Changing Hues

This is another piece finished for our upcoming Arboretum show in April. I started with a piece of fabric I "blotchy" dyed. This is the back of it. 

I often used this dye application technique when I did a lot of appliqué. By laying clear templates over the different areas of color, you could create some wonderful shading and color movements.

On this particular piece, I laid down different widths of masking tape and marbled it. Marbling is a fast process, not giving the tape time to fall off. After the piece was hand rinsed from the marbling process, the tape was removed revealing lines with lots of colors and movement.

I then layered and quilted it using free motion stitching; I followed the lines of the marbling which was a tradional wave pattern.

I knew I wanted to add something to the top but felt it had to be sheer to allow the marbling to show through. Organza is always high on my list - it takes a paint well, is crisp and holds it shape and easy to work with.

I used Dye na Flow which works on all fibers. It's the consistency of water and therefore somewhat transparent. I wanted to pick up the colors in the marbled fabric so I used yellow and orange.

After it had dried, I screened a leaf on top...many leaves actually.

I made the screen in several different sizes to have a nice variety to work with.

I tried to pick up several different colors in the leaves by careful placement of the screen.

I cut the leaves out (after drying), close to but not on the edge.

I went back with a woodburning tool and burned the edges. It is easier than cutting as organza being so thin, burns down quickly.

I scattered the leaves on the top; using a monofilament I stitched down the center and sides of each leaf so they could move and appear to be floating.

I binded it with a red hand-dyed fabric and here is the finished piece. You can see where the sheer leaves are present but still allow the background to show through. This was a fun piece to make.