Group collaboration: a Story in Collage and Stitch

In a recent textile workshop, Bringing out the Best: Visually Telling our Stories in Collage and Stitch, with artist and instructor, Merrill Comeau, I had the opportunity to collaborate with three other artists to create a textile collage. 

Collaborative textile collage project in progress.

My fellow collaborators were Michelle, Susan, and Rae, and our group’s theme was “Spring.”  The “visual thinking strategy” exercises in which all workshop attendees participated, generated lists of words, phrases, emotions, memories, shapes, and colors—both symbolically and literally—that were reflective of each of the four seasons. 

Work in progress: a mandala representing Spring.
36” x 36”

This group collaboration project came home with me. The piece is approximately 36” x 36”. I have backed it with a tear-away stabilizer and am in the process of auditioning threads in preparation for free-motion machine appliqué. 

Auditioning threads for free-motion appliqué.

The seasons in collage

Other workshop groups created collages representing the Summer, Fall, and Winter seasons.

Textile collage: Summer

Textile collage: Fall

Textile collage: Winter

For now, I’m undecided about whether our piece should be quilted or not. I’m sure, however, the piece will speak to me at some point to tell me what it needs/wants.

Slowing down in a surface design and hand stitching workshop with Arounna Khounnoraj

Creating an imagined landscape with natural dyes, fabric painting and slow stitching… a time to travel in place.

Painted and printed fabrics dyed with natural dyes.

I had a most enjoyable experience taking a workshop with Arounna Khounnoraj [Bookhou] and several artists and friends at Shakerag Workshops. The Imagined Landscapes workshop—comprised of mark making, surface design, natural dyeing, and lots of hand stitching—was a slow, more intentional, and much needed change of pace.

Surface design

In the Imagined Landscapes workshop, participants made marks on fabric with brushes, textile paint, and a soy milk mordant.

Painting with textile paint.

I got to experiment printing with a wood block that a friend gave me earlier this year. I printed on a commercial batik fabric as well as an unbleached cloth.

Block printing on a batik fabric.

It took a little time and concentration to line up the block with each printing so the overall pattern would be preserved.

Block printing repeat.

After mark making with paint and mordants, the fabrics were dyed with natural dyes. Most of the dyes required a heat process to set the color while the indigo dye pot did not.

The natural dye pots included madder, marigold, onion skins, avocado, iron, and indigo.

Beautiful flowers on the indigo vat.

The dyes revealed beautiful shades of rosy red, yellows, light beige, greys, and blues on cellulose fabrics.

Cotton fabrics dyed with natural dyes.
From left: marigold; onion skin overdyed in indigo; madder; avocado; indigo.

Hand embroidered linens that I picked up at a local thrift shop were overdyed.

Embroidered linens (center and lower right) from a thrift shop
were overdyed in onion skins and indigo.

The imagined landscapes

The landscape compositions were created from the hand dyed fabrics that were basted and then appliquuéd to the quilt sandwich. 

Composition layout with basting.

I usually appliqué shapes onto the quilt top (prior to basting a quilt sandwish), however Arounna, our instructor, likes to see the stitching on the back side of her work. This was an interesting concept to me so I decided to try this method. It was a way to appliqué and quilt in a single process. Some of the fabric edges were turned under and some were left raw and frayed. I think my imagined landscape benefited from both. 

Raw edges and turned edges for appliqué pieces. The appliqué was done through all layers
of the quilt sandwich. Most of the knots were buried in the batting layer.

An imagined landscape (work in progress).

One of my fellow students, Roz, suggested I keep the outer borders of the composition freeform (not finished the perimeter with a binding or facing). I decided to take this route and I plan to finish the piece by mounting it on a frame or a stretched canvas.

Hand stitching and inspiration

Stitching inspiration came from teacher demonstrations, group conversations, and suggestions from fellow students. We had quite a group of experienced and creative textile artists in the workshop! As an advocate for slow stitching and visible mending, Arounna discussed and demonstrated embroidery and mending stitches as well as how she does hand piecing.

Arounna demonstrating hand piecing.

The “baseball” stitch is good for mending tears on garments.

Origami triangle pouch

With scraps and small leftover bits that were too precious to toss, some of the students created small origami treasure pouches. 

Triangle treasure pouch.

The pouches are a bit like fabric origami. So cute!

Origami fabric pouch.

Arounna is a wonderful teacher and a prolific author. She has published five books thus far and teaches workshops internationally. If you ever have the opportunity, take a workshop with her! Or pick up one of her books (I have her Punch Needle and Contemporary Patchwork books) and enjoy the slow stitching process.

Screen printing, natural dyes, and the Summer Solstice

This past Wednesday, June 21, 2023, was the Summer Solstice. It's the longest day of the year (in the northern hemisphere) with the shortest night. Did you take advantage of all the daylight to do something creative?

Screen printed fabric with natural dyes.

For my Summer Solstice, I was experimenting with screen printing, thickened mordants, natural dyes, and cotton lawn bandanas in a textile workshop called Pattern & Prints & Plants & Play, with Sarah and Emily of Homebody Textiles.

Iron mordant with cutch natural dye.

By using different mordants, the natural dyes react differently to produce the colors.

Three different mordants on logwood.

Mordants can be applied through a screen to create a crisp edge on the patterns. Or, brushes, sticks and other mark-making tools can be used to apply mordants directly to the cloth to create the designs.

Hand painted (left) and screen printed designs on cotton lawn drying outside.

The palette of natural dyes to add color were: weld, pomegranate, logwood, madder, cutch, and lac. Mordants of alum, iron, and titanium were mixed in various ratios and applied to the cloth to create pattern designs. Citric acid was used to discharge.

Color swatches of the natural dyes and mordants.

The following design was inspired by a stitch composition from my 100 Days of Fabric and Stitch Colleges Project. It reminds me of the summer solstice.

Hand application of mordants to cloth dyed with lac.

Blanket stitched circles served as inspiration.

During the half of the year that is now behind us, I diligently kept up with my Create Daily Tracker. The multi-colored boxes indicate the use of a variety of materials and techniques.

2023 Create Daily Tracker—June 25.