Fabric Swatches Exchanged

At Monday night's Fiberexplorations' meeting, we exchanged our 9" x 9" swatches of "transformed" fabric for the next challenge.  Following the guidelines from the new Cloth, Paper, Scissors' Fabric Swatch Exchange, we used a variety of techniques to transform our fabric, including fabric painting, dyeing, stamping, gelatin monoprinting, overdyeing, stitching, and katazome (a Japanese form of printing with a stencil and rice paste resist).

Our palette and samples

The poster (by Kathy Deggendorfer) for the 2011 Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show served as our color palette.  For the challenge, each person will make an art quilt using at least some of each fabric swatch, plus any additional fabrics of their choice.  We plan to enter these quilts at the Sisters' Quilt Show this summer.  (It's always the 2nd Sat. in July.)  The only other rule is one from the quilt show itself:  each side must be at least 36" inches in length.

A beautiful set of fabrics to work with!

The second photo shows some of the techniques used.  On the right, from top to bottom:  Lisa's stitched fabric swatch, Joan's blue & white katazome, and Maureen's green batik dribbled w/ blue and dotted w/yellow.

The swatches are amazing, especially since this was the first experience with fabric painting for many members.  And that's what this group's all about:  pushing ourselves (gently) to step outside the box and explore, experiment, and enjoy the journey!