Row by Row

Almost finished!!  I finally sat down a few days ago and quilted my row from Artistic Artifacts. 

The binding is attached and half-way stitched down on the back, but here you can see what it will look like when finished.

QC6 Day 8

This morning I spent some time sewing to complete a quilt row that I started putting together last night.  It is for the Virginia Row by Row Experience.  This is actually a national shop hop for quilters' as they travel around through the summer.  There are quilt shops in 34 states participating, and over 1250 quilt shops!  If you visit participating shops in person, you can pick up a free pattern for a row designed by that shop.  The theme is "seasons" so all the shops chose one of the 4 seasons for their design.  Many shops also offer kits for their row if you want to make yours just like theirs.  If you combine 8 rows into a finished quilt and are the first person to bring it to a participating shop, you can win 25 fat quarters of fabric.  Row by Row Experience is the national page from which you can access all the participating states and shops.

The row I am working on was designed by Artistic Artifacts.  Judy featured thermofax screens created by PGFiber2Art (that's me and Elizabeth!) and wooden printing blocks with strip piecing to create a contemporary spring row.  I followed her lead to create my own fabric featuring text screens ("art" and "stitch") on top of a gelatin plate printed background, and added a final layer of screen printed ferns.  The base fabric was hand dyed, so the whole piece was created from scratch beginning with white cotton.  (I shared the picture a few days ago but will show it again.)  This is the row that Judy designed.

Here is my hand-made fabric.

This is the row that I made using my fabric and pieces of batik for the strip piecing.  The darker strips between the rows is some of the "tree bark" fabric shown in yesterday's post.  That will also be used for the binding after the row is quilted.

I'm not planning to make a quilt with the rows I collect (at this point); so far I'm just thinking table runners.  We got the pattern from Keepsake Quilting (New Hampshire) last week, and will be visiting a few more shops tomorrow.

Post SAQA Conference Printing Class

PGFiber2Art was honored to kick off a week-long series of special classes at Artistic Artifacts that followed the Studio Art Quilt Associates conference held in Alexandria last week.  Last Sunday afternoon we had a group of 10 delightful ladies for Thermofax Screen Printing, 5 who were local and 5 who attended the SAQA conference from other states - Colorado, Arizona, South Carolina, and Georgia.  They created some lovely pieces of fabric and were willing to experiment and try new things.  It was a relaxing and fun afternoon.

Above are several students hard at work. As part of their kit they chose 5 fat quarters of both hand-dyed and commercial fabric to print on.

The snowflake fabric turned out awesome!  The hand-dyed fabric is the perfect background for the all-over snowflake printing.  Below, two different circle screens are used in different colors to create layers and depth.

 I love the way these 3 prints of money plant are slightly overlapped, and also the combination of a natural design element with text.  Below a tree bark screen is combined in different colors with text.

 The piece above was created with 4 different screens and different colors to add texture and depth.

Jeanne is hard at work!

Spring Printing Class

We had a small but mighty thermofax printing class Saturday at Artistic Artifacts with students who tried some new (to us) things.  For 2 of them, it was their first time at the shop.  One works primarily on paper, so was interested in trying different paints & inks to see what works best.  Another did some printing on felt - it worked surprisingly well.  Here, the pine branch is printed in white on green felt.

Below are some samples of printing on paper.  It's important to try different types of ink and paint to see what works best.  Also different papers will have different absorbency.  Some of the textile paints will work just fine but there are also inks intended for printing on paper that are a bit thicker.

It's always stimulating to teach in the colorful, creative atmosphere of Artistic Artifacts.

PG Fiber2Art Spring Classes

Announcing our spring 2014 classes at Artistic Artifacts in Alexandria. Please consider joining us for a class. If you have taken a class from us before you may use the class as an "open studio" using our paints, screens and supplies.

Thermofax Screen Printing is on March 15 from 10-3:30.  Read more about it here.

Turn Your Photos into Thermofax Screens is April 5 from 10-1.  Read more about it here.

Another Fun Screen Printing Class!



Today Elizabeth & I taught thermofax screen printing to a  group of 6 creative ladies.  It's always fun to hear each one's story about what led them to art quilting and wanting to create their own fabric.  And also to see the wheels start turning as we share ideas for ways to use screen printing in their work, whether its the main technique or used in combination with other methods of surface design.  The more layers, the more complex the cloth becomes.  It really is addictive to those of us who are compelled to make something from a blank canvas.  What we eventually do with it doesn't matter - its the making it and the process that's most gratifying.

Joan, in the foreground, is using some of her hand-dyed shibori fabric.  She's new to dyeing and these were some of her first attempts (!).  She wasn't particularly happy with them, but they look pretty good to me!

One of the things Therese does is make felted hats, which she wants to try embellishing with screen prints.

Everyone learned to tape their own screen in preparation for printing.

We used 4 different types of textile paint to make comparisons, and also experimented with discharge paste and thickened dyes.  Our students loved having a large variety of screens to print with and try before deciding which, if any, they wanted to buy.

 

On Nov. 2, we will be teaching again at Artistic Artifacts - the class will be Turn Your Photos into Thermofax Screens.  We teach you to use Photoshop Elements to take your own photos and convert them to black & white high contrast images that can be used to make a screen.  You can find out more about the class here.  Hope to see some of you there!

 

Fall Special - PG Fiber2Art on Etsy!

Are you ready to do some printing?  Maybe work on some fall projects or something for the upcoming holidays? Now's the time to Fall into Printing with PG Fiber2Art!  Starting today, Oct. 1, for the month of October, I am running a special in the Etsy shop.  Buy any 2 screens, and you will get a 3rd small screen FREE!  In order to use the special, you will need to select your 3 screens and add them to your cart.  Use the coupon code OCTOBER at check out, and the $4.00 cost of the free small screen will be deducted from your total.  There are 12 small screens in the shop to choose from.  The other 2 screens can be any size screen of your choice, including custom screens.  As noted in Friday's post, 5 new screens were added to the shop last week.

And here's our new shop banner - isn't it cool?  Those are screen printed hand-dyed scarves in the background.

If you are in the Washington, DC/ Northern VA/ Maryland area and want to learn more about thermofax screen printing, Elizabeth & I will be teaching our Printing with Thermofax Screens class at Artistic Artifacts on Oct. 19, from 10 AM to 3:30 PM.  Join us to get some hands-on practice with printing under the guidance of experienced teachers.   You also will have plenty of time to print your own fabric - create small pieces or print yardage, or both!  The choice is yours.  We have lots of screens for you to use, more than are available in the Etsy shop.  Additionally, in November we will be teaching Turn Your Photos into Thermofax Screens, which teaches you to use Photoshop to turn your own original photos into black and white images that can be made into screens.  Make your quilts and art truly your own by using your own images.  Hope to see you soon!  Below are some pics from our class last spring.  Oh, and don't forget to like our page on Facebook!

New Screens in PG Fiber2Art Etsy shop

Five new thermofax screens were recently added to the Etsy shop; 2 are flower sets which give you the same flower in 3 different sizes, the other 3 are graphic designs.  Here's one of the flower sets, and what it looks like printed:

 

This is called Autumn Mum, converted to a screen image from a photograph; the flowers are 3", 4" and 6".  Cool, huh?

One of the graphic designs is "ricing" elongated shapes that resemble grains of rice.  This design was hand drawn and then digitized.  Here it was used on a scarf in 3 different colors of paint and discharge product.

Head on over to the shop and check out these and the other designs.  If you haven't tried screen printing, Elizabeth & I will be teaching a thermofax printing class Oct. 19 at Artistic Artifacts in Alexandria. You can read all about it and register here.

Ice Dyeing Tutorial

In the past when I've ice dyed, I made a "parfait" of layered fabrics/shirts/scarves in a container with ice and powdered dye between each layer.  That method works fine, but whatever is on the bottom gets the darkest and greatest mix of color.  For a little bit more control, I've adapted another method, similar to the process I've used with snow.  (For that, I've used a plastic mesh tacked to a wooden stretcher strip frame over a plastic kitty litter pan.)

I found that a mesh grapefruit bag stretches to perfectly fit an 11 x 15 inch kitty litter pan, like a sleeve.

I just stretch out the mesh bag (both ends are cut off) and slide the pan inside. Securing at opposite ends with clothespins (binder clips would work too) pulls it taught enough to hold the weight of the fabric and ice.  The piece of fabric in the bottom of the pan is ready to catch the drips.

Layer your soda-ash soaked fabric or garment (about 1/2 cup soda ash per gallon of water, available from ProChem and Dharma Trading Co.) on top of the mesh, layer with ice cubes or crushed ice, and then sprinkle your dye powder on top.  Be sure to wear rubber gloves and a protective mask when handling dye; I use MX Procion fiber reactive dyes (available from the 2 sources mentioned above, or a local art supply store such as Artistic Artifacts in Alexandria, VA).  With this method, you can still layer 2 items on top of each other, or place them side by side.  I like to scrunch my fabric to get a mottled pattern.  Depending on the size of the items, you might be able to do more.

 The 2 photos above show a shirt and scarf placed on the pan, then the ice and dye on top.  The ice should completely cover the items you are dyeing.  The more ice you use, the more it will dilute the colors.  For this project, I wanted, soft, mottled colors.  I used yellow, coral, and turkey red.  Start with your lighter colors first or they won't show up in the finished product.

 Here you see the ice melting into the pan below; as it does so, the colors seep into the fabric.  The ice causes some of the colors that make up the dyes to separate and form interesting patterns.  When you do this process by the parfait method, whatever item is on the bottom would be sitting in all the liquid, so it will be darker and more solid than pieces on the top.

This is the t-shirt spread out a bit after the ice has melted and it continues to "batch".  I let things set at least 24 hours before rinsing out.  Rinse in cool water till the water runs almost clear, then hang to dry.  After drying (they don't have to be completely dry), wash your items in  hot water with Synthrapol (to remove excess dye).  I also like to throw in a color catcher to pick up excess dye - they turn beautiful colors and are great to use in mixed media or collage projects, and are especially good for screen printing or block printing.

Here are the 3 items from this dye session hanging to dry - t-shirt, fat quarter that was in the pan to soak up the dripping dye, and a bamboo rayon scarf.  I am happy with how these colors turned out - it's always a bit of a surprise, but that's the fun of it!
 

Thermofax Screen Printing Class

What a busy weekend!  Along with my partner in crime Elizabeth, I taught a screen printing class on Saturday at Artistic Artifacts.  I went to an evening wedding Saturday night, and arrived home Sunday to spend the day helping my daughter and her friends tie dye 26 shirts for their kickball team!  More on that project to come; first, the printing class.  We had a great group of 9 ladies coming to printing from a variety of perspectives.  It's interesting to hear the various perspectives on their work that people bring to class.  We had some who are into modern and art quilts, some who do mixed media, and even 1 who refurbishes furniture and wants to print her own fabric to make it unique.  We even had the "Richmond 4" who traveled to Alexandria from Richmond for our class and am happy to report that they felt it was well worth the trip.  They had free use of our screens for the duration of the class and got hands on practice learning the printing technique - and soon found out how fun and additive it can be.  Its fun to share our love of printing with folks who are motivated to learn.

Open House at AA

We had fun today at the Artistic Artifacts open house, doing demos of screen printing, meeting enthusiastic crafters and reconnecting with previous aquaintances and students.  And of course checking out all the goodies in Judy's shop!

Above are some of the new screens we have for sale.  Coming to our Etsy shop soon!

We have 2 classes scheduled for 2013 (so far): March 2 is Turn Photos into Thermofax Screens, and April 13 is Printing with Thermofax Screens.  The first class teaches you how to manipulate a photo in Photoshop Elements to change it to a black & white image and apply filters to make it look more like a drawing than a photo.  The printing class covers all you need to know about printing technique, supplies, paints, taping screens and allows plenty of time to practice with the instructors screens. Check the Artistic Artifacts web site for more information.