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Author: ruthlane

When I discovered felting in 2007, I finally found the creative outlet for which I had been searching. I love that the versatility of fiber allows me to “play” with a wide variety of materials including wool, silk, fabrics, yarns and threads. Creating one of a kind fiber art pieces to share with the world fulfills my creative passion.
Mixed media painting "Forest Keeper" on watercolor paper - tree spirit with Mountain Hemlock
Essence of Nature

Essence of Nature

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In my recent art and design class, I painted a series of tree spirit portraits. In researching tree spirits, I found many photos of young women with ‘beautiful’ faces. I thought that if a tree had a spirit, it would be the same age as a tree, which can live for hundreds of years. I decided to base my tree spirits on the beauty of older women, with wrinkles, grey hair and wisdom shining through. Once these were painted, I decided to create tree spirits in felt and stitch. I will be continuing with this series as I found stitching and creating portraits a challenge.

I printed a copy of the original artwork and found a piece of deconstructed screen printed fabric that worked for the background. The fabric was silk organdy and I nuno felted it to a dark green wool. Then I taped a piece of water soluble fabric to the artwork and traced it on the light box.

I pinned the traced outlines of the face and the pinecone down to the nuno felt. Then I used a dark green to stitch the face outline and a dark brown to stitch the pinecone. It’s not shown here but I used a white thread to stitch the outline of the hair. The tree on the left hand side was developed free hand as there was already dark green in the background fabric that reminded me of the shapes of the tree branches. Once the outlines were stitched, I dissolved the water soluble fabric and let the piece dry.

Then on to stitching. This will probably seem like an exercise/game of find the differences as some of the photos seem very much alike. I used 1-2 strands of cotton floss and stitched in a distorted cross stitch. Unlike regular cross stitch, this is a very loose form of cross stitch where the stitches do cross but they are different lengths and directions to fill the space. It is a fairly easy way to shade for darks and lights without doing precise stitching such as long and short stitch. I started with the eyes. I have found when stitching a portrait before, that I stitch the “important” areas first. If I don’t like the eyes, I can either re-do them or start over without wasting loads of time on the rest of the face.

I continued using various shades of green and developing the face and then on to the hair. It was a really interesting process as it seemed like I would add more dark into an area and then find that I needed to add more dark to other areas. There are many layers of stitched threads and hours of work in the final piece.

As you can see, I didn’t take many photos of the tree development or of the pinecone stitching. But I continued with the distorted cross stitch for these areas too. The pine needles were done with stem stitch.

I changed the hair multiple times. I had added stem stitch curls but those seemed to stand out too much. I went back in and stitched over that with a variety of shades of lighter green to make the hair look more natural. I also worked on deepening the wrinkles around the eyes and mouth.

Nuno felted and hand stitched artwork of a tree spirit.

I probably could have kept working on this piece but decided to stop.

Once I was satisfied with the face, I needed a background fabric. I had linen that had been screen printed at the same time as the silk organdy. I tried an overlay of blue green silk but ended up choosing the linen for a background. The nuno felt was stitched to the linen background and laced over a matte board. The final piece is 10″ x 10″. I was planning on framing it but couldn’t find the correct size frame for it. I ended up covering a 10″ x 10″ canvas with green felt and stitching the edges of the fabric matte to the canvas.  Sorry that I don’t have a photo so that you can see the edge of the canvas and how that looked.

The piece is named the Essence of Nature and will be in an exhibition in May at 4 Ravens Gallery in Missoula, Montana.

 

Nuno felted "watercolor" landscape with couched yarn tree, close up of branches.
Embellished “Watercolor” Landscape

Embellished “Watercolor” Landscape

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Nuno felted Kitakata paper painted with watercolor paint and water added to move paint.

I am still working on the “watercolor landscape” samples that I created. This one is nuno felted paper that has had watercolor applied after the felting process. It needs a bit more, doesn’t it?

Printed photo of landscape with tree drawn over the landscape in pencil.

I scanned the piece on my printer so I had the exact size of the piece printed out. I then drew a tree over the landscape in pencil. Instead of trying to transfer the design of the tree on to the piece, I decided to just mark where the edges of the trunk were on the top and bottom.

Nuno felted "watercolor" landscape with couched yarn tree.

I didn’t get any photos of the stitching process as I stitched it mainly while traveling. I had found a variety of grey yarn that I couched down with a dark grey cotton machine thread. I tried to give an impression of depth of the tree with the values of grey. I followed my sketch but “edited” out some of the smaller branches.

Here’s a couple of close ups of the stitching.

Nuno felted "watercolor" landscape with couched yarn tree on light grey hand dyed background fabric.

The next step was to find a piece of background (matte) fabric. I stitched the felt piece on to this hand dyed grey background that I already had in my stash. Luckily, it was a blue grey tone that matched the watercolors. The piece was then stretched and laced around matte board. Then it’s ready for a frame.

Nuno felted "watercolor" landscape with couched yarn tree framed.

Here it is in the frame and ready to go to the gallery. This piece in the frame is 8″ x 10″ and I have decided to name it “Solitude”.

Christina, Ruth, Penny, Gail, Moira and Nancy at the Pacific Northwest Quilt & Fiber Arts Museum
Where Art Meets Embroidery

Where Art Meets Embroidery

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The exhibition Where Art Meets Embroidery is currently on display at the Pacific Northwest Quilt and Fiber Art Museum (QFA) in LaConner, Washington USA through May 31st. The exhibit, for me, is the culmination of 16 years of classes that I have taken at the Gail Harker Center for Creative Arts. The exhibition includes work from both Level 3 and 4 textile art graduates. My post is about the Level 4 Experimental Stitch and Multimedia, including my work and my classmates. Tesi will be posting at the end of the month about the Level 3 Experimental Stitch student’s work.

Tables set up with working notebooks and other samples by students at the Garden Center

When the exhibition opened, we had a concurrent show for the first couple of days that was across the street from the quilt museum. In this part of the exhibition, participating students filled their tables with working notebooks, samples and pieces of artwork that didn’t end up in the exhibition at the quilt museum. Visitors could sit down and browse through the documentation of the process that most people never see with completed works of art. The working notebooks show the thought process, the inspiration behind the ideas and the work that goes into creating a large work of textile art.

Working notebooks and samples by Ruth Lane

Here’s a part of the set up for my space showing a variety of notebooks, samples and smaller stitch pieces. My theme is about the spirituality of trees. It was really interesting to talk to visitors about the process and how some of my pieces were created.

Samples and working notebooks by Nancy Drake

This is part of Nancy Drake’s table showing a couple of notebooks, some canvas work boxes and a flower that wasn’t included in the other exhibition. Nancy’s theme is about nature, leaves and trees.

Samples and working notebooks by Christina Fairley Erickson

Here is one of Christina Fairley Erickson’s tables showing some of her Advanced Research in Art and Design. Christina’s theme is about animals of all kinds. The large tall piece in the back is based on a giraffe (if you hadn’t figured that out already).

Signage for the exhibition at the Pacific Northwest Quilt and Fiber Art Museum

Now on to the exhibition at the QFA Museum. If you are in the northwest Washington area, I hope you will get a chance to visit the exhibition in the next couple of months. I will be showing only a couple of pieces of work from each student. There is much more to see at the museum.

Christina Fairley Erickson standing by her horse head sculpture

Each student created a “large” artwork as part of the course curriculum. This is Christina Fairley Erickson in front of her machine stitched horse sculpture. Christina has traveled many times to Turkey to visit part of her family and the floral designs on the horse are based on Turkish inspiration.

Here are a couple of detail shots of Christina’s amazing stitching that has been turned into a lifesize horse head.

Two framed stitch pieces of bird eyes by Christina Fairley Erickson

Another portion of Christina’s studies were based on eyes of birds and animals. These are two of her stitched pieces of an Indian Peacock Eye and a Military Macaw Eye.

Artwork by Moira Gutteridge Kloster on the wall at the exhibition

Moira Gutteridge Kloster grew up in East Africa and based her theme on remembrances of her childhood as well as recent visits to the area. Moira mainly works with photos printed on fabric which she transforms with stitch.

Two African women in a stitched portrait by Moira Gutteridge Kloster

This is a closer view of one of her pieces from the wall shot above.

Black work lizard by Moira Kloster

This is a detail of Moira’s blackwork lizard. These blackwork patterns are a way to create various values to give the stitching more depth.

Framed artwork of a papaya and of a collage of elephants by Moira Gutteridge Kloster

 

Moira has many photos taken in Africa. The one on the left is based on a papaya and the one on the right is all photos of elephants (and one of my favorites, the elephant footprints).

Forest Floor by Lynette Barnes - stitched and felted textile piece

Lynette Barnes created ‘Forest Floor’ with a variety of machine needle felting, hand dyeing, machine embroidery, burning, fusing and fraying. Her theme is the Pacific Coast Forest Floor.

Here’s a closer view of a couple of small areas on this almost five foot wide piece.

Framed goldwork leaves/tree by Nancy Drake

Nancy Drake’s theme was based on the natural world, specifically leaves and trees. The piece above is created with metal and gold threads.

Goldwork by Nancy Drake

A closer view of the stitchwork and metal elements reveals the abundance of color variety in the metal threads.

Nanci also created this tabard, developing the pattern, hand stitching the design and then machine stitching the garment together. (In the video of my talk at the end of the post, you will see Nanci’s tabard and her hanging leaf sculpture, on either side of me.)

Two portraits of tree spirits by Ruth Lane

My theme about the spirituality of trees, led me to develop a series of tree spirits. These are two of the stitched portraits that I created. The top one is machine stitched over layers of tulle. The bottom piece was created from nuno felting a printed photo on sheer fabric of one of my original paintings and then adding hand stitch.

Ruth standing beside The Forgotten One

The majority of my time spent over the last two years was creating this ten foot tall tree spirit called ‘The Forgotten One’. His outer layers were made with silk, wool and tea bags that were nuno felted and then hand stitched into place on the inner structure. The sculpture comes apart into four pieces so that I could travel back and forth from Montana to Washington with it.

Here are a couple of closer photos to see the face and the texture of the sculpture.

On the first Saturday after the exibition opened, an artist talk took place at the QFA museum. Each student talked about their work, inspiration and theme. The video above is my talk and Gail showing photos of my work.

I hope you enjoyed this peek at our exhibition. If you’re in the area, please stop by and see it in person.

Nuno felted dyed landscape with sheer green "hills", sheer purple/maroon trees and blue sheer for sky. Stitching and trimming completed around edge to hold everything in place.
Watercolors in Nuno Felt

Watercolors in Nuno Felt

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I have been continuing with my experiments with trying to create a “watercolor” effect in nuno felt. I decided to take a few of the pieces that were the least successful with the dye/paint application and add more. The first addition of “more” is with sheer fabrics.

Nuno felt landscape created with silk dyed flat on paper and then batched (fiber reactive dye).

This is the piece I decided to start with. It had lost a lot of its color and still looked like a landscape but I felt it could do with “more”.

Nuno felted dyed landscape with addition of torn tulle trees.

I started with adding in some torn tulle trees on the right hand side.

Nuno felted dyed landscape with addition of torn tulle trees and sheer green "hills".

Then I took some sheer green fabric and added it on the left to give a feel of hills in the background. Some of these steps might be hard to see as the fabric is very sheer but it’s the layering that achieves the final effect.

Nuno felted dyed landscape with addition of torn tulle trees and sheer green "hills" with additional green layer.

I then cut off the left edge of the green sheer and added it back into the “hill” area. This gives a bit of value change as you add further layers of sheer.

Nuno felted dyed landscape with sheer green "hills" and tulle trees switched to sheer purple/maroon trees.

After looking at the tulle trees as compared to the green sheer on the left, I decided to change the trees. Since the background was mainly yellow, I thought the addition of purple/maroon trees would give a neutralized tree color but still feel there was additional color added. That seemed better so I added in the shadows too. I added a bit of the purple/maroon on the left for a bit of foreground in front of the green hills.

Nuno felted dyed landscape with sheer green "hills", sheer purple/maroon trees and blue sheer for sky.

Next up was to try and change the “straight line” over the trees on the right. It felt too abrupt a change in color. So I added a couple of layers of light blue sheer over the trees and then a full piece of blue sheer over the entire piece.

Nuno felted dyed landscape with sheer green "hills", sheer purple/maroon trees and blue sheer for sky with added stitching in foreground.

The next step was looking over the piece to see anything else that stood out. I noticed that the green sheer I had on the left needed a little work. It felt too straight along the bottom and there was a weird kind of ‘flag’ in the middle of the hills. So I changed those and then began stitching. It’s hard to see but there is light yellow stitching in the foreground. That wasn’t meant to add a hard line, just to hold the blue fabric down and keep the smaller sheer pieces underneath in place. I did add a broken darker brown horizon line which you can see I have started on the left.

Nuno felted dyed landscape with sheer green "hills", sheer purple/maroon trees and blue sheer for sky. Adding stitching in sky.

I continued adding stitch to the horizon line as well as the sky. Again, in the sky, I didn’t want a hard line so I used a very light gray thread, not pure white that might “stick” out too much.

Nuno felted dyed landscape with sheer green "hills", sheer purple/maroon trees and blue sheer for sky. Stitching and trimming completed around edge to hold everything in place.

The final step was to make very small stitches all around the edges of the piece to hold everything in place. I am happy with the result, a bit more color but still an abstract, dreamy effect.

Landscape painted on nuno felt with watercolor paint.
Experimenting with Watercolor Landscape Techniques on Silk and Wool

Experimenting with Watercolor Landscape Techniques on Silk and Wool

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I recently wrote about using watercolors to create abstract landscapes. My purpose was to try the technique on paper and then try to translate it to silk and nuno felt. I experimented with a variety of small samples, the largest being 10″ x 13″.

My first attempt, I soaked 3mm silk in soda ash solution and placed it on white paper. I then mixed up a paste of fiber reactive dye with a bit of water and used a palette knife to apply the dye paste to the wet silk. I used dye colors pewter and daffodil. I added water with a spray bottle and with a paint brush. The photo above on the left shows the silk drying on the paper backing. The photo on the right shows the paper underneath after drying.

The picture on the left shows the silk after rinsing and the silk after nuno felting with fine white merino. It still is a landscape but I lost so much of the lovely green color. I love the paper that was underneath but the end result is a bit disappointing. I will be still using all these samples and adding further dye, paint or stitch so don’t worry, they will be improved. And I will see what other surface design techniques will give the end result I want. But I forged on trying to get a better result from the beginning.

The next step was to try painting the dye with the silk laid out on plastic. I covered my print board with plastic and laid wet silk soaked in soda ash on top. I used the same application with a palette knife and adding water as needed to spread the dye. The photo on the left is after applying the dry. The center photo is after the dye has dryed in the silk and the right photo is after nuno felting. This was a bit better and I can see the landscape in this result. I kept track of my results by taking photos, pasting them in my sketchbook and writing out the process for each piece. I also kept a running list of “what ifs” and further ideas to try.

Experiment number three was to nuno felt the silk first. The left photo shows the white nuno felt (a bad photo), the middle is after applying the dye and the left is after rinsing. The dye does not move very easily on the felted silk compared to plain silk. Therefore, the dye doesn’t spread as much. This is still using fiber reactive dye, so I asked myself “What about acid dye since now I have added wool to the equation?”

I think you can tell from looking at the results from left to right, there is some improvement in keeping the color in the end result.

I got a little off track here as I next decided to try felting some paper and see how that worked. I used small pieces of Kitakata handmade paper that I already had on hand. The photo on the left shows the felted paper. I got in a hurry and the paper didn’t felt in as well as I would have liked. But I decided since these are mainly samples, it didn’t matter. Forge ahead! I soaked the nuno felted paper in soda ash and then added fiber reactive dye for the landscape. I continued to use the palette knife method of dye application. The photo on the right shows the piece after rinsing and drying. My next thought was “What if I used the nuno felted paper but painted it with watercolor and didn’t rinse it out?”

I nuno felted more paper on to the merino and added the watercolor paint with the palette knife. I forgot to get a photo with the paint still wet. The photo on the right shows the dried result. The interesting thing with this one was that the water I applied above the horizon line (and none below) caused the water to seep into the dry paper moving most of the paint below the horizon line. Interesting end result though. Work upside down the next time?

3mm silk gauze pre-dyed with light blue for sky color.

 

In the middle of these experiments, I helped a friend with how to dye cotton fabric. She had not dyed before so we had a fun afternoon playing with dye. I had my pieces of silk ready for nuno felting and I thought I would dye some a very light blue for sky colors.

Silk that was light blue, painted on acid dyes and then steamed. Colors ran while steaming.

This next piece has the blue silk,  nuno felted first and then soaked in a vinegar solution to get ready for acid dyes. I applied the dyes as usual, forgot to take a photo and then steamed the piece to set the acid dye. The dye shifted all over the place and the end result looked nothing like the original application of dye. It still looks like a landscape, kept the color better but I didn’t want this much shifting of the dye.

So I tried a second one with blue sky silk and acid dyes. It’s not a good photo because of the glare but you get the idea of what it looked like after painting with dye. I picked it up, did not think to put it on a tray or flat surface and the dye came pouring out and the landscape was lost. I just rinsed the piece and you see on the right, that a slight amount of dye took without steaming. That gave a nice misty background that I decided would work for depth.

Landscape painted on nuno felt with watercolor paint.

I then added watercolor of Payne’s Gray and Quinacridone Gold Deep in the usual manner. I let the watercolors dry and didn’t rinse as this will be a wall hanging and will not be washed. This is getting a little closer to the outcome I want.

Next up was to treat the silk as if it was a silk painting. I stretched the silk over a wooden frame and used tacks to attach it to the frame. I then applied the dye with a palette knife and added water. The edges were a bit tricky as I didn’t have any gutta resist to keep the dye from spreading but again, it’s just a sample. Then I decided I could dry/heat the silk without removing it from the frame with my heat gun. Oops, I burned a hole in it. Perhaps next time, I will let it dry and then iron it. Or I could use silk paints and the proper resists. The right photo is the piece after nuno felting. Still looks like a landscape and I don’t mind the edges.

I still have quite a few ideas to tweak the process and I want to try adding more on top of the results I have shown here. I am having fun experimenting and perhaps one of these days, I will decide to make a bigger piece once I have an end result that works for me.

Watercolor landscape painting
Simple Watercolor Landscapes

Simple Watercolor Landscapes

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I have been seeing some abstract watercolor landscape paintings on Instagram and thought I would like to try them. I don’t have a link for you as I seem to have kept scrolling without following or saving the video. If you look up painting watercolor landscapes with a palette knife on either YouTube or Instagram, you should be able to see some videos.

I already had some pieces of watercolor paper cut into small pieces, the largest being 4″ x 6″. These already had a light painting of blue to purple high flow acrylics on them but I decided that would work as the sky for the landscape.  Some of the videos suggest that you use 3-4 colors of watercolor paint but I decided to keep it simple and only use two colors at a time.

Open sketchbook with painted watercolor landscapes

I started with dry paper and the first two colors were Payne’s Gray and Burnt Sienna. I used a small blob of Payne’s Gray straight from the tube onto the edge of a palette knife. I scraped the palette knife across the dry paper for the horizon line. Remember the rule of thirds and avoid putting the horizon right in the center of the paper. I always think of it as having more sky or less sky in the picture. The paint can be kind of messy as you apply it and doesn’t need to be a solid line. I then applied the Burnt Sienna in the same manner but limited it to 3-5 small areas.

Watercolor landscape painting

Then I applied water on a large flat brush above the horizon line. If I got much paint on the brush, I rinsed it between strokes. The paint from the horizon line moves up into the water and spreads by itself. Limit your brush strokes so you don’t overwork it. I pulled the paint up with vertical strokes above the horizon and used quite a lot of water. On some of the paintings, I sprayed water on too. I also took some of the leftover paint on the palette knife (very minimal paint) to make a few tree trunks above the horizon line.

Watercolor landscape painting

Below the horizon line, I used less water on the brush and barely touched the paint moving it more horizontally. Some of the paintings, I moved the paint a bit by dabbing the end of the brush into paint (already on the painting) and applying it into the wet areas.

Watercolor landscape painting

The first four paintings were all done with Payne’s Gray and Burnt Sienna. Try to vary the height of the trees and allow some of the trunks to lean one way or the other. The other thing that I tend to do is space my trees evenly across the landscape. That tends to look very artificial so make your spacing uneven. You can see that I experimented with the amount of paint used and the amount of working back into the wet areas.

Next up was to try two new colors. I chose colors from opposite sides of the color wheel so that there was contrast and when they mixed, it would give a neutralized (brown, gray) color. The painting on the right had a few black trunks added after the painting was dry with a black felt tip pen. I used Ultramarine Blue and Quinacridone Gold Deep in these two paintings. I love how the watercolor painting spreads on the wet paper and how you can add a bit more paint over the “distant” trees to give atmosperhic perspective.

Watercolor landscape painting

Another change of colors to Phthalo Blue (Green Shade) and Quinacridone Gold Deep. This produced a much more pine forest type of feel.

Watercolor landscape painting

These were really quick and easy to paint and I love the results. If I tried to paint trees in detail, I would never get this result. Now that I have tried these on paper, I have been sampling ways to get this result on silk and nuno felt. I am trying different methods and have a bunch of samples to show you in my next post.

Nuno Felted Paper Fabric Lamination Online Course, Ruth Lane
Online Classes for 2026

Online Classes for 2026

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Happy Holidays from all of us here at The Felting and Fiber Studio! We hope you have a wonderful holiday season and a creative 2026. We have our dates up for our 2026 online classes and we hope to have some new additions to these as the year progresses.

You can see all of the classes available and the calendar of class dates here.

Screen Printed Felt Journals by Ruth Lane

The Embellishing Felt with Surface Design (4 Modules) registration will be opening soon on December 29th. There will be two sessions of these courses in 2026 and then the courses will be discontinued. So any of you that have been putting off taking any of these fun classes, 2026 is the last year they will be available. These include:

Nuno Felting with Paper Fabric Lamination

Experimental Screen Printing on Felt

Free Motion Machine Stitching on Felt

Print, Stencil and Play with Thickened Dye on Felt

 

Ann M’s new class learning to create a 3D multi part resist for felt will be offered in March and September. Ann is adding another PDF to this course about how to use fabric to see what the outcome will look like from a multi part resist without completing the entire felting process. You can see her first classes creations here.

Learn to make a hanging felted spiral from Helene in March and October. You can see here students work here. This course teaches you about complex resists and how to add movement to your felt.

Wet felting a 3D pod is always available. Take that next step from being a beginner and learn to create 3D felt with a resist. You will also have access to private Facebook page with this class so that you can interact more readily with fellow students.

Wet Felting for Beginners is also always available. Learn the basics of wet felting for a good start to your felting journey.

If registration has not opened for the class you are interested in, please fill out our Contact Us form with the name of the class and we will add you to our mailing lists. Take that creative leap in 2026 and learn some new skills!

Dyed fabric with dark reds/black dye mixture.
Dying Background Fabric for Golden Grove

Dying Background Fabric for Golden Grove

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One of my goals for 2025 has been to finish pieces and have them ready for framing at the same time that the piece is complete. I seem to have missed this by a long shot with Golden Grove. I looked it up in my posts and I finished working on this piece in March. I didn’t have a piece of background fabric for matting so it got set aside.  Now it’s December and I have things to take to the framer so I am doing last minute dyeing, stitching and lacing to get everything ready to frame. I thought I would show you a basic dyeing method for cotton fabric using fiber reactive dyes (Procion MX).

The first step is to mix up soda ash and water to soak the cotton fabric in advance of dyeing. I used one cup of soda ash to one gallon of water. I use the soda ash water for many dye baths and it keeps well at room temperature. I let the fabric soak in the soda ash water for 30 minutes.

I am not a precise dyer. I don’t take the time to try and create a specific, repeatable dye bath. I do have some work I have done for classes where I keep track of amounts, color results etc. but I tend to add some dye to a cup of water until I get the color I want. I put down a wet paper towel, put a cup of water out and then add however much dye powder seems right to me. (Please remember to use proper safety precautions such as wearing gloves and face mask and use containers, measuring devices etc. that are only used with dyes.) I mix the powder into the water and then test the results on a clean paper towel. I used two different colors of red and a black dye. And if you’re paying attention, you will see that one of my dyes is an acid dye. I have used a combination of both fiber reactive that is used for plant fibers and acid dyes which are used with protein fibers. In my experimentation, I haven’t seen much difference between the two dyes as long as you use an acid (vinegar or acetic acid) for protein fibers and soda ash for plant fibers.

Here’s my first attempt. It helps to remember that you lose some of the dye intensity when it’s rinsed. I put a little dye on a clean paper towel and then looked at it near my completed piece. This seems a little too light so I needed to add more black.

And looking again after I added more black. The test on the right side of the paper towel was the final color.

Next up was to wring out the cotton fabric that had been soaking in the soda ash water. Then I poured the dye liquid into another container and added the fabric. You can also do this in a gallon plastic bag. I wasn’t worried about getting a solid dye on the fabric. More dye would have been needed for that.

The next step is to let the fabric “batch” or sit in the dye bath. Normally, I leave it overnight but I didn’t have time for that here so I let it sit for 4-5 hours. I didn’t go back and move the fabric around which would have given a more solid dye but I wanted some variations so I left it. Then on to rinsing. I rinse three times in cold water to get the soda ash out. You can feel it when you’re rinsing, it feels slick. Once that slick feel is gone, it’s time for textile detergent and hot water. The textile detergent is just a few drops into the hot water and then add your fabric. I usually let that soak for a couple of hours and then put it in the drain and spin cycle of the washing machine.

Dyed fabric with dark reds/black dye mixture.

Once it’s out of the washing machine, I iron it when it’s still wet and you can see I got a lot of variation. But I wanted that to look like sunlight through the trees and I was happy with the end result. Too bad most of it gets covered up.

Golden Grove stitched to background hand dyed fabric stretched over matte board.

And here’s Golden Grove stitched down to the dyed fabric and then laced on to matte board. It’s ready for framing (only 9 months behind schedule).

Have you tried dyeing? I really enjoy creating custom colors and getting a piece of fabric that is unique. If you haven’t tried it, you might want to give it a try.

Slip knot book binding with fabric covered cover and watercolor paper pages
Decisions on Fabric Book Construction and Binding

Decisions on Fabric Book Construction and Binding

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As my group works along on our year long project of creating a fabric book, we decided it was a good idea to make decisions about construction, size and binding early on. That way we aren’t winging it at the end when we put the book together. Hopefully, the pages that we create will then be a bit more uniform, sturdy and look good bound together. So, I brought a bunch of samples of fabric books to our last meeting.

One of my favorite bindings for a fabric book is the raised chain band binding. The edge of the page that will be bound is stitched every quarter inch with a knotted blanket/buttonhole stitch. The knot keeps the thread from getting loosened with use. Then the pages are bound together with a raised chain band stitch. The pages open all the way and move easily. And I love the look of it. Here you see four different books with the same binding. Most have felt pages, some with a sheer fabric fused to both sides, others, just felt, and one with two pieces of felt, appliqued fabric and stiff interfacing in the middle. The book on the bottom left is a bit of a hybrid. It is embroidery samples mounted on thick watercolor paper. I added an edge of felt to the paper page so that I could do this binding instead of coptic stitch. I learned the raised chain band binding from Gail Harker.

Stick and yarn book binding with chopsticks and silk paper cover.

This is a book binding that I learned in an online class in 2008 by Sue Bleiweiss. It doesn’t look like she is teaching online anymore but she taught us four or five different fabric book binding techniques. If you would like to see more about this postcard book, you can see my post here.

Applique sample book with stab stitch binding

This is a felt applique sample book that is bound with a stab stitch binding. I learned this binding from Gail Harker.

Accordion book of machine stitched color samples with insertion stitch binding.

This machine stitched color sample book was another I made in class with Gail Harker. It is bound with an insertion stitch. There is a heavy interface in the center of the pages and then fabric collages are fused down. The back is covered by a dyed sheer fabric that is fused as well.

Coptic binding on sample paper Edgar book

This was my sample for the book about my dog that I created in Level 3 Stitch at Gail Harker Center for Creative Arts. It is bound with Coptic stitch. I bound the fabric book the same way. I find Coptic stitch to be really fiddly and difficult. If you would like to see the fabric Book of Edgar, there is a video of the full book at the end of this post.

Slip knot book binding with fabric covered cover and watercolor paper pages

Here is a new method that I found on Youtube that is called slip knot binding. There are several different tutorials on this stitch method. It is significantly easier than Coptic stitch. It looks similar and acts the same way as it allows pages to be opened fully and can hold heavy pages with a sturdy enough thread. So this book is made with the slip knot binding.

Raised chain band binding on book with stiffened felt pages and fabric applique.

We decided that we would go with this type of book construction. It is a very heavy duty page, can hold loads of stitching or heavier fabrics. It has two pieces of felt per page with a piece of heavy interfacing sandwiched between. And we’re going to use the raised chain band binding. If you would like to see more of this book, click here.

Raised Chain Band book binding on beaded book (with beads added to the binding).

And anyone who wants to see more about my beaded book, the post is here.

Orange, yellow and brown painted fabric
Painting Fabric

Painting Fabric

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Our local group meeting in November was all about painting fabric. We are still working on background fabrics that will be included in our fabric books. We used a variety of “fabric” paints that are heat set.

Table with painting supplies, tools and several pieces of painted fabric.

Louise had cut up a bunch of different types of fabric to paint on and had a wide arrary of paints.

The idea was to spray water on to the fabric, then add paint and then you could if you wanted, add another piece of fabric on top to pick up extra paint. The photos above show a piece of sheer fabric that was painted, then a piece of cotton velveteen was added on top. The final photo on the right shows the velveteen after all the paint colors were added. This is Sally’s fabric.

Paula was working in shades of brown. These fabrics are all still wet, so it will be interesting to see what they look like dry.

I was working in fall colors. When you see the black printing, those are fabrics that we screen printed years ago that Louise still had in her stash.

Three pieces of painted and printed fabric.

These are a few of Louise’s painted pieces.

Blue, red and printed fabric

And one more photo of one of Sally’s painted fabrics. We left the fabric at Louise’s house to dry and then everything will need to be ironed. Next month, we have plans to do some fabric weaving for a book page.