Crazy about Ikat

I've had this thing about ikat fabrics for a long time.  Back in undergraduate and graduate school, I liked the look so much that I learned to weave the ikat patterns.  True ikat is achieved by wrapping the warp threads of a weaving and then dying the warp before putting it on the loom.  Most of the fabrics that we see today in home dec and clothing are not true ikat, but printed imitations of the designs.

http://pinterest.com/kittyanne/ikat/

If you follow the link above, it will take you to my pinterest board on ikat.  I've been saving the images for some time.  

Currently I've gotten a little crazy about the new ikat prints I've seen.  I recently ordered a new chair for my living room in an ikat print and just finished making another ikat print into sofa pillows.  

But to show that I really do know how to do the real thing, here is me circa 1986 in a coat that I made (along with 5 others) for my M.F.A. exhibition at the Lowe Art Museum in Miami.  I took the coat apart a few months ago intending to make something out of the sleeves, which are ikat that I dyed and wove.   The picture of me is my page in the exhibition catalog.  All but one of the coats in my show had ikat sleeves with a painted (with dye) and quilted body.  I still have all but one, which I sold.

Will I ever weave ikat again?  I doubt it.  I sold my loom a few years ago to focus on quilting and have no intention of buying another one.  So I'll just be content with my new decorator prints secure in the knowledge that I could have woven the fabric myself.