how one thing leads to another

While searching the internet for more information about the Indigo dyed blue jeans, I found lots of pictures and information on Japanese Indigo dyed fabrics. I have collected these fabrics for some years and never made anything out of them really.

The Ultimate Sashiko Sourcebook by Susan Briscoe

My google search also lead me to the Sashiko technique. In Susan Briscoe’s book she explains that Sashiko stitching was not only a way to decorate fabric but was also used on Indigo dyed workmens’ clothes to make the fabric more sturdy at places that were likely to be worn sooner.

David Sorgato’s book about Boro

Susan also referred to Boro, Japanese (rag) textiles and then I discovered this website.
Boro was made in the 19th century by recycling remnants of indigo dyed cotton and joining them together. I had seen some beautiful pieces of new made Boro by Victoria of the SillyBooDilly. Victoria’s work is always an inspiration.

Blue jeans (the word jeans comes from Genoa, Italy - more about that later...!) was also used as workmens’ clothes. They discovered archeological ‘jeans’ pieces in the gold mines in California, likely to be about a 150 years old, which look really worn and weathered. These old jeans as well as the old Boro textiles have become collector’s items now.

I may have found the ingredients for my Blue quilt!

Nicolette

Blue jeans

jeans quilt at the National Quilt Guild exhibition in Leiden in 2011

In one of my comments on previous posts I talked about blue jeans. I did some research and I already discovered some fun facts. To my surprise I saw an item on TV about an exhibition that’s called Blue Jeans which was opened at one of our museums last week.

This is the link to the Centraal Museum in Utrecht and the exhibition. Needless to say that I hope to go there for some more inspiration.

However, I do have other ideas brewing as well.

Nicolette

Blue- paint or not?

In the spirit of being less secretive and showing more of the process, I'm presenting my first design conundrum with the next challenge.  I used a common phrase with the word blue as my starting point, and a piece of my hand dyed fabric fit the bill perfectly.  I'm going for a misty, mysterious effect, and thought I could get it with thread.  I'm considering adding a light layer of metallic paint to part of this- what do you think?  The metallic thread adds the sparkle I wanted, but it is a hard edge and I'd like to soften it up some.

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend- and those in the US, that you enjoyed the long Thanksgiving weekend surrounded by family and friends.  With my husband having foot surgery the day before the holiday, and only three of us being at home for the big dinner- we chose to go out.  It did make for a much more relaxing holiday, although we are missing the leftovers!

I'm hoping to see more posting as we get closer to the challenge deadline.  I have to get this one done early, because I know our house is going to be utterly chaotic after Christmas, in addition to the normal holiday chaos.  But more about that later-  have a good week, everyone!

My beginnings, again

AS promised, here is a step through video of my last challenge piece. 
I have also posted a written step through on my blog.

Now onto BLUE!

Something blue

Since we are all posting about where we go for inspiration and what we do, I thought I would post about where I am up to with BLUE.
I have been researching about blue and blue things and have a huge bank of pictures to inspire me.  Some will end up as sketches, and some of these will make their way to fabric.  One of them might even end up being my challenge piece. 
Here is a peek into my sketchbook. This is one of the images I have in mind, but may come to naught.

This is a blue winged kookaburra, or kingfisher as we call them.  It has lots of texture and it is a blue animal!  Gina recently photographed a kingfisher on her blog and I commented that ours were blue down here, so this is what they look like.
I can see lots of organza and other fabrics in this one, and I will probably have a go, but it's very early days yet and I have a lot of sketching to do, still.
I find that as I sketch my ideas, I think of ways to create them in fabric and stitch, so it is a good method for me, although if you check my blog, it sometimes is not neccesary and the design come just from playing.  Playing-Imagine that!  lol

Blue Period

Renate's post brought this to mind - Picasso and his blue period. It  looks like we will be in good, artistic company with our "blue" challenge. Images from: Wiki PaintingsVisual Art Encyclopedia

Picasso and S. Junier-Vidal sitting near Celestina- Pablo Picasso, 1904

Rouen Cathedral, Magic in Blue - Claude Monet, 1894

Blue Calligraphic Lines on Dark Blue - Jiro Yoshihara, 1963

Music Pink and Blue II - Georgia O'Keeffe

Brainstorming Blues

In an effort to post more about the process of how I reach my end result, I thought it might be a good idea to begin at the beginning so to speak.  I'm not sure how the rest of you do it, but trying to come up with ideas, for me, usually involves some brainstorming.  For instance,  this theme.....blue.  I thought of adding an "s" making "blues". Of course this led to thinking of music, which led to

Blue suede shoes.  So I googled blue suede shoes to see what images I could find that might be workable.  As it turned out there were quite a number. I could use applique and some FMQ thread painting with a bit of hand embroidery thrown in.

I also discovered that there was a musical group called Blue Delft.  Blue Delft? Isn't that a type of pottery?  more googling....

Ah...yes blue delft.  Now that might work.  I could try some dyeing with resist to create pattern that would resemble this.  Then I remembered that I heard about something called blueware. 

So more research and this is what I found.

Hey wait a minute.... Wedgewood is also blue.  More images for inspiration to seek out.

But is pottery or china the way I want to go?  Perhaps there is another train of thought to take.  There is also the idea of a "blue mood"....hmmmm....or "blue blood"......gonna check that out too.

 

Then of course there is Gainsborough's "The Blue Boy".  So this is the start of my "Blue" piece.  Brainstorming blues so to speak. 

 

Thought you might enjoy this variations on "blue" which I stumbled upon. Gorgeous even though it is not fabric.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/55780937@N08/5400969309/in/faves-tastykaeru/

Here We Go Again!

The Tangled Textile group is off on a new round of challenges.  It falls to me to come up with the first one in the second round, and I have spent the weekend trying to come up with a good one.  It was easy the first time, I knew already what I wanted to do!  This time, not so easy.  I spent over a hour last night reading through a children's dictionary (well, I had college football on too!)  I have a laundry list of possibilities, if any other members are interested when the task of choosing the challenge comes their way.

In the end, I chose one that can be interpreted using one of  the several meanings, or as a color study.  Our next challenge is. . . . .

B L U E

My children's dictionary defines blue as 

1. The color in the rainbow between green and violet; the color of a clear daytime sky

2. Out of the blue: suddenly and unexpectedly

3. Low in spirits; melancholy.

Then there are all those things that have the word blue as part of their name: blueprint, blues music, bluegrass music, bleu cheese, blue jay, blue bird, bluebottle fly, blueberry, bluebell flower, blue whale.

If none of those float your boat, there is always blue in a color study!  Think turquoise, clear sky blue, vivid royal blue, pastel powder blue.

There didn't seem to be any consensus about the size, so I've left it at 16 by 16.  Maybe in some of the next eight challenges, we can experiment with a rectangular size.  I hope to see lots of discussion and works in progress over the next two and a half months!