octodecagon madness

 About a year ago I started making little color wheel quilts as color mixing references for myself. I made two little ones using different sets of primaries. The one one the left was muted primaries, the one on the right was bright primaries. I liked the muted one better so started piecing it first. It doesn't lie flat. For the second one, I decided to try bias binding because I had never done it before. It still needs to be finished. They turned out to not be that helpful, but I learned a lot making them.

 Then I decided that what I really needed was a giant color wheel quilt. So I drew the plans for an 80" diameter do-decagon (12 sided) color wheel with eight steps from light to dark in each color. I also figured out the dye recipes and then it sat in my graph paper pad for months. In January I got an intern and it was the perfect time to dust of the do-decagon plans. While I was too busy to work on it, Aaron had plenty of internship hours to fill and already knew how to dye using my method because he was in my surface design class at KCAI last semester. Yay for interns! So, he started dyeing the fabric and somewhere along the way we decided twelve sections wasn't really enough. It should really have 18 sections. That's 144 colors. If Aaron hadn't been around, this quilt would probably still exist only in my head and my graph paper pad. I am super excited that it exists in real life, and so is my cat, Owen.

The quilt after quilting, before trimming and binding. Owen is helping.

The finished quilt with invisible binding. Isn't it like magic?

It really is like magic. Or science. Or something. This quilt was made using my three favorite custom primary colors (red, yellow, and blue). So the gradation happens not only from dark to light but from color to color. There is one big mistake in this quilt (and a couple of little mistakes) and that is the red dye was not consistent. Aaron and I lost track of which red we were using to mix our custom red and some of the oranges and purples came out not right. But I kind of don't care. The next one will be closer to perfect and will have 24 sections. It will be more like magic than this one.

New Website!!

My new website is officially up! A very talented graphic design student at the Kansas City Art Institute, Taylor Pruitt, designed it for me. She did an amazing job! She also designed me a new etsy banner, new look to this blog, and some other great stuff like business cards, letterhead, etc.
Below is a screen shot of the website, or you can visit it yourself at kimemquilts.com.

And here is a sneak peek of one of the things I have been working on the past few months (it's a hand-dyed octo-decahedron color wheel quilt) :

It will be finished soon and then off to Plug Projects in the West Bottoms for a color show that opens on May 18.

Watkins Woolen Mill!!

I am on spring break and in true spring break fashion I am having a week of heavy drinking, hooking up, getting sunburned, and generally making bad decisions. 

Not really. 

I've never had that kind of spring break. Instead, my parents came to visit and we took a day trip to Watkins Woolen Mill, made homemade ice cream, did some yard work, and went to a winery. That stuff is more my speed.

Anyways, who knew that Watkins Woolen Mill was so cool? Anyone? It is truly a great place to visit and only about 40 minutes north of Kansas City. Watkins Mill is a state park that encompasses a woolen mill (surprise) and Bethany Farm - Waltus Watkins' house, orchard, garden, etc. You can tour the house, grounds, and mill for a very small fee. In my party of four, only I am a fiber nerd. But my parents are good natured and easily entertained and my husband likes anything that is either outside or has to do with history or both. We were all thoroughly impressed and here are pictures to prove how cool Watkins Mill is. Go there. For realz.

 

This is a sweet red and green log cabin quilt. I think it is wool.

 

 More red and green in the carpet. Have you ever seen carpet like that? I haven't. Well, now I have.

 They had the same china that my in-laws have. How weird is that? And the tour guide mentioned something about grandma haunting the house. I couldn't tell if she was joking.

 Have you ever seen a turkey up close? They aren't pretty. This one was quite talkative.

 These are giant carding machines for combing the wool fibers into roving. The people who ran the carders were paid the most of anyone in the mill because their job required the most skill and was the most dangerous. You can lose a finger in there.

This is the rear-view of a warping wheel. All of those cones of yarn feed through hooks and then onto a giant wheel that measures the warp before it goes to the loom. 

All of the wool was grown at Watkins Mill, washed, sorted, dyed, spun, plied, skeined, woven, and sold. There was also a great market area that I didn't take pictures of. Sad face.

West Elm!!!

Oh my goodness. I have been keeping this to myself (well, mostly to myself) for months and now it is for real so I can share it. Usually I don't talk about things until they are for real in case something happens to make them not for real anymore. You know? So here it is.

My quilts are in the West Elm catalog, y'all! The first Spring 2012 catalog came out today and two of my quilts are featured on page 106/107. I could probably be happier, but I'm not sure how. They look so good. Don't you think?

This news totally hijacked a post I was planning about my trip to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. I guess that will have to wait. Now it's time to dance around the kitchen with an unwilling cat in my arms.

Deck the Halls NYC

A few weeks ago I sent some quilts to Caitlin Mociun (a clothing, fabric, and jewelry designer in NYC). She is going to be opening a shop in Brooklyn sometime early next year. Until then, she is showing her work and some of the artists and designers she will be including in her shop (including me!) at Deck the Halls. Anyone lucky enough to be in New York City this holiday season needs to get themselves over there. It is 12 days of shopping, from December 10 - 22, at the Old School, 32 Prince Street, NYC open each day from 12 - 8pm. It looks so fabulous. I'm totally jealous of anyone who gets to do some Christmas/Hanukkah/Winter Holiday shopping there.
For the rest of us, here are some pictures of what we're missing (pictures borrowed from core77):

My quilts. I think they look great on this ladder.

Mociun's table full of goodness

BKLYN Dry Goods

fabric scraps for everyone

The semester is almost over and today was my first official day off in which I had absolutely nothing that had to be done. Of course there are always things that should be done, but those can wait. I went grocery shopping at the good grocery store and went down every aisle. Then I came home and decided to tackle my fabric stash. After gentle nudging and friendly reminders from Andrea in my quilt guild, I have finally gotten my sh*t together to start selling my extra fabric. This afternoon there was an explosion of fabric in my sewing room as I dug out all the little scraps from quilts I've been saving and all of the color samples and shibori examples I've been hoarding. I put together little bundles that are for sale in my etsy shop. Here is a sampling of what's available.

1/4 lb scrap bags of hand dyed cotton

there are 8 of them

1/4 lb bundles of shibori and screen printed fabric pieces

6 pack bundles of shibori, each piece is 1/8 to 1/4 yard of hand dyed cotton

and fat quarter bundles of 2 solid and 2 mottled dyed fabrics each (1 yard total per bundle)

Sorting through everything made me excited to start a fun new project. Now I just have to decide what to make...

sometimes you make a rainbow on accident.

Dang, November. Where did you go? Oh right, you flew by while I was busy making these new quilts. These quilt friends are headed to New York very very soon. I just finished sewing the bindings and washing them last night. They still need to have all their little threads tucked in, labels sewn on, and mega lint rolling. Please forgive the rough studio photos.

65" x 65", 16 hand dyed colors

also 65" x 65", 16 hand dyed colors (I like this one best, it feels tropical)

there's a pattern here. see the other two for details.

queen size (85" x 92"), 40 hand dyed colors of rainbow goodness

I can't wait to get photos of them on beds. Especially the last one. I'm uncertain about how much I like the last one. It is rather like a rainbow explosion. In my head the colors did not form a rainbow, but I suppose when you gradate between red, yellow, and blue you really ought to expect a rainbow. I realize that now. At first, I felt sick when I realized that I had made a rainbow quilt, when I had intended to make a sunset quilt. But now I am embracing the rainbow. It feels playful and fun and happy. We'll see what the response is, but worst case scenario: I have a new quilt for my bed.

Wonder Fair is Wonderful!

A couple of weeks ago I was invited to participate in a show in Lawrence, KS at Wonder Fair. The Wonder Fair is an amazing shop. Seriously. You walk up a narrow set of stairs and emerge into a sunlight filled, high ceiling-ed, wooden floored treasure house. It is one part shop filled with hand made goods and prints (including two of my favorite makers Donna Wilson and APAK) and one part gallery space. I bought Simon a sweet George R. R. Martin t-shirt there today.
Anyways, the upcoming show is called Hibernation and I'm more excited about this show than pretty much any other show I've been in recently. If you live within 60 miles of Lawrence, make the trek to the opening this Friday 10/28 from 6 to 10 pm. It will be worth the drive.

don't you love this image they made?

In addition to four of my quilts, there will be work by Christa Dalien and Kelly John Clark (two of my classmates from grad school at KU) and work by Dan McCarthy and Cat Rabbit (double love!).
Meredith and Paul wrote this description of the show, which I think is lovely:

 As the crisp chill of autumn creeps up the stairs of the Wonder Fair, we've begun to gird our loins for another long winter—Wonder Fair style. Preparations begin with Hibernation, an installation-based exhibition and D-I-Y idea kit designed to inspire winter-time productivity. Hibernation transforms the gallery into a cozy cabin, complete with custom-designed screen-printed armchairs, hand-printed brick fireplace, snuggly screen-printed firewood, and a charming menagerie of winter-ready stuffed animals. In their midst, Wonder Fair is thrilled to present a selection of hand-dyed quilts by Kansas City-based artist Kim Eichler-Messmer. In four stunning quilts, Eichler-Messmer translates Midwestern winter landscapes into beautiful, functional pieces of art.

At a special opening event (Final Friday, October 28,) visitors are invited to crawl through an extensive blanket fort to reach the Wonder Bar, a pop-up cantina stocked with hot mixed drinks, cocoa, and gingerbread. Throughout the month, the gallery will feature printed installations by Kelly John Clark, Christa Dalien, and members of the Wonder Fair Family; quilts by Kim Eichler-Messmer; fiber-sculpted woodland creatures by Cat Rabbit; and prints by Jonathan Metzger, Dan McCarthy, and Ashley G. (Goldberg). A series of hibernation-themed knitting/crochet events and performances are planned for each weekend of the run of Hibernation; details will be made available through the website.

I hope to see you at the opening!

Fabric Dyeing Workshop 10/23

In a couple of weeks I will be teaching a fabric dyeing workshop in my studio. This is the first time I've thought about doing such a thing and with the support of my quilt guild, I decided it was time to go for it. It's going to be fun. 

my studio!

 I've been working on getting dye kits made for the students and planning out what projects we will do. The workshop is designed mostly for quilters, but anyone who is interested in learning how to dye cotton or silk using Procion MX dyes would benefit from it. This workshop is going to cover the basics: solid shade dyeing, gradation dyeing, and some low water dyeing (Ann Johnston's technique for getting interesting mottled colors). 

a lovely assortment of hand dyed fabric scraps

 I'm sort of waiting to see how well this goes and what the interest is, but if it goes well and people want more I'm thinking of additional workshops that would be a little more advanced, like shibori, color matching, and percentage dyeing (the method I use that is precise and reproducible). Here is the flyer for the workshop:

As you can see, members of the Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild get a discounted rate of $40 because the guild is sponsoring the workshop. Non-members pay $75, which is still a really good deal. There is also a $20 supply fee that covers a dye starter kit with all the dyes and chemicals to get you started and two yards of my favorite fabric for dyeing. And guess what! There are two spots left in the Sunday, October 23 workshop! Anyone in Kansas City interested? Go to my etsy listing to grab a spot!

the quilt that is testing every ounce of my patience

I've been having a pretty good run of creativity lately. I made a bunch of new quilts (7!!) for my show at Park University in the span of about two months. They all were easy peasy - get an idea, dye the fabric, piece the top, quilt the thing, done. No issues, no ugliness, just a series of good quilts. Then it all went down the drain. There is going to be a Kansas City Art Institute Faculty show in October and of course, I wanted to make a new quilt for it. And of course, it should be kind of big. At first I thought queen size, but there will be 35 of us in the show and a queen size quilt seemed like a space hog. So I went with twin size (65" x 88" ish).
Nothing is going right with this quilt (you can read more about it in my last blog post).

Here it is in phase 3. I didn't take pictures of phases 1 and 2 because I forgot. And they were just too dreadful. To be fair, phase 1 wasn't really that bad. It just wasn't great. You know? It was fine, but boring. Phase 2 was pathetic and looked like I was trying too hard. Phase 3 is everything that happened on Saturday night, if you're following along. I really love the piecing in the lower left quadrant of the quilt. That will have to come back in another quilt, with slightly different colors.

In phase 4 I decided this was a winter quilt. So I dunked the whole bottom half in thiox (a really pungent chemical that strips dye out of fabric) hoping it would turn white. It turned a weird light greenish-tan. I knew that would happen, I'm not sure why I thought thiox would do something different this time, but there it is. So then I thought it would all be magically fixed if I dyed the bottom half a really pale blue color so it would like kind of icy. It didn't. It looked green. Bright, acid green with some sections of pale blue. Gr! So phase 6 was stripping the color out again (!!!) with thiox. Phase 7 was to dye the bottom half black.

All of the lovely piecing is still there, its just now all brownish and blackish and purplish. This is the thing after I quilted it for the second time. That's right, second time. The first time I quilted the bottom with some green thread that is really very lovely in theory, but in practice it looked like hell so I spent nearly 2 hours ripping out all the quilting. I'm happy. I think. Maybe I'm just happy to be nearly done with it (only binding to go).

Does anyone remember the Barbie doll who would say "math is hard"? There was a commercial for her I think when I was in high school, which would have been the mid 90's. She was annoying and made an even worse role model for girls than she already was. Anyways. Quilting is hard.