Fold, clamp, dip, repeat.  

Combine this process with Elin Noble’s passion for natural fiber and you get art.  Ellen’s hand dyed fabric shimmers in rich color and geometric designs.  Starting with white, natural or black cotton and silk, color is added, extracted and layered to her satisfaction.  

Fold, clamp, stitch, dip, paint may be a 36 step process, but the effects seem truly effortless.  Members of the Rising Star Quilt Guild had the opportunity to handle these lengths of fabric at their meeting last night.  The beautiful drape, complex shades and soft shapes bely the expertise and workmanship required to create such beautiful fabric.  Elin’s passion shines through the threads.  The more than 30 years spent folding, clamping, and dyeing have given her encyclopedic experience, but as she says, “there’s still that “aha” moment that keeps it interesting.”

Walking into the meeting, there was a sentimental glow when I saw her book Dyes and Paints:  A hands on guide to coloring fabric (Martingdale Press, 1998).  This award-winning essential guide to dyeing fabric is still in print, and anyone interested in dyeing fiber of any kind should keep it in their library.  It is a thorough explanation of dyeing, resists, and even marbling.  

Despite my best effort not to gush, I had to thank Elin for writing that book.  Ten years ago, someone brought me this book while living near Rome.  It profoundly impacted my quilting.  In those days as my quilt visions became more individual and sharper, when most dressmaking fabrics didn’t fit my quilting needs, before American patchwork cotton was easily found in Italy, before internet mail order fabric, this book allowed me to create the world around me in quilts.

With that book, I built my dye tool kit, practiced many techniques and gave myself the basis to create fabric for my quilts.  The cotton, silk and linen dyed during that two year phase still come in use for current quilts.  

Elin currently has an exhibit “Layered Affiniteies: Quilts and hand-dyed cloth by Elin Noble” at the Narrows Gallery in Fall River, MA through May 3, 2009.