Mappliqué, a Jerusalem Journey, and Near-Dyeing with Dupioni

I felt both excitement and fear when a California family contacted me with a request for a tallit, a prayer shawl, that would be used in a bat mitzvah held at the Western Wall - in a month.  I had other commitments, and couldn't start working on it for a week. Three weeks is not a lot of time. 

They wanted a tallit that would reflect their daughter's interests. They also wanted it to illustrate the theme of "journey." 

I immediately thought of flying geese, a traditional patchwork pattern: 

( I have used them in matzoh covers to represent Exodus/

) 

For tallit purposes, they could also represent a trip to Jerusalem. So I sent the client some quick sketches: 

The Hebrew is a nonsense placeholder

Meh. They weren't impressed. I had to up my game. 

I decided to look up maps of Jerusalem.  I found this wonderful 1660 map on the Library of Congress website. 

At the time, I was also working on the quilt I described two weeks ago, and last week, inspired by Caitlyn Jenner and vintage phrenology charts...

It immediately hit me that the Jerusalem map bears an eerie resemblance to my appiqué brain, upside down. I thought the map would make a similar abstract design, with similar construction methods. I did some quick computer drawings, showing the client how I might trace and abstract the map shapes:

The clients wanted magenta, lime green, and a little gold, thus these colors: 

They loved the idea! The next question was whether they wanted the map in two segments (one at the bottom of each tallit end), or one piece (across the back) I did two more computer-sketches:

\

Again, nonsense Hebrew, showing where the collar might be. 

They picked the first above. And they also wanted dupioni silk. 

Three seconds after I said "yes," I realized I was in trouble. 

The brain quilt was relatively quick and easy because I used well-behaved cottons, raw edge appliqué, and fusible web. But for the tallit, all the edges of all those pieces would have to be turned over, because dupioni frays when you glare at it, which you will.  Turning and stitching so many pieces was going to take a very long time. (If only I'd consulted quilter Cheryl Lynch's blog, I would have learned about a fusible that works well with dupioni!)

But I didn't, the clock was ticking, the contract was signed, and there was nothing to do but....

Engage! (speaking of  journeys.)

I began by importing the map into my favorite art program (CorelDraw). I printed it out to legal size, then brought it to a copy shop, where they upsized it to 50". (for stripes that wind up about 24" wide, the width specified by the client.)

I taped it to my patio doors, and then taped freezer paper, waxy side down, over it. (the freezer paper is not really brown - it's white.)

I traced all the pieces. If they were tiny, I combined them. I wound up with over 100 pieces. I combined some of the tiniest pieces, to bring it into the realm of feasability. 

To save shipping time and maximize certainty, I shopped for the fabrics in person rather than ordering online. My friend Linda and I spent an afternoon in downtown Los Angeles, which is a joyful adventure if you're not working on deadline, but can be stressful if you are. We found a shop with a fantastic assortment of dupioni colors. After hours of juggling and comparing, here's the palette we purchased: 

The photo doesn't do these fabrics justice. They have a gorgeous luster. I specifically asked the shopkeeper if the colors were colorfast. he asserted they were. (He lied: See Dupioni Near-Dyeing, below). Linda and I added shades that we felt toned down the deeper colors. The white is more like vanilla, to echo Jerusalem stone. 

The first step was to cut the green fabric to 18" x 50",  and lay the freezer paper pattern on top. Then came the meditative process of cutting each paper piece, one by one.  I used an xacto knife, and slid cardboard between the freezer paper and tallit front. 

Once each piece was cut out, I brought it to the ironing board and pressed it to the dupioni: 

Cut the fabric about a quarter inch or so beyond the template outlines

Clip concave curves. Working from the back, add dabs of  school glue (It dries clear). 

Keeping the paper on, working from the back, turn under and press all the edges. Then slide the piece back in position. (It was here I realized I had a dupioni dye problem*. See below. Once I'd resolved that problem, I continued.)

 Peel away the top freezer paper. Glue edges, one by one, in position onto the green background. 

 Hand-press in place.

Glue a dozen or so. To place each correctly, align the previous pieces with the previous holes. 

 Every foot or so, I placed tearaway stabilizer behind the segment. Then, I rolled the sides, inward, incorporating the stabilizer and the freezer paper (and smushing it. It's sturdy and didn't tear). 

Next, I carefully manipulated the mass/mess under the machine's presser feet. It's awkward, especially in the beginning. The more you do, however,  the more freezer paper you can remove from the completed side, so  it gets easier. I surrounded each piece with a zigzag stitches, using metallic gold thread and a Microtex needle.

Once stitched, the backing stabilizer must be torn carefully away. 

(See any resemblance to the original map?!)

It gave me spilkes to cut that thing in half. I stitched the pieces to a 25"x 72" piece of vanilla fabric. 

 When the tallit is shut, the map is complete. 

As  you can see above, there are no corners or fringe yet. This was the point at which I had to send it off. The client wanted machine embroidery galore - a Hebrew-embroidered collar strip, plus their daughter's name, plus personal symbols in the four corners, plus a statement about journeys - 7 embroideries in all. I don't have an embroidery machine. The family had found someone near them to do it in their time frame. 

I also made them a reversible kippah, from the pattern in my handy-dandy yarmulke book, with green on one side....

...and light magenta/pink on the other.

The case is heavily quilted with the same gold metallic thread used on the map pieces. 

That divine button had been looking for a good home for years! Yay! 

Ta daaa! Done with a few days to spare! 

One more tip: If you are interested in creating a mappliqué of your favorite town, be sure to check the copyright restrictions. The Jerusalem map I used did not appear to have any, judging from the Library of Congress information that came with it.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

*A Dupioni Near-Dyeing Experience

Silk dupioni comes in luscious colors and has a beautiful shine. It can also be very challenging to work with.

When I started turning under the edges of the first or second map piece, as described above, I realized to my horror that the spray starch I was using to harden the turned edges was causing the dark magenta fabric to leach. My fingers were turning deep pink.

Horrified, I cut a small piece of the magenta dupioni, soaked it in water, and placed it on a white paper towel. The latter quickly turned dark pink, confirming that I was in big trouble.

I called the store where I had bought the silk. The person who answered the phone spoke only one word: "No", including, when I asked why yesterday's clerk yesterday had promised me that the fabric was colorfast: "No;" When the shop's owner might return?"No;" "Later today? "No;" Tomorrow? "No." etc.

That was hopeless, so I called a reputable online store that sold dupioni silk for premium prices and asked them if their magenta was colorfast, thinking that if it was, I would order an overnight delivery. They told me that they did not guarantee color fastness for any their dupioni. They recommended dry cleaning only. I checked around with a bunch more online vendors - and they all said the same thing.

Google offered astonishingly little in the way of answers to: "How do you make commercial dupioni silk colorfast?" Online friends made very helpful suggestions, including steaming, boiling, rinsing with vinegar, and more. But no one had completely set leaching dyes in commercial dupioni.

I called Dharmatrading.com, a wonderful fiber art supply company. The customer advisor was herself a dyer, which brought my blood pressure down a few notches. She told me her procedure for making home-dyed dupioni colorfast: She simmers it on the stove in a gallon or so of water, adding a fourth cup of vinegar every 10 minutes. Then she rinses out the vinegar, and washes the fabric with synthrapol.

True, her home dye's chemistry was probably completely different from the commercial dye in my fabric. But hers was the most specific action plan that I had heard, and it incorporated elements that many people had mentioned.

I already had some Dharma Trading synthrapol from previous dye-running disaster; I ran to the supermarket for white vinegar, and set to boiling, stirring, vinagering, rinsing, synthrapoling, rinsing, rinsing more, drying, pressing and testing. I did all this on the magenta fabric only - thank heavens the other colors did not run.

The procedure didn't halt the dye release, but it brought the amount waaayyyy down. Fortunately, it didn't change the luster or the hand (which washing dupioni, especially in hot water, can do, so always test a sample first!)

The finished tallit was sent off with an explanatory letter specifying that they should strive to keep it dry, take it off if there's a miraculous July rain in Jerusalem, and dry clean it only. I purposely left the magenta out of the kippah and the carrying case, to minimize the danger.

While writing this up, I found some helpful resources in stitching and laundering dupioni (though none of them would have solved the violent running problem). Don't make anything from dupioni silk (or any other silk), until you read these:

• Cheryl Lynch is the queen of quilted dupioni. This short guide is great. If I'd known about the fusible she recommends, I might have saved the hours I spent turning edges. http://cheryllynchquilts.blogspot.com/2011/10/taming-silk-dupioni.html

• Excellent tips from Cherry House Quilts. Read the tips in the comments too. http://lizzyhouse.typepad.com/cherry_house_quilts/2010/12/quilting-with-silk.html

• Dry cleaning tips: http://www.thaisilks.com/images/sales/WashSilk.pdf   . If I had to do it all over again, and if I had had a bit more time, I might have bulk-dry cleaned the silk before cutting and sewing, as this site and my friend Diane suggested (Thanks, Diane!)

• Important stuff on silk's limitations: https://www.silkbaron.com/Articles.asp?ID=248 

• A common sense plan for prewashing silk: http://quiltedonline.com/silk-patchwork-quilt-piecing-tutorial/

As for me, I'm going to think twice (and charge double) before I make another dupioni tallit - especially if it has any deep red/magenta in it.

I'd love to hear about your adventures with dupioni dyes. 

Stained Glass Brain 2: Straight Stitch Isn't Enough

 "Do you have a straight-stitch sewing machine, or a zigzag sewing machine?"

Fellow stitchers, what would you think if someone asked you that question? I would think: Here's somebody who once knew precisely the right question to ask about sewing machines.

But they haven't kept up. What about all the decorative stitches? Or the infinite stitch capabilities of computerized embroidery machines?  Or the high-power straight-stitch-only longarms?  "Straight or zigzag" doesn't even begin to cover it, and hasn't for the past thirty years or so.

Similarly, modern people can land anywhere along a wide and colorful gender and sexuality spectrum. Or rather, spectrums. "Straight or gay?"  is no longer nearly enough - and neither is LBGT. 

That's what I learned while working on this Bruce/Caitlyn Jenner-inspired many-gendered brain quilt. Here's where we left off last week, with freezer paper stencils surrounding a stained glass raw edge  appliqué brain. (There's a tutorial in that post.)

To backtrack a few years, I always thought that I was up on LBGT (Lesbian, Bi Gay Trans) issues, simply from reading and talking to friends.Then I spotted LBGTQ and had to look it up, Queer? Are you sure? Yes, indeed. The former insult had become a term of pride, to mean - 'gender non-conforming.'  

Years later, I stumbled across LBGTQQ -  I was sure that second Q was a typo, but just in case, checked with my teenager who had a terrific sex-ed class. Good thing I did! Q turned out to be Questioning! 

So then I was sure I knew it all, until a few months ago, I read that Facebook offers 56 different gender options! (They limit you to 10, however!?)

Not only that, but LBGTQQ had grown into LGBPTTQQIIAA+.  Did a cat step on a keyboard? No, it means (after the usual LGB) Pansexual, Transgender, Transexual, Queer, Questioning, Intersex, Intergender, Asexual, Ally. (I'm not sure what the + is for - does it mean "etcetera?")

While plotting out this quilt, it was clarified to me that when people talk about gender issues, they're talking about two different things: 

1. Gender identity. Which gender, if any, you identify with, 

2. Sexual preference, Which gender, if any, you feel desire for. 

And, like stitch length, width and shape, #1 and #2 can go together in an infinity of ways. 

So I decided to surround my quilted brain with gender identities and sexual orientations, plus a few words for allies.

I used words from friends and several different gender and sexuality vocabulary lists on the Internet. (One is here; teen-oriented list here.)  Here's the master list I compiled: 

Advocate

 Agender

Androgyne

Androgynous

Androsexual/Androphylic
Asexual

Bigender

Bisexual
Butch

Cis
Cisgender

Cis Female

 Cis Male

 Cis Man

Cis Woman

Cisgender Female

Cisgender Male

Cisgender Man

Cisgender Woman

Closeted

Coming Out

Cross dressing
Dyke (like 'queer,' a former insult turned into a positive)

 Female

 Female-to-Male, FTM

Male-to-Female, MTF
Femme
Femandrogyne/femandro

Gay

Genderless
Gender Fluid

Gender Nonconforming

 Genderqueer

Gender Questioning

Gender Variant

Gynesexual/Gynephilic

Heterosexual
Homosexual (now considered outdated and stigmatizing)

  Intersex

  Lesbian

 Male

Neutrois (Genderless)
neutandrogyne/neutandro

Omnisexual

Other

Pansexual

Pangender

Queer

Questioning

Neither

 Tomboy

Trans
Trans Gender

Trans Female

Trans Male

Trans Man

Trans Person

Trans Woman

Transfeminine

Transgender

Transgender Female

Transgender Male
Transgender Man

 Transgender Person
Transgender Woman

Transitioning

Transmasculine

 Transsexual

 Transsexual Female

Transsexual Male

 Transsexual Man

Transsexual Person

Transsexual Woman

Two-Spirit
Versandro/Versatile androgyne

That's about 75 terms. And believe it or not, there are many more; some I felt uncomfortable using, and some are still rolling in (see comments below).

I do not envy anyone in the unconventional category. No one would willingly go through what they endure, especially growing up, if they had a choice. So if they're a little picky about which of  75+ terms they want to be called - that's fine with me! More quilt coverage!

On the other hand, I also read that not all gender-nonconforming people like these labels. To tell you the truth, as I was stitching them out, some were a little intimidating. (I am a 'cis-person,' which sounds uncomfortable. I did once have a cyst on my ovary...never mind...)

That's why I decided to circle the borders with relationship words. Whatever the label, conforming and non-conforming people are ours. Our brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, friends, neighbors, ancestors, descendants, our beloveds.

I filled in the corner spaces with stylized neurons. (They look like starfish or sand dollars. Needs work.)

Initially, I had painted in the relationship words with "Decoulerant," a discharge product that is supposed to bleach out the words. But it didn't work consistently (I may not have used enough). When I removed the stencils, the relationship words around the borders were hard to read....

So I  painted inside the letters, using rainbow colors. I was literally painting on Friday while listening to the news announcement that the Supreme Court had upheld same-sex marriage. It felt so right.

Here's the more-or-less finished quilt. 

Incidentally, the concept of  a gender spectrum is not new. I just read an article which argues that classical Judaism has a half-dozen genders. One of the loveliest terms on new gender lists is the Native American  "Two Spirit." (Update: My friend Ellie sent me another Native American term: Berdach. Please look in the comments for more terms that Ellie sent me!)

If you don't have someone who's gender nonconforming in your life, watch this bat mitzvah kid. She is so poised and articulate, she made me cry. 

Part I of this series is here.

Congratulations to all the new potential brides and grooms (and the old ones, too)! 

Bruce Jenner and a Stained Glass Brain Quilt Tutorial

I didn't watch the interview with then-Bruce/now-Caitlyn Jenner last month when she first announced that she is transgender, but I read about it, and one quotation stuck in my head, so to speak: "My brain is much more female than it is male."

That statement got me (and millions of others) thinking and arguing about what it means to have a brain that is masculine, feminine, both, or neither.    

Hmmm, just like my fabric stash. I have karate fabric and soccer fabric and football fabric that only depicts boys and men. 

And I have shopping fabric and housework fabric and handbag fabric with only girls or women, and/or in traditional girl colors. 

I do, however, have a golf fabric that depicts women golfers. 

(She's wearing blue pants. Is that code?)

It seems obvious to me that all our brains have masculine and feminine elements, but then again, what exactly is masculine or feminine? Is golf inherently manly? Is tea womanly? (If so: What gender is coffee?)

So, into my own brain came an idea for a quilt with male, female, and uncategorizable aspects. 

First, I looked at a lot of vintage phrenology images. Then I freehanded a brain chart on a large piece of paper. 

There are a zillion different ways to create stained glass effects in fabric. The technique I use here is adapted and simplified from Vicki Pignatelli's Quilting Curves. Great book!

 I don't have a huge ironing board, so I put it on top of a thick beach towel on the floor, to protect the carpet from iron burns. I laid black fabric (to serve as a stained-glass leading) onto that surface.

I traced the brain onto freezer paper, then pinned the freezer paper onto black fabric, shiny side down. 

I went through my stash, and found fabrics that seemed to have a gender. I made three piles: One for traditionally male, one for traditionally female, and one that could be both/neither.

Beginning at an edge, I cut out a freezer paper piece.

Placed it on the fabric to highlight the design.

Ironed it down. 

Cut a ways out from all the edges - 1/4" or more is good. Call this the safety margin. It doesn't have to be precise. 

(Now I'm switching to showing you a green piece because I didn't take a picture of the next two vital steps with the blue piece above - sorry!) 

Place the unit on top of the paper-backed fusible web, web side up, with the fabric covering the protruding fusible along at least one edge.

'

The upper right edge can be ironed safely, first. 

Once its partially pressed, cut the other edges off, cutting THROUGH the quarter inch margin of safety, but NOT going close around the paper pattern yet. Press again. 

Once the web is fully adhered to the back, it's time to cut close around the freezer paper pattern.

Peel away the freezer paper, but leave the paper backing behind the fabric.

Count the sides. This piece has about four. Keeping track of where you started, cut all the way around the piece again, removing about 1/4" from each of four side (does not have to be perfect). 

Now the fabric piece is smaller than the freezer paper pattern piece. This will allow the black "leading" to show. Put the piece back in position. You can see the black around all the edges.

Optional: Pin paper back in position on top of it (this is especially important if your project requires a high degree of accuracy.)

 

(Here I decided at the last minute to combine two pieces.) 

 Once you have done a bunch, it looks like this.

At some point, you can remove the freezer paper patterns. 

Press everything in position. 

Cut around the entire shape. 

Here's a closeup

On the left side, which I arbitrarily dubbed the female side, we have the pink handbag fabric, chocolates, bras, childrearing, a tea party, a peace symbol,  

A closeup of the "Good Advice fabric:

It says, "Act Bashful, Be Cute, Be Motherly". 

A drama comic...

and of course, the womanly art of vacuuming.

On the manly right side, I put Teddy Roosevelt, pliers, jacknives, darts, war planes, motorboats, basketballs, screws, electrical cords and the Yankees (among other things). 

Down the middle I put many things whose gender association is not so clichéd...like maps; bicycles; mortality (skeletons). Ms. Golf.

I stitched everything in place with a zig-zag stitch in invisible thread. Next installment: Stitching it on the background, and quilting 75 gender identities and orientations into the background. Sneak preview: 

By the way, there is some science affirming what Bruce/Caitlyn described; Not only are male and female brains different, but gay men and straight women may have notable brain similarities distinct from those of straight men and gay women. (Read about them here..)

Continue to part II, here. 

Need Coffee & Batik Scraps

For the last two weeks (1, 2) I've been showing quilts inspired by my coffee obsession. Here's a third one. It's made entirely of batik scraps.

There's an imaginary pipeline that leads from green coffee beans, horizontal across the top,

...to brown beans, vertically running down. 

The lettering reads "Need Coffee." The cups (complete with eyes, to ward away the evil eye/bad coffee), beans, and letters are cut freehand. They're raw-edge appliquéd. 

For the bottom, I created a graduated strip set, Perhaps it represents foamed milk floating on coffee? (Or self-layering Jello?)

Embellished it with coffee-and-cream shaded buttons. (Milk molecules?)

Want to make your own version but need directions? Find them in Quilts for Coffee Lovers, here. For more adventures with batik scraps, start here.

P.S. I shared this link at Nina Marie Sayre's gorgeous art quilt blog. Her off-the-wall Friday project is a great way to share the week's creativity.