Solar dyed wool fiber for spinning or felting or Trapped Fiber

If you have friended me on Crackbook, you are aware that I have been consumed with the heat index in my neck of the woods.  It has been over 100 for almost 2 weeks, and I am one cranky grouch!

Always one to see the silver lining (HA!) I decided to use the wall of heat outside my door, and try my hand at solar dyeing.  When dyeing protein fibers, like wool, you need an acid dye (this just means that with the specific acid dye powders, you use vinegar instead of soda ash, to change the pH.)  Plus you need a heat source.  Got that, and plenty of it.

Here are the results of solar dyeing, in jars (the fiber is CVM– from California Variegated Mutant sheep.  Oh yeah!):

Di Liberta, a collaged fabric face

Lately, I’ve been reading a lot of books dealing with disenfranchised women.  Free speech is a powerful freedom, and without it, life becomes harsh and dangerous.

With this weighing on my mind, not to mention in my studio (I’m working on a large wall hanging that seems to be about the lack of free speech… although it started out as a light-hearted exercise in color) I thought I’d take a break, shake out the heavy thoughts, and re-fashion a fun tee shirt to make me giggle:

Um.  Not giggling yet.  Love it, but Susan?  It’s another woman without free speech.  Notice the “X” over her mouth?

Fish almost always represent freedom or flight to me, so in this context, I’m pretty sure the flying fish represents her thoughts flying free, even as her words are locked away.

wool for weaving with your sewing machine

I can hear what you’re muttering to your computer screen: What the heck is she up to now, showing us photos of her laundry??

No, not my laundry. Remember the wool Wild Onion Jacket I posted? Look closely at the photo; everything drying is a sweater. But, before you smirk and think it’s going to be another wool Wild Onion Jacket, let me tell you– nope! I’m about to slice, weave, and quilt.

And if you want to know more, well, maybe I’ll give you a sneak peek, or maybe you want to go ahead and sign up for Weaving with your sewing machine at the Quilting with Machines show in October, in Ohio!

Aren’t I so mysterious?!!

wool felt Wild Onion Jacket

I’m scheduled for a Wild Onion Jacket Fashion Show at Quilting with Machines, and I promise it’s going to be a doozy of a show!  I’ve been working diligently on some new Wild Onion Jackets– I have so many ideas  for interesting jackets, and this show has given me the excuse to get in my studio and create!

Here’s a sneak peek at a Wild Onion Jacket made with felted wool sweaters:

I’ve got a lot more jackets that y’all have never seen… come to Ohio and take a seat!  Back to the studio, to caucus with some Hawaiian prints.  Make it work!

New website

Wild Onion Studio has a new and vastly improved website, designed by Holly Knott.

If you ever visited the old website, I apologize for the ensuing headache from the ugly over there… it was the best I could do on my own.

Now, I have pretty!  I have pictures!  I have links, buttons, and a shopping cart!

Thank you a million times to the patient and talented Holly.

Burning Man Wild Onion Coat

It’s Burning Man day at the Wild Onion house.  Preparation for DH’s annual adventure begins right after his track season ends (plea for sympathy:  there are 2 seasons in my house:  Track and Burning Man.)

DH and his BM buddies set up their “camp”, which is  a white geodesic dome flanked by 2 side extensions, and unpack all of their supplies in our backyard prior to packing their truck.  This is smart on their part, because they avoid any nasty surprises once they hit the desert where there are no supplies.  It makes for an interesting backyard:

The interior of the dome is for sleeping and clothing storage.  The “living room” is to the right.  There are layers of oriental carpets on the “floor”, red brocade curtains layered on the “walls”, Moorish lanterns hanging, and piles of velvet and brocade pillows for lounging.

If you know anyone who goes to Burning Man, ask them if they know the Pancake Man– that’s DH. Every year, he brings a grill and makes pancakes to hand out in the morning.  He makes over 1,200 by the end of the week!   Yum!

Everyone at Burning Man wears wild outfits.  Since it’s cold at night in the desert, I decided to surprise DH with a special coat.  Here’s hoping he’s the Belle of the Ball:

This is a longer version of the Wild Onion Jacket!  I modified it in length, and added a stand up collar, to give it a Mad Max-look.  It is quilted and lined, with one hand carved wooden button to close the front against the wind.

I am continually amazed that I created such a great pattern (if I do say so myself).  Can you believe that I could make a man’s coat with the Wild Onion Jacket pattern?!  Excuse me while I pat myself on the back!

I have been collecting African waxcloth fabric for several years.  Michele T. brought me some aboriginal fabric from Australia when she visited a few summers ago.  The colors and patterns mixed well together, and I’m very pleased with the result.

Here’s the back:

I know!  It’s beautiful!  No, I didn’t applique that tree; it was a wall hanging I bought at a store in Santa Barbara, with the idea of using it in a jacket.  I was astonished at how well the colors and the size  of the wall hanging meshed with the other fabrics of the Burning Man coat!  Wait, now I have to pat me on my back again!!

Tomorrow is dye day!  Check back for some more eye candy in a few days!  Although, it’s supposed to be really really hot here– so the photos might also contain melting artists…

A short week

This week zoomed by in a flurry of sewing, school, and computering!

It’s hot here (105 yesterday, 108 today.  But it’s a dry heat.  And you know, they say it’s not the heat, it’s the humidity.  Right.)  I’ve been getting up early to catch the cooler hours in my studio.  I’ve been creating a memory quilt for a customer– I’ll share photos soon!

School started, which means my day is now quieter but broken up with children’s neeeeeds.  I neeeeeed you to pick me up.  I neeeeeeed more pencils.  Check me later, bub, Mommy neeeeeeeds a glass of wine.  Not whine.

And all the computering?  That’s the grande finale of the summertime’s computer project– a brand new website, courtesy of the patient and kind (if she’s laughing at me, I can’t tell!  helps that she’s on the other coast) Holly Knott.  All will be revealed sooner rather than later— it looks fantastic, so far!

Check back tomorrow, when I post photos of the craziness that will happen this weekend chez Wild Onion:  Burning Man departure and another dye day!

Quilting with Machines show

I am teaching several of my techniques at the Quilting with Machines show in Ohio in October!

I have listed the classes I’m teaching, with descriptions and yummy photos on this blog. If you click on the “Quilting with Machines classes” title on top of the header (the pretty green fiber up at the top of the page!) that link will take you to the page with my classes.

I love to teach, and I’m really looking forward to this wonderful conference. I’ve heard so many good things about it… and the best part for me, aside from getting to share my techniques, will be meeting some online friends! Will I get to meet you? I sure hope so!!

Bamboo

• I have lots of bamboo growing at the edge of my property.
• I love the look of bamboo plants painted or stenciled or otherwise stylized on fabric.
• I respect bamboo as a strong reed, readily available to nations needing a plentiful, inexpensive, renewable source for building.

I do not support bamboo as a source for fibers.  Why not?  Bamboo has a wonderful hand, soft and smooth and silky.  But bamboo has been erroneously touted as the next green alternative fiber.  I have long felt a sense of green-washing going on, and therein lies my objection.

Bamboo fibers are no more “green” than (non-organic) cotton, or rayon, or Tencel, or wool.  In fact, bamboo is less “green” than organic cotton, or Tencel (lyocell), and many wool sources.  In fact, Tencel (lyocell) is created using a closed-loop process that is very environmentally sensitive.

Bamboo fibers have to be extruded, altered with a  chemical slurry, in a rayon process.  Most commercial processing takes place in China, where environmental concerns are not top priority, and much chemical dumping creates toxic waste.  With a rise in demand for bamboo fiber, bamboo is being planted and farmed, with land being deforested and plants becoming a commercialized business.

Here is a link to more information.  If you want to skip the top part of the article, I urge you to scroll to the “examples of questionable claims” , where many interesting facts regarding bamboo and the green-washing claims are discredited factually.

I am not saying that I would never use bamboo fibers.  Rather, what I object to is the green-washing claims surrounding bamboo.  Choose to use the fiber based on the hand of the fiber; do not choose to use the fiber thinking that you are doing something good for the Earth!

All opinions are, of course, my own.  You have the right to disagree with me, and you won’t hurt my feelings by doing so.  My family does so all the time!

weaving with fabric and a sewing machine

I’ve never really gotten the hang of using a traditional weaving loom.  I always get mixed up with my thread paths, and before I can figure out how to get a rhythm going, I get bored and move on to something else.

However, I have discovered that weaving with your sewing machine is the bomb!!  I love this technique so much– I’ve been working with it for almost a year, and I’m doing all kinds of interesting things.  Once I finish one project, I have ideas for several more, and off I go!

I will be teaching the technique at Quilting with Machines, in Ohio this October.  I will be sharing tips, techniques, and enthusiasm– and plenty of samples, samples, samples!  Won’t you join me?  I’d  love to get you all addicted to more fibery ways!! (evil grin!)