They're cheaper than anywhere else in Kansas City, with heat and air conditioning and lots of natural light.

the sink is cracked and so is my back

2010-07-08T17:59:00.000-05:00

Not really. I'm just dang exhausted from leaning over a too-short sink all day. Washing out fabric is the worst. This was a mighty productive day, though. I made three more quilt tops and dyed backing and binding fabric for 4 quilts (some of the fabric is above, drying). Tomorrow I can start pinning and quilting. I'm very excited to have some quilts completed.

this one has screen printed fabric instead of shibori

They will all look much better once they're quilted with beautifully colored thread in fantastic patterns, and then washed and ironed. Then they will be irresistible. Just wait.

And here is a picture of me hiding in the garden. Which reminds me I need to pick tomatoes.

on the road to function there are many setbacks

2010-07-07T18:48:00.000-05:00

Well, ya'll. I am well on my way to making functional quilts. Today was the second day in my studio making samples. I feel good in general but if you had asked me at 1:30, I would have said I feel bad in general. There were many setbacks today. In the end they were for the best. The worst of the bunch could have easily been avoided. See, I'm bad about labeling things. Or maybe I'm too thorough about labeling and it gets in my way. Either way, I ended up with a container that said both "salt" and "soda ash". All day today I used it thinking it was soda ash. It wasn't. All of my hard work and beautiful dye washed out. After blaming the fabric for sucking, I finally realized I had been adding extra salt to my dye bath instead of soda ash, the magic ingredient that makes everything stick. Those of you who know about salt and soda ash might be thinking "can't she tell the difference just by looking?" and of course the answer is yes. But I hadn't had lunch and was rushing things. More than once I looked down at the container and thought: "This looks like salt. should I taste it and find out if I'm using the wrong thing? No, that's not safe."

This is what happens when you don't use soda ash. The fabric on the right that looks dirty should have looked like the fabric on the left.

I got myself back on track and sewed together this top from fabric I dyed yesterday:

It is going to get a layer of printing tomorrow and then will be quilted.

And then I dyed some fabric based on these two color combos (from my handy-dandy palette).

(don't go stealing my recipes)

My goals for tomorrow: sew together two more tops from the fabric I dyed today. Begin basting the quilt sandwiches. Don't forget to have lunch.

And now for an unrelated rant. One of my guilty pleasures is watching "The Bachelorette" on ABC. The show makes me so uncomfortable that I can't stop watching it. Don't judge me. This week's episodes bothered me for a number of reasons that I won't go into, but I am so glad Ali sent Ty home. Ty seemed like a nice guy and he was from Franklin, TN which is a charming place. But if anyone ever told me they were "tickled" that I have ambitions, I would slap him. Not really, because I'm non-confrontational and non-violent. But I would definitely give him an angry look and tell him what's what. How patronizing can you get? Seriously.

The end.

we all scream for...sedum

2010-07-05T13:43:00.000-05:00

Dangly hens and chicks

I have long known that sedum is the greatest. It requires little care, spreads abundantly, and has very lovely blossoms. What I knew, but also didn't know, is that it comes in a beautiful variety of colors that look amazing together. I've been having lots of those moments lately. I know something in my brain, but my mind is blown by realizing it again. Another example is when I realized/remembered that the earth is turning and that the sun isn't setting, we are turning away from it. It's ok. You can roll your eyes at me.

Powell Gardens again surprised me with inspiration. Here are sedums for your perusal.

This one is my favorite. That dark one next to the tiny lemon yellow, next to the peach, surrounded by various shades of green is simply lovely.

line and shadow inspiration

2010-07-04T10:39:00.001-05:00

My parents were in town visiting this weekend and we went to Powell Gardens just outside KCMO. It's a beautiful place to spend a few hours, but I was surprised by how much garden architecture there was. I love the intersecting lines in the one above.

The shadows in the three below are so crisp and dark. I love how they can confuse the perspective. While we were there, I was imagining how they would change over the course of a day. I would love to see some time-lapse photography of these shadows.

There may be some Powell Garden inspired quilts on the way.

Computer + Kim = Quilt?

2010-06-29T17:10:00.000-05:00

I've been seriously considering making functional quilts lately. I guess technically all of my quilts could be functional, but they're not meant to be. I've been sleeping under a hand-made quilt for almost two years now and every time I make the bed (which isn't very often, granted) I'm reminded of how special it is.

me and my quilt (and the awesome pink chair my husband found in a dumpster)

So I've been working up some designs and thinking and stewing over what these quilts should be. I think I'm getting close. As soon as summer school is over (3 more days!) I'm going to jump in and see how it goes. Until then, a preview of my designs made in Pointcarre.

This is the palette and gradations I created. It was all very scientific. Mostly I looked at a ton of different pictures from all different magazines, like Martha, Australian Vogue, National Geographic, Dwell, etc. and cut out the photos that drew me in. Then I matched the 5 main colors in the photos to paint chips from the hardware store. From there I could analyze which colors were present most often and narrow it down to this select group of 24. All of my designs will be based off those 24 colors.

The circles on these two would be thioxed out.

The most nerd-tastic part of the whole process is color matching my fabric to the paint chips. It involved many many (many) dye baths and re-calculations, but I finally got all of them.

So. Up first are some crib quilts as samples. Anyone know any babies in the market for a hand-made quilt?

I'm having a show!

2010-06-08T20:34:00.000-05:00

For the month of June my work will be shown at HNTB, an architecture firm in Kansas City, MO. The opening for it was last Friday, June 4. Overall, it went pretty well. I'm showing the quilts I refer to as "architecture quilts" so it was fitting that the opening consisted mostly of architects, engineers, and graphic designers.
Steve Brisendine, a local artist and art critic wrote about it for Review. You can read about it here. Thanks Steve!
No pictures of the show yet, but I'm planning to take some before it comes down.

Color Inspiration

2010-04-27T12:53:00.000-05:00

I've been thinking about color in my environment more than usual for two reasons. First, I'm trying to figure out what colors to paint the rooms in my house. Second, I'm attempting to change up my usual color schemes in my quilts. Below are a three artists I recently discovered who work with colors that I'm drawn to but don't normally use. Sometimes the things I make are not the things I like. From a logical point of view this doesn't make much sense. I would like to being to bridge the gap.

Derick Melander

semi monochromatic gradations with pops of color

Flesh of My Flesh

The Ocean is the Underlying Basis for Every Wave

Michael Johansson

I would probably call these vintage colors

He Was Packing All Night

Rubik's Kitchen

Nancy Herman

Complimentary colors without being garish

(complimentary means opposite on the color wheel,

i.e. blue and orange, yellow and violet, red and green)

Forsythia

In and Out of orange

orange you glad I didn't say...I can't remember the rest.

2010-04-13T16:45:00.000-05:00

A lot of unproductive things have been going on in my studio lately. I feel all fired up about working, but whenever I actually get in my studio my brain poops out on me.

Today was so bad that I didn't even bother to take photos. I had this idea that I would coat string in thickened dye, then stitch into fabric with it and let the dye bleed into the fabric. I set up a whole experiment with wet string in wet fabric, dry string in wet fabric, wet string in dry fabric and dry string in dry fabric. Then I started on the wet on wet sample. For anyone that has sewn before, you know where this is going. It is painfully difficult to sew into wet fabric. Not to mention that my string was coated with wet dye so I had to wear my rubber gloves. I gave up after about 2 minutes.

Here is the rest of the not so great stuff I've been doing lately. I have to keep faith that it will all make sense soon if I can just keep showing up.

orange color studies

hand-printed yardage, overdyed different colors

An attempt at using up old fabric to save money. These are some of the left over reject fabrics from past quilts that I cut into strips and then sewed into mini log cabins.

Then overdyed them (this is them waiting to be dyed)

They are still heedious but will get better. They've been overdyed again since this picture was taken and are now a dark gray color. Much better.

On a high note, there was a decent turnout for my open studio last friday night. I think I'll go plant some onions.

little yellow birds

2010-03-26T08:52:00.000-05:00

Joetta Maue wrote about my narrative quilts over at her blog little yellow birds.

Check it out and spend some time over there. She covers a lot of really interesting fiber work being made right now. Thanks Joetta!

Symmetry

2010-03-22T17:44:00.000-05:00

Do you ever look in the mirror for too long and freak out about how asymmetrical you are? Please don't tell me I'm alone here.
Well, today I was reading a book about tesselations and symmetry by Jinny Beyer and there was an example of famous faces that were split in half and repositioned to be symmetrical. It is so interesting. In two of the three examples one of the symmetrical faces is far more attractive than the other.
So. Here are my three versions. I like to think of the two symmetrical ones as my dopplegangers. One of them is not very attractive. Be warned...

normal Kim

symmetrical Kim #1

This one is terrible. It could be my ugly twin's mugshot.

My father-in-law warned me that I need to be careful with social networking and sharing information. I think he was joking, but this might be a good example of too much sharing.

Quilt Appreciation Day!

2010-03-20T13:41:00.000-05:00

The third Saturday in March is officially Quilt Appreciation Day. That seems especially fitting on a day like today that is so gray and snowy (at least it is in good old Kansas City). In honor of today, I thought I would share with you my top 5 favorite quilters ever.

1. Mary Anne Jordan. Her quilts are amazing. They are mostly whole cloth quilts that she paints with dye. Not only does she make beautiful work, Mary Anne is a wonderful person and is one of the key people that led me to quilting. She is head of the Textiles program at the University of Kansas and leads textiles trips to Uzbekistan. I got to touch one of her quilts a few years ago when she hired me to sew the binding on.

Tablecloth with Indigo Stains

95"H x 78"W

exhibition shot

2. Bean Gilsdorf. I first learned about Bean's quilts when I was in graduate school at KU. I was immediately drawn to the scale of them and her use of imagery. Since then, I have had the chance to see her work in person twice, most recently at the Surface Design Conference last summer in Kansas City. She had a show at Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art. Her work continues to inspire me.

Into the Ether (2007)

50" w x 68" h

For Your Amusement (2007)

105" w x 113" h

3. Anna Von Mertens. From her artist statement: "Displaying my quilts as bed sculptures surfaces inherent meanings: the body, the home, a place of the familiar, a centering point. The stitch patterns diagram various mapping systems--scientific phenomenon, energy dispersion patterns, bird migration routes, computer circuitry, etc.--using the intimate lens of the bed and handstitching to internalize these patterns. Objective information is translated to the subjective, building a world of reference points that create a whole."

Frida Kahlo's aura, with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird

2009, hand-dyed, hand-stitched cotton, 24 1/4" x 18 1/2"

Installation photo of Pulse 2006 (a group show) at 1708 Gallery in Richmond, VA

4. Jimmy McBride. His quilts are relatively new to me but I am so excited about what he's doing (so are Dwell Magazine and Apartment Therapy). Posing as a space traveling trucker, Jimmy makes quilts based on actual photos of space. All of his fabric comes from thrift stores. He also has a blog where you can see photos of his process. Pretty amazing.

R136 in 30 Doradus

77" x 78" hand made and machine quilted

M64

45" x 60" child's quilt

5. Denyse Schmidt. I secretly want to be Denyse Schmidt when I grow up. Unfortunately, I think I'm already grown up and clearly not her. Denyse designs and makes functional quilts (rather than quilts for the wall). She has an excellent book, designs her own line of fabric, and has three different lines of quilts: Couture quilts (hand quilted by Amish women), Works quilts (machine quilted), and Denyse Schmidt for Sarita Handa (she designs the quilts and they are made in India - this is her most affordable line). I actually like some of the Sarita Handa and Works quilts the best.

Works Special Edition (Tangerine/Poppy)

Denyse Schmidt for Sarita Handa

What a Dish

Yay for Quilts!

I'm stuck, yo.

2010-03-18T17:11:00.000-05:00

The crocuses (croci?) in my yard think it's spring.

Hey Friends. I have the spring break anxiety, which is a lot like winter break anxiety and slightly not as bad as summer break anxiety. It goes like this -
Kim: "I have so much time to get stuff done."
Bad influence Kim: "You better not waste your time. You're wasting your time."
Kim: "But I have a whole week. Think about everything I could do in one week."
Bad influence Kim: "The week will go really fast. Plus, you're on spring break. Enjoy it."
Kim: "Oh, but I have so much time to work in my studio."
Bad influence Kim: "Wouldn't you rather just watch Lost on the interweb?"
Kim: "I guess one episode wouldn't hurt..."
Yikes!

So I made myself go to studio today and printed some fabric. I'm still stuck, but at least I got in some good practice with my new registration t-bar.

Rabbit print in progress. That's my t-bar there. It took me about 2 hours to make it yesterday because I had some power saw anxiety and couldn't find the drill bits. Plus, I was going to have the wood cut at Lowe's but someone had sawed through their power cord. Blerg.

Finished rabbit print. These little guys are in half-drop formation. After printing, I thought "those rabbits should be closer together, like a herd." So I re-measured and made this:

Poor little things are butt sniffers. After the first one was printed sniffing his friend's butt I considered stopping and starting over. I'm not really sure why I kept going. Next time I'll measure better.

I also printed this fabric today:

This was a practice for using hand cut stencils and multi-colored printing. This fabric is also not perfect but in this case the measuring was fine, it was faulty labeling. Kim! Pay attention!

Spring Break Madness

2010-03-17T17:42:00.000-05:00

Yay for Spring Break and not getting enough done. This post is not even remotely quilt related, but the task took enough brain power to be worth about 1/2 a quilt.

Ages ago I saw a post on Apartment Therapy that was closet doors painted in a trellis pattern. I've been thinking about that pattern ever since we bought our house and trying to figure out where to put it. The entry way won out over the bathroom or dining room. With my mom as assistant, we went for it:

This is our entry before. It wasn't a bad entry, just not too exciting.

9" x 12" template + pencil + razor blade + level + almost two packages of frog tape =

a beautifully taped entry.

It felt like we should have been done at this point...but no.

Painting is fun! This was the quickest step, only taking about 30 minutes per coat of paint.

Peeling tape is so satisfying. It's like peeling badly sunburned skin (which I know way too much about unfortunately). This task could not have happened without the instructions and pictures over at Modern Homebody. Overall, I'm pretty happy with it. I think it's definitely a busy pattern, but being on only one wall in a room we can't see from anywhere else in the house makes it perfect.

Josef Albers is my sunshine

2010-02-15T20:26:00.000-06:00

This week I wrapped up Project 1: Color with my students at KCAI. The assignment that I give them is to find color inspiration in photographs, choose 5 paint chips to represent the overall color scheme of each photograph, and then dye fabric to match the paint chips. Then they have to synthesize all of that information and figure out how to present it. It always re-ignites my excitement for color. It also makes me remember that it's okay to be a nerd about something. I'm a nerd for Josef Albers and wanted to share the love.

These are some of my favorite Albers paintings. They are a revelation. Normally when I think of Albers' work, I picture the square inside a square.

Though the overall compositions of these paintings are all pretty similar, they each have so much personality. I think it's because the two smallest rectangles look like eyes, or windows in a house.

I'm thinking about doing a series of quilts based on these paintings. They would make beautiful crib quilts. Sometimes it's nice to work on something very formal and traditional as a counterbalance to the personal/creepy/rabbit quilts.

This one reminds me of fried eggs and hashbrowns. Maybe that's only because I filled up on delicious diner breakfasts this weekend (thanks to Kathryn, Town Topic, and Cascone's Grill)

Pretending to be a designer

2010-02-05T10:09:00.004-06:00

They Seek, 2010

Every once in a while I have fantasies about becoming a famous designer - like Denyse Schmidt, Jonathan Adler, or Lotta Anderson. These episodes usually occur after spending way too much time on Apartment Therapy. In the course of trying to make our home more "us" Simon and I have frequently turned to AT for inspiration. Last weekend, on a whim, I painted a back splash in our kitchen (thanks for the support, Mom). Just this week I decided to make over our staircase. This will involve ripping up the carpet, painting the plywood stairs underneath and applying FLOR tiles to the treads. Simon's big job is turning our awkward, unfinished attic/closet mess into something attractive and usable (with much guidance from my Dad).

I digress. Back to the fantasy at hand. This week I introduced my students at KCAI to our new textile design software, Pointcarre. This re-awakened my secret wish to be a fabulous designer.

Here are some examples of what I'm playing around with:

I like to start with my own work as inspiration. The quilt at the top, "They Seek", was finished over winter break. I zoomed in on different parts of it to create the patterns below.

rabbit spines

heads with eyes - I like the white teeth

mirrored mouths - looks a bit like flying saucers

The first one is my favorite. I want to try some different colorways and scales. I'm thinking of having it printed at Spoonflower. We do have a large format printer at school but honestly, it seems like too much work to format, check color, and print. I would rather pay someone else to do it.

*P.S. - I found my studio keys. Yay! And did I mention it's snowing again?

ITMA day 2 - Pearson

2010-01-27T17:02:00.005-06:00

Blogging is so much harder now that I'm teaching again. I just got around to getting the rest of the pictures off my camera from my North Carolina trip.
On the second day we went to Pearson Furniture Company in High Point, NC. It is an incredible place. We were able to take a tour of the whole plant and see how a piece of furniture is made from start to finish.
Some highlights are below:

Assembled frames waiting to move to the next station.

They do eight way hand-tied springs. Those are some nimble fingers.

Cushions waiting.

Legs!

These are all the patterns for their upholstery.

A pattern being cut out of fabric. There was also a CAD machine that cuts out their solid color fabric, but real people hand cut all of the patterned fabric. Incredible. I can barely make a slipcover.

A row of industrial sewing machines. These ladies were just zipping through the fabric. It was amazing how fast and accurate they were.

All of the expensive fabric was placed behind barbed wire fences that get locked up at night. It was weird. Our tour guide said that they once had fabric with actual gold woven into it. They have also had fabric that costs $300 per yard! That's about $295 more than I'm willing to spend.

I wish I had taken some pictures of finished furniture. We didn't see an actual showroom, so all the furniture was in progress.

ITMA day 1

2010-01-21T21:42:00.005-06:00

I am writing this from High Point, North Carolina. KCAI was invited to bring five students to tour textile mills as part of the International Textile Market Association's Educational Fund. The tour is an excellent opportunity for our students because we don't really teach about the textile industry at KCAI. Some of the other schools that are here, such as SCAD, Philadelphia University, and North Carolina State seem to really focus on industry and preparing their students for practical applications of textiles. We are more interested in the fine art side of Fiber. They are two different animals.

I'm a little bit behind putting pictures up, so I'll start with yesterday. There has been so much to see and absorb! Yesterday we went to Valdese Weavers which is a mill that makes jacquard woven cloth for the home. They have a few of their own lines of cloth and also do custom work for "jobbers". I'm still learning all the lingo.

One of the things I found most interesting at Valdese Weavers is that they dye their own yarn. The white yarn above has been wound from large cones to smaller cones with hollow cores. It is ready to be put in the dye vats. The racks of yarn above have been dyed and are drying. It's amazing that they can get such perfect, even color every time. I struggle to do that on a skein of sock yarn (like 1/100th of one of those cones).

Above is one row of their yarn storage. There were probably about 5 rows and they are stacked floor to ceiling with yarn. Amazing. The other picture above is the yarn being wound to get ready to weave.

Above are two pictures of Jacquard looms in action. The first is a view from the back. The red yarn below is the warp. The second picture is of a "blanket" being woven. A "blanket" is not a fuzzy thing to keep you warm. It is basically a sampler - one pattern woven with multiple warp and fill colors to get many variations. I love these. If I worked in Industry I would only make blankets and I would cover things in them.

This last picture is a design wall. They briefly talked to us about designing and what goes into it. I was amazed by how complex every step is and how intertwined everything is. This was my second year on the tour and even though I'm totally amazed by the things I saw, I don't think the textile industry is for me. Let's hope this academia thing works out!

We also went to a gorgeous design house in Charlotte owned and run by Wesley Mancini. I am uber tired so will post pictures of that tomorrow.

Day of Business

2010-01-15T15:08:00.003-06:00

Today is a big day full of biz-ness. I really dislike business days and have to get through them by tricking myself. Today I'm doing task and reward. This is how it works: if I do 1 hour of task/business, I get to watch one episode of Heroes on Hulu. It works pretty well.

The business that I'm working on is updating my website, resume, spreadsheet, and all my digital files! Thanks to my friend Steve Curtis, who has a studio upstairs from me, I have new pictures to post on my website. He did a fantastic job. The colors came out perfect and they are such high quality images. I'm really pleased! I've also changed up the layout a little. So run over there and check it out!
Here is a teaser:

They Gnaw, 2009

I'm also getting ready for a trip to North Carolina next week. I'm taking five students from KCAI on a tour of textile mills. The tour is hosted by the International Textile Market Association. Each year they invite 30 students from Fiber/Textile programs to go to North Carolina and see first hand how the textile industry works. Primarily the tour in NC focuses on textiles for furniture. It's all very interesting and really made me realize I'm not cut out for "industry".

I'll be posting pictures of the trip next week. Stay tuned.

Wonder Under is for friends

2010-01-13T20:56:00.003-06:00

I just finished doing yoga* and realized I hadn't written a blog post yet today and there's much to report. Things are really coming along but I feel like this quilt is going a little too smoothly. It worries me a bit. It seems like whenever I have an easy quilt the next one is painfully slow and has to go through many transformations. Better gear up now.

I started the day by printing yellow eyes onto some yellow silk organza that I had great plans for months ago (they fell through). I used the same yellow aqua brite pigment that I used to print some of the rabbit heads and half of the spine. I always keep my leftover pigment colors just in case. They don't go bad if you store them in a closed container, like an empty yogurt bin. Silk organza is lovely and crisp and sheer. You can just barely see it in these pictures with my busy/dirty drop cloth showing through. One of the interesting things about organza is that when you print on it, the image soaks through so you're basically getting two for the price of one. You can see that on the second picture where I've scooted the organza up after printing and the eyes are on the drop cloth.

Then, I ironed wonder under to the back of the organza and cut out all the little eyes with my x-acto. I think I ended up with about 40 of them. What's better than a pile of eyes?

Here they are laid out on the quilt, pre-peeling and pre-ironing. I keep coming back to this halo idea in these quilts. I'm not even a little bit religious, but I keep getting the feeling that these rabbits need to be revered and I want to put them in halos like they're gods or saints.

So here is the quilt as I left it this afternoon. I painted on some reddish brown pigment to darken the background around the halo. The pigment needs to cure for about 24 hours and tomorrow I will need to heat set it. I'm planning quite a lot of hand embroidery on this one. So maybe tomorrow I can also start getting this bad boy ready for quilting. We'll see.

*by "yoga" I mean "yoga booty ballet" that I got from the library. It's bastardized yoga and I was embarrassed to check it out but I do like all the talk about being "supple" and my "muscular booty". I'm also pretty sure it's not OK for a grown woman to say "booty" unless she's talking about the delicious snack called "pirates booty".

Inching along

2010-01-12T20:45:00.006-06:00

Not to complain or make excuses or anything but a lot has happened in the last 6 days. Mostly to appease my own guilt for not being in the studio (and not blogging about being in the studio) I'm going to list the events here:
1. There was another snowstorm.
2. Simon and I got in a car accident as result of said snowstorm (we were on our way to buy a new shovel and got rear-ended (everyone is fine)).
3. Our ceiling (our new ceiling in our new house) decided to leak because of all the snow buildup.
4. It has been colder than a you know what.
5. I'm still on winter break. Ok, so that's not a very good excuse. I'm starting to have that anxiety where you feel like you're running out of time and still have so much to do, but there's not enough time so you might as well not bother, so you don't do anything which makes you feel even more like you're running out of time. It's a vicious cycle and seems counter-intuitive to have winter break anxiety, but there you have it. It's even worse in the summer.

So finally today I was back in my studio. What did I work on? A big mathy measuring party called Depth of Shade Dyeing. It's my favorite. I dyed the cyclone-tastic spine fabric from last week and some leftover patchwork fabric from my last quilt.

Depth of shade is a way to dye fabric using specific ratios of weight of fabric to weight of dye. I only started using this method about a year ago and it is slowly but surely changing my life. It sounds complicated and sort of is at first, but once you get it everything goes so much smoother. The best part is that much less dye is wasted than using regular kitchen measurements for dyeing.

I primarily use procion MX dyes, which are a fiber reactive dye, and cellulose fibers (cotton).

Step 1. Weigh your dry fabric. You can use grams or ounces. It doesn't really matter what you use as long as you're consistent. My pieces of fabric are usually smallish (a yard or less) so I use grams for more accuracy.

Step 2. Write down how much the fabric weighs. All calculations are based on this weight.
This is how I write it:
WOF (weight of fabric): 87g
DOS (depth of shade): 8% (you choose this. normally 8% is pretty dark, 1% is pretty light, 3% or 5% are good medium values)
H20: 20 x WOF = 20 x 87g = 1740ml (approx. 1.75 liters)
Salt: .5 x WOF = .5 x 87 = 43.5 g
Soda Ash: .09 x WOF = .09 x 87 = 7.83 g
Dye: .08 (8%) x WOF = .08 x 87 = 6.96

That's it. Those are your measurements. From there I usually convert to cups or teaspoons for easier measuring. You can see my lovely notes:

Step 3: Soak your fabric in water. Starting with wet fabric allows the fabric to dye more evenly than if it were dry. Sometimes it's ok to start with dry fabric, but only if you want it to look blotchy. Below you can see my two buckets with water. The one on the left is the fabric soaking, the one on the right is plain water that will become the dyebath.

Step 4: The order of the next few steps is up for debate*. My way of doing things is not necessarily the "right" way to do things but it gets the job done and saves a bit of time.

So Step 4a: Add salt to dyebath and stir well.

4b. Dissolve powdered dye in a small amount of water from the dyebath (wear a dustmask and gloves!!! wipe up any spills immediately!!!) and stir until there are no dry clumps of dye floating on the surface of the water. Stir the dissolved dye into the dyebath.

4c. Sprinkle the soda ash on the surface of the dyebath and then stir well. *This is where the debate can occur. All the instructions I've ever read claim that you must add the fabric to the dyebath before adding soda ash. You then stir frequently for 15 minutes, take the fabric out of the dyebath and put into a "holding bucket" and then add the soda ash (which has been dissolved in water first) to the dyebath. Only then can you return the fabric to the dyebath. I understand the merits of this method, but really it all seems like a waste of time and buckets.

4d. Add wet fabric to dyebath and stir well.

Step 5. The fabric needs to stay in the dyebath for about 45 minutes. The more you stir, the more even the dye will be. So I try to stir my fabric every 5 to 10 minutes but usually forget until its been the full 45 minutes. If I'm in a big rush and don't want a dark color, I might take it out after 30 minutes. I've also left fabric in a dyebath over night. No big deal.

Step 6. Wash the fabric out with warm water and synthrapol until the water runs clear. This process takes sooooo long and takes a ton of water. If anyone out there in the interweb knows of a dye that gets good even results on cotton and uses less water please let me know. This is also a time to wear gloves because synthrapol is very concentrated and can be rough on your skin.

Before and after

Before and After again

This is jumping ahead a few steps. The spine fabric turned out a little too dark - the red half was hard to see. So I sprayed thiox around the spine to lighten the green dye. Next, the two pieces of recently dyed fabric were sewn together and the heads from last week were applied to the top.

I think it's moving along...we'll see where it ends up.

I will cut you

2010-01-06T17:33:00.001-06:00

It's snowing. Again. So I was a bum and came home from my studio earlier than anticipated. Yes, I can walk home so snowy roads aren't really an issue. Yes, my studio has heat. No, I don't really have any excuses. I did bring work home to appease my guilty conscience.

This is my scissors family. The big ones on the left have 6" blades. Those are some pretty serious scissors. I've cut myself numerous times with the rotary cutter. As a side note, I find it fun to say things like "hand me a scissor" or "I'm always losing my scissor" instead of the more common "scissors". Scissor is one of those words that sounds messed up if you say it too many times. Try it. (okay, I'm done entertaining myself now). These were my friends today as I wrapped up some loose ends with my quilt in progress:

I forgot to take in progress photos, mostly because I was on auto pilot for most of this, but today I finished the machine quilting on the top half of the quilt. Then pulled all loose threads to the back, tied them off, and trimmed them. I also squared and trimmed up the edges with first the big daddy scissor then the rotary cutter.

Then I stood and stared at the quilt for a while trying to figure out what to do about the binding. I decided on a binding that is hidden in the back, leaving an edge that you could call "full bleed" if you wanted to.

For example:

These are close ups of quilt corners. The one on top has the "full bleed" binding. Basically the binding is sewn on normally, then folded all the way to the back of the quilt and sewn down so it doesn't show on the front. On the bottom is a more traditional binding. Think of it as a border.

After the binding is sewn to the front of the quilt, I use safety pins to secure it to the back so I can hand sew it down without shifting anything. That way it looks nice and tidy and is perfectly secure.

If you can find a cat to help you, everything will go much smoother and more quickly. Especially if said cat has claws.

For the back of this quilt I used white muslin. In the past I've always dyed fabric to use on the back, but lately I've been really interested in how the machine sewn "drawing" looks by itself. I'm thinking about making a whole cloth quilt that is all drawn by sewing machine.

Starting a new quilt is scary/exciting

2010-01-05T15:49:00.008-06:00

My work starts out really ugly. I've known this all along, but people never seem to believe me. A lot of my decisions are based on "what can I do to make this less ugly?" Now there is proof. Ugly, ugly proof. Even though I cringe inside when I think about putting the following pictures up, it is a really good example of how I work.

So. Here we go.
1. I started with a piece of red fabric, about 4' x 6' that had a large spine painted on it in light green. I made this fabric sometime in October or November and then it sat folded up on my shelves because it is hideous.

The fabric was pieced together from a few large scraps I had lying around. The spine is on the other side of the fabric. It was too much, so I decided to ignore it and work with the back side. Sometimes you just have to ignore something that isn't working and move on.

2. I cut a stencil to use on my last quilt that I'm still excited about. Here it is:

It's already taped onto my silkscreen. I'm not very good at planning, so the only way it would fit on the screen is to angle it and then fill in the open spaces with paper (so no ink leaks through the screen). It looks janky but it works.

Getting ready to print. I'm using Aqua Brite textile pigments for this. The fabric stays soft and you can play with how wash-fast they are. Sometimes I like to wash them out of the fabric without heat setting for a worn look.

A couple of heads printed in a loose repeat. I wasn't too concerned with the spacing on this.

Mirrored heads. If you look close, the eye on the yellow one looks wonky. I forgot to put the little eye stencil back on the screen after washing it so I had to improvise.

3. The fabric isn't doing much for me, but I do like the printed heads.

Here they are cut out. I ironed wonder under to the back of the fabric and then used my new x-acto knife to cut them out (thanks Messmers!) I like them overlapped better - like Siamese twins.

4. The Siamese twins need a body. I have a quilt that is nearly done with the same heads and each head has a different skeleton. One has a human skeleton and the other has a rabbit skeleton. These Siamese heads are going to share one human skeleton. It's time to cut another stencil.

This is the stencil drawn out in thick sharpie, then cut out with an x-acto. It's a good idea to tape delicate areas before cutting to add strength to the stencil. For this one, I used butcher paper. It's cheap and comes on a roll. The downside is that stencils cut from butcher paper don't last very long. So today I ordered some Tyvek from ebay. Most likely I will jump up and down when it arrives.

5. Ok. This next picture is so ugly. Maybe if I hadn't graduated from Iowa State (cardinal and gold) I wouldn't think so. But seriously. It looks like it was airbrushed in Gatlinburg. I'm not too worried, though. I have a plan.

Will it get resolved??!?!? It seems likely. Check back tomorrow for an update.

Key fiasco update

2010-01-04T17:03:00.006-06:00

My key situation is fixed for now. I was able to borrow the spare key from my landlord and bought a new lock so we could each have a copy of the key. I'm going to worry about my work keys later...

My studio is now clean! I spent most yesterday afternoon cleaning and organizing. It's not pretty, but now it's functional.

Before:

Ooh, I'm not so sure it was a good idea to post these. Who knew I was so messy?

After:

My padded print table, trusty Kenmore sewing machine, and a quilt in progress on the right.

I set up a new work station for my computer. Before it had to share a table with the sewing machine.

For now I'm ignoring all the stuff under the table. My fabric scraps are multiplying like rabbits.

It's amazing how good it feels to walk into a clean studio. I need to remember this feeling and routinely pick up after myself to prolong it.

Good intentions vs. Bad Luck

2010-01-04T10:26:00.008-06:00

I had such good intentions for today. This was the plan: go to studio early, clean and organize studio thoroughly, begin percentage dye color samples for new round of quilts, make sketches/plans for new round of quilts, make steps towards finishing current rabbit quilt, take pictures, post on blog, tidy up studio before leaving.

Instead, this is what happened: search whole house frantically for studio keys, search car, search snow around car, search snow on parking area, steps, sidewalk, and around front door. No keys. I called my landlord to see if I could borrow the extra key to get in, but there was no answer. Begged Simon to search his office and car (I still suspect he is to blame because it's easy to blame him for losing things) but haven't heard back yet. Considered getting hack saw out of garden shed and cutting lock off, but decided that was a bit extreme. Searched whole house again, even basement.

So I guess the studio will have to wait. On to plan B. I'm off to Lowe's to get as many paint chips as I can. Then will begin color studies on paper.