Update on heart stitchings

I'm trying to finish my heart pieces before Jude's next whispering class begins.
                                               
                                                          BEATING HEARTS

this just needs a backing. it was fun to stitch but it's a bit eery to me.

close-up

still working on red and white heart piece. couldn't get the deep red color with the camera.

                                               

The latest in dyeing and stitching...

I'm working on several things at once --- I know, so what else is new--- and was inspired by a fellow SEW clothmate to work in red. I've also been stitching on some of the cloth from the wrapt tree project that will be used on a small child's rocker. The image is from the Nazca Lines in Peru. Encountered something strange with the arashi shibori this week. A section of silk organza would not pick up any dye. The organza is the same I used last week and has been washed and soaked before dyeing. It's almost as if spots of the organza is coated in something that is impenetrable. Anybody else ever encounter this? Here are a few pics.

arashi shibori bound with fine linen thread. white spots resisted dye.

cloth from wrapt tree project stitched with Nazca Line hummingbird

a peek at a red heart grid inspired by a clothmate on SEW

A Little Bit of This and That...

I'm still playing with hearts along with all my fellow heart whisperers led by Jude. And Shibori class with Glennis is still in progress so there's a lot there to experiment with. I've been all over the place the past couple of days going from one project to another as you can see.

follow your heart

shibori hearts on shibori cotton dyed with onion skins

an attempt at a shibori tree on batting with onion skins

arashi shibori on tea bags

Arashi Shibori

We learned a new shibori technique this week in Glennis' online class. I've started small to make some samples and to get the feel of what works. I'm using a pipe-like thingy that is 6" in length and 1" in diameter as well as an old fashioned wooden clothespin. Here are some pictures with descriptions to give you an idea of how this works. There are several good videos on you-tube if you want to see how the cloth is wrapped around the pipe. Feel free to ask any questions you might have. For those of you who like to get real close-up, after you click on the picture, you can get closer by holding down the ctrl key and tapping on the + sign on your keyboard.

left shows how it looks as it's taken off of the pipe and the right is after drying and ironing. 

I wrapped some silk around a clothespin and put it in a pot of simmering onion skins.

only the top layer picked up the color

here you can see some silk organza wrapped around the pipe and the results.

I hope to get better results as I continue experimenting.