Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Ugliest of the Uglies Update

Well have been slowly stepping away from my marbling size and doing other things the past few days! I still have some definitely throwaway fabric that I am experimenting with. Some are coming out better than others! There are some that even marbling can't save!! It is a good lesson in making "complex" cloth though as I try to do some matching of the overpattern with the patterned fabric that it is covering so that it becomes more interesting. Many of these pieces were literally practice and test pieces in various Elin Noble and Ann Johnston workships -- trying multiple techniques on one piece of cloth with the intention of never using it! Some I had tried to retrieve by overdyeing but to no avail!

Today was an adventure driving down back country roads trying to find a quick way to get to the new Quilting By The Lake Location slightly west of Syracuse. It will be quicker than Morrisville -- have to make my reservations to do on the tours the next two Thursdays!

Anyway, these were the four best from today. The first one above had kind of a pattern of needlepoint canvas in the middle and was the ugliest color of purple/green. That is my favorite from today's bunch.


This was the ugliest to start with. It had the black squiggly lines and a lot of black dots of dye all over it with some disgusting muddy colors. It isn't great but it most definitely improved and I think the curvy lines of the marbling really complement the black squiggles.




This was an attempted stripe over miscelaneous dyed rectangles all done with various types of stamps. Each stamp was somewhat interesting but nothing went together as it was totally a try of different techniques. It is a little better but could have used a darker marble.



This was whites and browns and yellows on black fabric. I feel like I can never go wrong doing anything over the black fabric. This is a pretty closely woven broadcloth and does take the marble extremely well. I have found these pieces to be extremely useful in making my birds.

4 comments:

  1. Love that red piece, Beth! I know just what you mean about trying to save the uglies. Story of my life and sometimes they just have to be sliced up or (gasp!) thrown out.

    But it's fun trying!

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  2. You call them "uglies", but to date I really haven't seen one. Must be the "eyes of the beholder". Would love to see something you have made with these marbles!

    Hugs!

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  3. These pieces are gorgeous! I especially love the red piece, it has great depth.

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  4. You've got some fabulous results here. I like most of them.

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