Collector of fiber

C is for collector of fiber.

While in high school, my first job was at a fabric shop. I've been collecting fabric and fiber-related stuff ever since. Besides collecting it, I also like to sun print, dye, and marble fabric.

When I travel in the summer, I take along pretreated fabric to sun print. 

Clockwise from top left are sun-printed plants, a flower, doilies, chilies, and wild mushrooms. I have also sun-printed meadow grasses, ferns, and weeds. Yes, weeds!

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The process of dyeing fabric looked difficult, messy, and scary. That is until 1995 when Vimala McClure wrote "Pack a Peck of Pickled Pieces" for American Quilter magazine. Her method of using pint-sized canning jars and three colors of dyes to make 24 fat quarters of different colors is easy, easy, easy, and fun! Vimala also published a book on this technique, Fabric Dyeing for Beginners.

Marbling is a technique that you're never certain what a piece will look like until the fabric is pulled off the paint. Experience has taught me when I should just quit fiddling with the design and place the fabric in the paint already. In the samples, you'll see I usually don't use white fabric.


To play with these techniques, it's zany!