Time to stop

for the next little while, anyway. so the dyes are put away, and the finished fabric sorted into compatible colour groupings.  Now it's time to start designing, and this is turning out to be much harder thanI thought it would be.  Thank Goodness, I put some of the fabric through more than one dye bath.  That second, or even third, colour just makes the fabric sing!  And having extra colour helps the design process.  I'm not sure whether adding that colour is a traditional way of working, but it seems to be the direction I'm headed. I anticipate having about three pieces to hand finish, as hangings.  One way of stretching the hand-dyed fabric I have is to use it with some of the African fabrics I've acquired, and saved, since stitch-resist dyeing is also an African tradition, and the colours are quite compatible..

The one gridded piece is being hand-quilted as a whole-cloth piece.  I'm thrilled that the fine cotton thread that I dyed came out so well, because it quilts like a dream on the basic muslin fabric. The stitching is a less fine than some of us might be used to, but I remembered from when I studied Japanese ethnic counted thread embroidery, that a well balanced and even running stitch is basic to most, especially the Sashiko and Kogin, so I feel I'm honouring tradition in that way.

I'll post pictures as soon as I have something to show.