QC6 Day 11

Today was a wash out - wash out of dye, that is.  I had 3 things batching over night that I showed you yesterday - the shibori pole wrap, clamped piece and napkins.  The napkins weren't as dark red as I wanted so after rinsing I put them back in soda ash and then back in the dye pot with some additional dye.  The pole wrap looks much better now - more balanced, and the clamped piece (circles) is interesting.

I finished my "row" from Keepsake Quilting's pattern.  The pattern is only 4 blocks; I added a third Yankee Puzzle block because I felt it looked more balanced, and plan to use it as a table runner instead of part of a quilt, so length doesn't matter.

I was going to layer my Artistic Artifacts row for quilting, but decided I wanted to add a border to make it a little wider.  Since I didn't have a piece I felt worked, I decided to print my own.  I had a piece of hand-dyed orange, and wanted to add texture and/or print.  I started by printing an all over design with discharge paste, which takes color out when heated with an iron. 

On the left I've applied the discharge and started to iron the bottom corner; on the right is what it looks like after ironing.  Then I went back to the print table and screened another image over top.  But I forgot to take a picture so I will share that tomorrow.

What else did I do today?  I made a peach pie; that's my assignment while I'm here - a pie a week!

I put together a small collage in neutral colors and machine quilted it, then put it in a dye pot - the leftover cobalt blue.  The dye is not full strength, so I'm hoping it will turn out a paler color than the piece with circles above.  This is a process we saw on a Quilting Arts video called Quilting and Dyeing Serendipity.

And finally, a little bit of a sunset.

Tomorrow, another road trip!

Winter Oaks

In my last post, I mentioned that I would show how I got from point A to point B of the piece I am calling Winter Oaks.  It started as a workshop called Fractured View and looked like this.

 Rather than leave it like this, I decided it needed something more.  It reminded me of bare winter trees, and I thought a brightly colored bird would serve as a focal point.

 I found an image of a cardinal that I drew to make a thermofax screen and printed it in black on a piece of red fabric.  Then I added wonder under to the back before cutting it out so I could fuse it in place.

I also knew I wanted leaves. I took a piece of tyvek and painted it with browns, copper, and silver colors to resemble decaying leaves. Since I had a photo of an oak leaf that I used to make a thermofax screen, I traced the leaf to make a template to cut out the tyvek leaves.  The cool thing about tyvek is that when you iron it (carefully) between layers of teflon pressing sheet, it shrinks and shrivels.  The more heat you apply, the more it shrinks.  So I made a bunch of tyvek leaves.  Then, I was using some TAP (transfer artist paper) for another project, and realized I could make some leaf transfers as well.  Those are the ones on the left.  Now I needed some smaller branches to fill in a bit and provide a place for the bird to perch.  I fused wonder under to some leftovers of the fabric, cut random lengths & widths and fused them in place.

After placing the bird, I started playing with the leaves, ironing the transfers on first, then pinning the tyvek leaves.  While the tyvek leaves were still pinned, I screen printed a few more (not visible in this picture) and also added a few with discharge paste through the screen.  My intent is that the quilting will make those leaves visible.  I layered the top with batting and stitched down the tyvek leaves.

The backing has been added and is ready for quilting.  More pictures later when it is finished!

"Cravings"

I've been part of a postcard swap group for several years.  Our group keeps dwindling but we are still at it, twice a year. Our most recent exchange was due May 31, and not all have posted, but thought I'd share mine and the ones I have received.

 As noted in the title our theme was Cravings.  I couldn't get past the first thing that came to mind, which was, of course, chocolate!  I found a piece of fabric that reminded me of dark, rick chocolate, and made a thermofax screen of the words "dark chocolate".  I used a discharge paste to print the screen in the center of each 4 x 6 rectangle and after fusing to timtex, did a double row of stitching to resemble a chocolate bar.  Simple, but effective I think  I love the way the discharge turned out.  With discharge, you never know what you'll get - it depends on the dyes used in the fabric.

 This is Lois B's card - like me, Lois craves chocolate.  She really wants to be slimmer, but the craving usually wins.  I definitely empathize!

 

Sherry W. craves an English Cottage Garden.  She is working on a real one, but in the meantime created this delightful piece.

Cathy T. made this lovely card depicting a butterfly flying free from flower to flower - she craves that ability to fly free for herself.  Read more about Cathy's cards and process on her blog.

Thermofax Screen Printing at Artistic Artifacts

Elizabeth and I taught our thermofax screen printing class yesterday at Artistic Artifacts to 6 creative and enthusiastic ladies (and the teenage son of the proprietor).  Had a great time and enjoyed seeing the different ways each student found to use the designs.  They printed on fabric and paper, learned to tape a screen and experimented with discharge products.  We scheduled another class for Seprember 29.  Check us out if you'd like to learn about screen printing!

African Suns

This is a recently finished piece - different from anything I've done before and original (except for stencils & thermofax screens used).  It began as an experiment with discharge and those pieces became the foundation for additional layers of surface design that include stenciling, paint sticks, screen printing, sun printing, decorative machine stitching and ricing.  It is machine quilted and backed with burlap which also becomes the "frame".   It was fun to see this piece evolve.