Katano Shibori

 Katano Shibori is a dying workshop that I participated in with Ana Lisa Hedstrom.  She introduced me to Acid dyes and machine stitched shibori.  This is the result of the 2 day workshop.  For the material list Analisa gave us different types of Silks to experiment on.  The border fabric comes from the raw silk, which had a rougher texture to it.

 I was fortunate to have silk samples that my friend Winnie brought me from her trip to Hong Kong.  It was the perfect size for this workshop.  Most of the silks were in pale yellows and pinks.  I had to prepare the silks by removing the labels and gum and lightly washing and drying them.

 The samples were folded in six and then machine stitched.  This was a pink silk that was put into a red dyebath.

 After Saturdays workshop, I went home and read the book SHIBORI by Yoshiko Wada.  There were a lot of inspirational photos.  I did my homework and traced some of the patterns onto the silk.  This was a light yellow that was put into a blue dyebath.

This was a pale green silk that was dyed in the green dyebath.

Retirement

 Happy New Year!  With the new year, I decided to retire from the Postal Service after 35 years.  To my surprise and delight, my coworkers made a quilt for me.  I was Shocked.  I'm the quilter and I thought I was the only one making quilts at the Post Office where I worked.

 Here are a couple of panels in the quilt that show some of the quilts that I have made for my coworkers through the years.  Counting back, I think I made about 12 quilts.  The picture on the left is a quilt I made for Louise and the one on the right was a quilt I made for Kin.  I always tried to put pictures on the quilts so that they would remember us.

Here is a closeup of the top panels.  Most of the pictures are signed, so that I won't forget their names.  The best part is that this quilt was made at WALMART.  Cindy and Tina chose 12 pictures and downloaded them on the Walmart website and ordered the color and quilting type.  I don't know how much they paid or how long it took, but its a wonderful reminder of my great coworkers.