Dark Star (Indigo and Osage)

This quilt is made with linen, cotton, and raw silk. The colors are achieved using natural (plant based) dyes. The fabrics are hand dyed by me in my backyard, here in Austin, Texas. The design in inspired by traditional star quilts. This size makes for a great wall hanging, or throw for a bed or sofa.

The yellows hues are achieved using the heartwood of the osage orange tree. Osage orange (Maclura pomifora) is native to Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas but has naturalized throughout many other states. It has a yellow heartwood that makes a bright and lightfast yellow dye. Osage was one of the dyes used to make khaki colored uniforms during the first World War.

The blues in this quilt are created using natural Indigo. Indigo is a dye different than any other. It does not require a mordant, rather it is dyed through a living fermentation process. Vat indigo is complex and requires proper instruction, experience, commitment, and comprehension of what's going on in the dye vat and maintaing a balanced alkaline solution. To achieve dark blue I immerse the fabric in the dye bath numerous times, allowing the cloth to dry between sessions, layering the color on the cloth creates a darker blue with each dip.

Hand quilted using japanese sashiko cotton thread. Sashiko quilting uses simple running stitches, slightly larger than traditional quilting stitches. The edges are finished using a double-binding technique with the same indigo dyed linen fabric from the patchwork design.

machine pieced, hand quilted, 62 inches x 62 inches

This quilt is available for shipment after October 21st.