For my current design, I need yardage in similar color organic patterns. Ice-dyeing yardage provides a large background color pallet to use as is, cut, or overlay with other surface design methods.

©2024 Amanda Snavely

Working with yardage can be cumbersome but it is helpful when you need the flexibility of larger sections.

The yardage is a background layer of color, texture and pattern that will be painted, cut, and manipulated many times during the design process. Before I whip out my rotary cutter and paint I take a before photo of a couple of potential sections.

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Crank up the music and the fun begins.

The Call for Entry asked the artists to “reimagine a world through an alternate, extraordinary timeline. Imagine our bodies merged with our devices or a world shared with sentient robots or other life forms.

What would a refrigerator, a clock, or even a lawn mower look like if it ran on steam power?

What sort of people would live on the streets of a decaying metropolis, starkly divided between haves and have-nots, with police drones patrolling above and neon lights cutting through the thick, dirty air?

Will science and technology free us from mundane daily chores, or enslave us to a global corporate master?

The opportunities are endless. Artists are invited to explore the science fiction worlds of cyberpunk, steampunk, dieselpunk, biopunk, atompunk, clockpunk, nanopunk, and more!” (SAQA Global)

The title EcoSarra is a nod to Sarraceniaceae in my vision of Forest/Bio Punk.

EcoSarra

I gave up friends, family, and the outside world to create a future for my plants – my bioengineered family. The constant negative backlash over bioengineering forced me into my safe place, my world inside Green Lab. Along with my carnivorous babies, I grew, changed, and thrived as the outside world destroyed itself. My latest experiment, becoming a part of the chain, both absorbing carbon and creating my own form of oxygen may be the only way to survive the destruction.  I look into the mirror and wonder if I will ever leave or want to leave. I become more and more like my babies every day.  For now, we are safe inside Green Lab. Thankfully cockroaches did survive the disaster. Yum! Lunch!

• Materials: Wire and mixed media armature, salvage army surplus, ice- dyed silk organza, various threads

• Techniques: Armature building, assemblage, ice dying, hand-stitching

The first venues scheduled for the exhibition tour are:

New England Quilt Museum, Lowell, Massachusetts: April 30 - July 13, 2024
Festival of Quilts, Birmingham, United Kingdom: August 1 - December 31, 2024

More info will be available in the coming months on the SAQA website.

The final piece is 6” x 8”. The Spotlight Auction will be an online event taking place during the 2023 SAQA Conference Pathways to Possibilities. The auction will be available on Handbid to a worldwide audience. All proceeds will help support SAQA programs.

Due to the small size of the artwork, here are a few more images highlighting the scale and detail of my hand stitching process.

Gnarled © 2022 Amanda Snavely

Gnarled and faded I remain, shelter for your storm.

DETAIL IMAGES

See all of the artists’ work for the SAQA Benefit Auction at https://www.saqa.com/auction

Hand-stitching through layers of fabric requires auditioning many different types of thread. I also paint many of my backgrounds with acrylic paint which requires me to pay close attention to the size of the hole my needle makes when stitching. My work is heavily hand-stitched so fibers that don’t fray, fuzz, or tangle are a must. I work across the surface of my work so I do not like using hoops that limit the stitching area to a small square or circle. Instead, I use felt as my inner layer to stabilize the fabric for hand-stitching without a hoop or frame. For extremely large pieces I do have a rug frame that allows me to scroll large sections for stitching at the time.

For variety, in material, finish, effect, and stitch size I use a large number of threads per piece. The above photo only includes some of the threads I selected for the background of this 6” x 8” piece I later stitched for the SAQA 2022 Spotlight Auction.

Photographing metallic threads can be a challenge but this photo gives you an idea of the range of threads combined in a piece of my work.

Welcome to my Thread Stash.

The most affordable option for some stitches is using traditional sewing threads such as Guttermann Viscose, Cotton, Polyester, or Silk thread. I use Guttermann, Sulky, Superior, and other brands for hand and machine stitching. I divide the threads by material in Ikea drawer organizers like the above one for Viscose.

Cheap embroidery threads like these from Simthread I get on Amazon to fill in random colors. These do unravel very easily off the top of the spool. I use Hugo’s Amazing Tape to keep these threads from turning into a bird’s nest.

Presencia’s cotton sewing thread’s color selection is one of my favorites for use with my hand-dyed fabric.

I especially like the look of small stitches in 100% silk. I use a variety of brands of silk thread similar to the Tire silk above.

For thicker threads, I use some DMC 8 or 12 cotton pearl. Presencia No 8 or 12 also works. Presencia No 16 is a little thicker than I generally prefer to hand-stitch with though I have a few still in my stash.

When I am hand-dyeing fabric with Procion Fiber Reactive Dyes I throw in the thread I have prewrapped on plastic thread organizers. I loosely wrap the thread. It does variegate depending on the resist of the layered wrapping on the dye accessing the fibers when bound. I like this variegation but if you do not, opt to loosely tie hanks of thread and dye flat in a pan instead of tossing in the bucket with fabric. I use cotton or silk thread in natural colors to add to my dye pot. I particularly like the silk thread from Aurora Silk in Oregon for dyeing.

A heavier weight fiber of 100% Tencel I like is dyed by Teresa Ruch. Her variegated skeins like the ones above offer an interesting range of color. I do need to try a better way of keeping these untangled once I begin using them though.

I prefer the 10/2 weight for hand-stitching. I love the look and feel of many yarns primarily used or knitting, weaving, or crochet but many do not work well for hand-stitching fabric. You can couch thicker yarns but I prefer to use the thinner yarns to stitch with instead of couch.

Habu Textiles offers fabulous different fibers for accents. They are more temperamental to work with though, so I only use them for small pops of color, texture, or interest.

I have a love/hate relationship with metallic threads. I have finally narrowed down my selection to metallics that do not make me scream in frustration. Giovanna Imperia Metal Gerbera or Verbenna were my favorite when they were still available online.

Kreinik Metallics are my favorite choice to find locally at needlepoint or embroidery stores. I prefer to see pick colors in person versus online whenever possible.

Kreinik Metallics are my primary metallics for hand-stitching. The metallic braids work for stitching my layers with very little fraying issues. I use #16 braid, Tapestry #12 braid, Fine #8 braid, and very fine #4 braid. #16 is a little thick for my preference so I only use it for added emphasis areas.

Soy Luster is a newer addition to my thread stash. I don’t like fuzzy threads but have found this Soy Luster appears fairly smooth when stitched through most of my layers.

Silken Pearl is one of the other miscellaneous brands I have tried and like though it is a bit more expensive so I only use their variegated options.

I sometimes try other new threads based on color. I generally only buy one or two colors before buying more. Treasure Braid metallics was my go-to until I switched to Kreinik Metallics. Sajou 100% cotton is a newer addition to my stash but I like it so far.

I often take a piece in progress with me to the store with a photo on my phone showing some of the threads I already plan to use. Otherwise, I find I often buy a lot of similar colors to ones I already have in my stash. This helps me expand my stash without too much overlap.

My final thought on thread for hand-stitching is that I am always looking at what brands are being used by artists I like. The lists of vendors, materials, tools, etc. in the back of books by author’s I like is always a great place to find more options. There are tons of different threads available but many are not meant for the friction of hand-stitching through fabric layers unfortunately.

My Favorite - I love the surprise organic lines and shapes of the thin paste on wet soda-soaked fabric

I was surprised how much more I enjoyed the exercises on wet soda-soaked fabric over the dry fabric. The fluid organic lines and intermixing of colors had interesting results. I will definitely spend more time with the same techniques and additional colors with varying thicknesses of print paste.

HIGHLIGHTS

Dyeing:

Color by Accident - Ann Johnston

Color By Design - Ann Johnston

Fabric Dyer’s Dictionary - Linda Johansen (I bought the e-book version. It is a pain to flip through to look for a specific color on my IPAD. I need to buy a used copy as it is out of print)

Surface Design:

Art Cloth - Jane Dunnewold

The Surface Designer’s Handbook - Holly Brackmann

Visual Texture on Fabric - Lisa Kerpoe (Resist Technique Options)

The Painted Quilt - Linda & Laura Kemshall (Short Overview of Techniques but visually appealing for an older book)

Digital Fiber Art - Wen Redmond

Quilt Related or 3D Fiber:

Disclaimer: I have never been a traditional quilter so have a few just to flip through or loan out

Journey to Inspired Art Quilting - Jean Wells

Visual Guide to Working in a Series - Elizabeth Barton

The Uncommon Quilter - Jeanne Williamson

Exploring Dimensional Quilt Art - C. June Barnes

Stitch, Fibre, Metal & Mixed Media - Alysn Midgelow-Marsden

Three - Dimensional Embroidery - Janey Edmonds

Stitching:

The Intentional Thread - Susan Brandeis (Written by my college professor so I may be biased, but I learn something every time I pick it back up)

Connecting Design to Stitch - Sandra Meech

Drawn to Stitch - Gwen Hedley

The Geometry of Hand-Sewing - Natalie Chanin (Variety of stitches shown; images are not annoyingly cutesy or crafty like most embroidery related books)

Poetic Cloth - Hannah Lamb (I’m not sure I learned anything new from this book, but I like flipping through it. It is visually soothing, like visiting the spa.)

Paint a Color Wheel - My first and second attempts. I need to go back and try a third time especially in the red variations.

For green, I started with an equal amount of yellow and blue and then added yellow incrementally. I approached the exercise mathematically. I thought if I started with equal amounts, I would get a base color to work from. In the future, I think I should start with yellow and add blue in small increments. The blue was dominant and it required much more yellow than I anticipated.

Lessons learned - pay better attention to painting straight so as not to overlap lines next time. I added blue to yellow this time but only in 1/4 tsp increments. I need to start on a larger piece of fabric or adjust my increments so I can get from yellow to blue.

I need better lighting in my laundry room. When wet, it appeared I was achieving black. Once dry and in better lighting, it was obvious that I need to try again. Or, stick with using the premixed black dye powders I generally use until I can try this exercise again. I really like a lot of the colors though so am keeping these pages for future reference.

I really should have started over and done all of these another time. However, I’m impatient and wanted to get to the next Chapter. So, I am working out some of the issues I had here while working on future Chapters.

Happy Dyeing!

I am excited to announce that my piece, Sanctuary, was juried into the SAQA Oregon Habitat Exhibition. Habitat, is currently scheduled to show in six galleries throughout Oregon. It will then travel to be shown in a gallery in New Mexico.

Sanctuary - Detail 3

STITCHED by Amanda Snavely

6” H x 8” W

Acrylic painted canvas, hand-stitching

For Auction on March 21st at the SAQA Conference’s Spotlight Auction in Toronto, Canada

I am excited to announce that my art was used for the Gallery Guide and the Postcard for the show.

Millie:

The official greeter of anyone visiting my studio.

Millie is also the studio therapist and the first to talk someone down off a cliff. She has the patience of a saint.

Millie works for ear scratches and belly rubs.

Indie:

The life of the party.

Indie will convince you that jumping off the cliff sounds like a great idea and will even jump first.

Indie occasionally has her serious moments. But is more likely to run through the studio squeaking a toy during Zoom meetings.

She will let you know when she thinks you have a fabulous idea.

Indie works for food of any variety.

Thank you to Sam Garnett for taking pics of my assistants while shooting my head shots.

Each country participating in the invitational chose 5 poets and authors of their country. Invited artists were assigned a poet or author to represent with their work. I was assigned Charif Majdalani, a Lebanese-French writer.

Moving the Palace, by Charif Majdalani, chronicles the journey of Samuel through Africa and the Middle East while transporting pieces of a palace and artifacts by camel.  Constant Change reflects the colors of the changing scenery -- red and ochre sand, acai and baobab trees, green and turquoise Morrish marble pools, and saffron rugs.  The asymmetrical and shifting patterns, evolving from mashribya geometry, mirror the constantly altered route of the journey.

I begin with a tray or box and start tossing in tons of threads. I try to add a huge variety of colors, thicknesses, and textures to my selection. Tossing the colors together, somewhat haphazardly, allows me to see color combinations that I might not normally choose. I use this same toss in a pile method for selecting fabric.

I place the tray next to the piece I am going to stitch. This allows me to get a feel for the color mixture. At this point, I weed out a few threads and/or add other thread choices.

I then check to see if I have enough variety in the color pallets I am considering for the piece. Many people think you should match thread to your fabric. I use the “matching” colors to ground the piece. But then, I add my traditionally non-matching colors. If you match all your threads, they disappear when your piece is viewed at a distance. The threads that stand out and catch your eye are the color shifts. These are the colors that work with your “matching colors” and support them in the overall effect of your design.

Now, it is time to begin stitching. Some threads will not be used and others will be added along the way.

Tour Schedule from SAQA’s website as of January 2019:

First Venue:
Venue Name: Works/San Jose
Address: 365 South Market Street, San Jose, California 95113
Exhibition Run Dates: April 19 – May 5, 2019

Venue Name: Pacific Northwest Quilt and Fiber Arts Museum
Address: 703 South 2nd Street, La Conner, Washington 98257
Exhibition Run Dates: June 1 – August 24, 2019

Venue Name: Chehalem Cultural Center
Address: 415 East Sheridan Street, Newberg, Oregon 97132
Exhibition Run Dates: March 1 – April 24, 2020

Venue Name: Wailoa Center, State Parks, DLNR
Address: 200 Piopio Street, Hilo, Hawai’i
Exhibition Run Dates: July 1 – July 30, 2020

Venue Name: International Gallery of Contemporary Art
Address: 427 “D” Street, Anchorage, Alaska 99501
Exhibition Run Dates: August 26 – September 30, 2020

Venue Name: Pratt Museum
Address: 3779 Bartlett Street, Homer, Alaska 99603
Exhibition Run Dates: October 1 – 31, 2020

Venue Name: Visions Art Museum
Address: 2825 Dewey Road, Suite 100, San Diego, California 92106
Exhibition Run Dates: January 1 – April 4. 2021

Venue Name: Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History
Address: 165 Forest Avenue, Pacific Grove 93950
Exhibition Run Dates: July 1 – September 30, 2021 (working dates)