Hand-dyed Quilt

by Naomi Parker

To achieve the colors on this quilt, Naomi used natural dyes from the following materials: alkanet root, lac, cutch extract, cochineal, madder, Japanese maple leaves, henna, Osage orange and avocado pits. There are four steps to achieving each one of these beautiful colors, starting with a scouring bath, a tannin bath (of gallnuts, pomegranate or cutch), an alum bath and then the final dye bath of the desired color. For some of the muted, darker colors such as the grays, a fifth bath of iron was used. Naomi then hand-quilted and hand-stitched the binding of this one-of-a-kind piece.

Material: 100% cotton fabric and batting
Dimensions: 48.5 x 68.5 in. with a hanging sleeve on the back that is 45 in. long and 4 in. tall.

Naomi Parker (Chippewa Cree, Yakama and an enrolled member of the Makah tribe) is a graphic designer and visual artist based in Tacoma, WA. She attended the graphic design program at the Seattle Central Creative Academy and received her degree in ‘Interdisciplinary Visual Arts’ from the University of Washington.