The Slow Processes of Creating Complex Cloth

Creating complex cloth is a slow process.  Since returning from Ohio the way I work is even slower and has changed the way I work to the extent that I've rearranged my work space.  I have a print table permanently set up.  Its too close to my design wall where some finished pieces hang as well as in process fabrics but its what I have and I'm going to work it to its best. 

    

I spend a lot of time rinsing, soaking, layering, writing, and taking time to commune with the cloth pieces in process.  It hit me earlier in the week why the process is so slow...in Ohio we had the benefit of Claire and Leslie doing the grunt work.  I'm working toward getting 15 panels completed so I can have more of a selection in placing panels together for the series.  I'm working on not thinking about the time its taking but just flowing with the processes.

I was thinking that this panel was complete but I'm going to add another layer of my handwriting in a bold black colour with a thin line marker (or maybe thread (hand or machine?), hand work would raise the surface...ummm, more to think over).  This panel I refer to as the "book cover" for the 5 quilts.  When I look at it I want to dance.  Why do I want to dance?  Because the dominant colours remind me of the Rastafarian flag and Rastafarians make me think of Reggae music, thus dancing. 

Here I am dye painting over the larger screened on peaches.  The final colour came out coral...either because I needed to add more soda ash to the water or because the dyes where dead or both.  I'm leaning toward the dead dye because I was still trying to get leverage from the dye stock left in the fridge during the black out.   The peaches where a borrowed image from a poem.  My great grandmother had a peach tree in the back yard.  She came to Kentucky from her birth place of Georgia and grew the tree as symbol and for the produce that she canned.  

Here is the start for another panel.  I decided to write on it first and will over-dye it next. 

 

While I rested and waited for cloth to either batch, dry, or wash...I made stamps and stencils.  How do you keep your personal symbols/icons?  In your head, online folders, or a seperate journal?