Detail from "Rain Dance," an original quilt by Sherrie Spangler

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Breezy scarf and Rayna strips


I needed a color fix last night after days of rain, ice, gray ... so I made this scarf from the silk scraps on my studio floor.


It wasn't exactly a quick project, but that was OK because it provided hours of machine time blissfully soaking in the bright colors. I sandwiched my hand-painted silk scraps and some other glitzy fabric and yarn between layers of Sulky Solvy (see my post here about the technique) and sewed all over with angles to mimic the shapes of the scraps. I used YLI metallic gold and a variety of other colors.

Note: I didn't have any problems with the foot sticking this time, probably because it's so dry in the house now that the heat has been on.


This morning was the exciting part, soaking it in a sinkful of water (above) and seeing what emerged after the Solvy dissolved away. This only took a couple of minutes. I squeezed out the excess moisture in a towel, and it's almost ready to wear!


I say almost, because I think I'll give it a quick press with the iron so it doesn't look quite so raggedy. The power was off again part of today, so I didn't get around to the ironing yet.


Here's how it looks with a green background (my ironing board cover).

And here is what's going on with the free-form strips I'm sewing using Rayna Gillman's technique from her new book, "Create Your Own Free-Form Quilts." I'm still rearranging segments and adding more sections. This is a warmup for tackling the ugly-fabric challenge that I wrote about earlier.

You can read about the challenge here.

Hope you're all either weathering the storms or enjoying sunny weather!

Have a colorful day!

6 comments:

Pam said...

The scarf is beautiful, Sherrie! And, I love that free-form way of quiltmaking,it's so...liberating--and NO math, which is very much my style!! The picture you posted of the one you're woking on is fabulous--is right up my alley!!

Terri Stegmiller said...

Your quilt is looking great....love the colors you are using.

Judy Ferguson said...

Looks like the sticking problem was caused by humidity problems. That was good to know. I will be trying this project later on this year. Thanks for posting.

Sherrie Spangler said...

Thanks, everyone! The scarves and free-form strips really are fun and liberating. I highly recommend them!

NancyD said...

Great looking scarf Sherrie. They get better the more you make and to think they are just made out of scraps!!!

bohemiannie! art said...

Hi Sherrie! Your scarf and Rayna quilt are looking so beautiful. I've done some scarves with Sulky...but not with silk! Have you seen the shawls and wearable art people are making with this technique. Or...are you one of those that do that?!? I love the wonkyness of you your challenge quilt. Makes me want to do one. :)