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Shibori quilt - part one


Mike and I went Snowbird UT early in December.  He was there for a conference; I was there to play!  I hiked around the gorgeous resort area taking pictures.  Later, I relaxed on a spa-like reclining chair, sketching the trees.  My sketching is marginal at best, but I was pleased with some of the abstractions I came up with.  I knew that my next project was going to be a quilt that used those trees, but Christmas was fast approaching, and it was going to have to wait.

When we returned home, my plans changed somewhat.  I was looking at some shibori fabrics, and noticed that some of the patterns reminded me of the landscape that I'd just left.  Originally I had planned to do a small quilt that featured one tree, or even just a part of the tree.  But after spending some more time looking at my pictures, I decided that a cluster was going to be the thing instead, and shibori fabric would be the background.  But first I had to figure out how to make it!

There are many different stitches used in creating shibori fabrics, and I am far from an expert in any of them.  I chose to use the ori-nui resist pattern.  To do this, you make a small fold along the design lines, and place a running stitch just below the crease in the fold.  When all the lines are stitched, the threads are pulled tight and the fabric is dyed.




 



My first step was to roughly sketch the landscape pattern that I wanted, and to sketch it onto my unbleached muslin fabric.  I then spent the rest of the day stitching my lines!






Close up detail of stitching along fold


 



Creating the background fabric: Part one, Part two
Creating the quilt: Part three, Part four, Part five, Part six


Copyright 2010 Cyndi Lavin. Not to be reprinted, resold, or redistributed for profit. May be printed out for personal use or distributed electronically provided that entire file, including this notice, remains intact.


Comments

Limarea said…
That looks like A LOT of work! LOL But it also looks very interesting. Waiting impatiently for part two :D
Cyndi L said…
LOL! It is kind of time consuming, but so far I think it's worth it :-)
Sherri said…
Wow, I can hardly wait to see more!
That is so neat, Cyndi- I look forward to seeing how it progresses!
Wherever did you learn about shibori and ori-nui?! Fascinating. You are an absolute font of information, Cyndi.

This quilt will be beautiful I'm sure. I can't wait to see how you do the dye resist.
Cyndi L said…
Thanks guys! Eileen, I've seen gorgeous shibori fabrics in both Belle Armoire and in Fiber Arts magazine for years, and just decided to look up some techniques online. There are lots of sites that show you some basics :-)
Tammy said…
I had never heard of this before, interesting. I like how it includes stitching.
crossstitcher said…
Wow - Looks like lots of fun even if it is a lot of work. I can't wait to see what it looks like when you are finished!
Cyndi L said…
The stitching will all be taken out after the paint or dye dries though :-)
hi Cyndy,
Thanks for the close ups and explanations. Do you know thats the first time I have understood what was going on with the stitching.
Cyndi L said…
Well, this is just ONE possible way to do it, Shirley! Another method has the stitching lines running perpendicular to the design lines. I've just barely scratched the surface here, but I really like the results and am sure I'll do more :-)