foundation pieced circles

A diary 

I worked on this blue piece for nearly 3 weeks.  The plan was to make a circle from triangles. Foundation piecing gave me security.  Drawing the shapes onto a base cloth and then using the stitch and flip method gave me freedom.  Sharing here with humbleness. 

Feb 22:  First I pinned a cotton sheet to my pin-wall that would be my master life-sized drawing. Using a washable marker, I traced around a circular tablecloth. This is the size I want my finished circle to be.  

Then I cut out tissue paper triangles intuitively. I made enough tissue paper triangles to go around the diameter of the circle and pinned them to the wall. The short fat triangles on the left were the size I used.     

Feb 24:  I had been hoarding this dotted fabric and was excited to use it. The triangles were cut out one at a time and pinned to the wall.  It took a couple of days just to cut and pin.  

Feb 25:  Once I had all the outer triangles cut and pinned to the wall, it was time to cut fabrics for the narrower inside triangles that would be used to join them together.  I had to make a decision about whether to use more dotted fabric for the inner triangles or use contrasting fabric.  I made more tissue paper patterns.  I looked.  I made decisions. 

Feb 28:  I sewed all the triangles by hand and was able to create a complete circle.  As I sewed two together, I pinned them to the wall and continued looking and considering.  

March 1:  I moved everything onto the table.  

March 1:  With a washable marker I began to fill in the circle.  My idea is to use concentric rings of triangles and work my way to the centre.  The first ring is three inches wide.  

I traced along the inside edge of the sewn triangles and then a second line 3 inches in.  Within those two lines, I drew triangles to fit the curve.  I did not measure these triangles, but trusted my intuition.  All drawing was directly onto the bedsheet.

March 2:  Using a separate piece of cotton gauze fabric, I traced the triangles.  This is my foundation pattern. Use a lightweight see-through fabric for your foundation cloth.   (The gauze I use is available here .) 

March 2:  Stitch and flip through the drawn lines on the foundation fabric. I made four curved gauze patterns with the traced triangles on them.  

To guide my cutting and to be frugal with my hoarded dotted cloth, I made tissue paper patterns for the triangles.  A fatter -based one for the outer triangle and a thinner -based one for the inner triangle.   

March 4:  I was soon able to sew the inner curve to the outer curve.  (by hand of course)

March 6:  The two outer rings of a large circle are now pieced.  I might continue making foundation rings of triangles and work my way to the centre.  I'm not sure anymore.  

I was so happy creating this, but the amount of activity in the white dots on the blue base challenges my pared down aesthetic.  I’m putting it aside to steep for a while.  

Rowland Ricketts in Toronto

 I spent Sunday with Rowland Ricketts.

 He was in Toronto for five days and the last day was a master class.

The images in this post show his work with stitch resist (above) and rice paste resist (below)

Click here to read Rowland's inspiring story.

Rowland's wife Chimani, wove the 13 metres of 14" wide cotton kimono cloth shown above.
He dyed it with stitch resist.

We learned some of his techniques for stitch resist during the workshop.
Rowland Ricketts is pictured above in front of my stitch resist learning sample

Rowland's teaching sample with the studio's irons

The smell of an indigo vat just as it begins fermenting and springs to life is one of ripeness, a moment of rich potentiality when, as a maker, I momentarily stand between the history of the materials and processes that helped me get the indigo thus far and the promise of all the work that the vat is still yet to realize.  Rowland Ricketts 

I am aware of a connection that leads not just from my teachers to me, but one that reaches back to my teacher's teachers and the people they learned from, back into a past in which the processes I uses were developed through the accumulated experiences of all who have ever worked with this unique dye.   Rowland Ricketts. 

dyeing for beauty

 beauty crowds me till I die

 beauty, mercy have on me

 but if I expire today

let it be in sight of thee

 text by Emily Dickinson

indigo for the wedding

the moon and the stars

"Once I was beset by anxiety.
I couldn't tell right from left.
I could have cried out with terror at being lost.
But I pushed the fear away by studying the sky,
determining where the moon would come out

 where the sun would appear in the morning.

 I saw myself in relation to the stars.

I began weeping and knew I was alright." 
text: Louise Bourgeois
images: new work with indigo and stitch

To the Lighthouse

My mother's favourite novel was To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf. I listened to it this week while doing these dye processes. There it was - her picture. Yes, with all its greens and blues, its lines running up and across, its attempt at something. It would be hung in the attic, she thought; it would be destroyed. But what did that matter? With a sudden intensity,
as if she saw it clear for a second, she drew a line there, in the centre.It was done; It was finished. Yes, she thought, laying down her brush in extreme fatigue,
I have had my vision.

(from the last paragraph of To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf)

wonky log cabin

indigo dyed silk, linen, wool, velvet, rayon, cotton, and hemp, hand pieced on 10" muslin square Log cabin is made by sewing strips in a spiral manner around a central square. A stitch and flip block, it has been used creatively for ages. I make log cabin on foundation fabric of uniform size, handy when it comes to joining blocks together. The pencil lines remind me to be wonky within that limitation. The playful hand painted bowl in the photo is a gift from Grace, brought back from Turkey for us. I've started the process of dipping and oxidizing the rye paste resisted fabrics in indigo - shall keep you posted on the results.