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.

QC6 Day 7

I finally got to wash some things out today and see the results!  Yesterday's post included a picture of applying color magnet to some yardage - I actually did 3 pieces of fabric, plus I had the t-shirt I started last week and then had to redo.  Here are the results.  First, the shirt.

I thought the color magnet was completely washed out after the soda ash soak, but you can see from the shadowing that it was not.  But still, not a bad result.  Especially because the shirt is 45% polyester and 55% natural fibers - I wasn't sure how well it would take the dye, but it did better than I expected. Now tofigure out what to do on shirt #2.

These are the 3 fabric pieces.  All are printed with thermofax screens.  Top is tree bark, middle is a mustard flower, and the bottom combines a sewer cover image and circles.  I'm really pleased with how they turned out, so I think I will be using more of this product.  I'm already incorporating tree bark in a project that's underway.  I wanted the mustard flower to be an all over pattern, but it was really hard to see where I had already printed so I missed some spots.  The base fabric was a pale blue/green and the color magnet is yellow so it really blended in as it dried.

Another thing I did today was breakdown   printing.  This was prepared a few days ago on a wooden framed silk screen.  The screen is painted with thickened dye and objects are placed on it to form impressions as it dries.  I used stencils to make the impressions.  Of course I forgot to take pictures of that part.  To print, you use a clear print paste on the screen to soften and release the dye.  The more you print, the more you loose the image, hence the name breakdown printing.  Why take the time to do that, you might wonder?  Well, you can get some really interesting, unique prints, and its fun to see what you get.  This is the best print.

And that's it for day 7.  Aren't you glad I didn't mention the bug swarm last night?

QC6 Day 6

Today was much cooler and quite windy all day.  I got a few things done this morning before heading to Moultonborough for the library used book sale and Center Harbor for a stop at Keepsake Quilting. (Yes, we were just there on Tuesday.) I don't know if you can see the white caps on the lake but they were quite big compared to the calmness just 2 days ago.  I washed some 5" squares and hung them to dry - it was a great day for drying fabric on the line.

 

I found just a few things at the book sale - mostly embroidery design books for inspiration.  Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain is a book that was recently recommended, so was glad to find that.  And the prize - Zucchini 75 Ways!

On the way back, we stopped to pick up some lobsters for dinner at Bart's Seafood.  It's just a roadside stop with an eclectic collection of rusty stuff by the entrance.  But a typical New England scene.

I did some more studio work when we got back.  One thing I did was try out a product called Color Magnet.   It is a dye attractant that you apply to fabric before dyeing  and those places should be darker than the rest, making a tone on tone fabric.  I used thermofax screens to print all-over designs.  In these pictures it is wet from the application.  We'll see how it turns out tomorrow.

A quirky thing about New Hampshire is the things you see along the road.  Here's one example.  There's a barn we pass that has always had a giraffe head in one of the windows.  A few years ago, there was a new addition - a baby giraffe! 

This year, we're back to just the momma giraffe. But in the window to the left there is a new addition.  I believe she's wearing a military helmet.

QC6 Day 5

Hope you enjoyed your 4th of July.  The 4th at Lake Winnipesaukee was a washout this year - literally.  It rained off and on all day - I've never seen such a quiet 4th on the lake.  Although fire works can be heard now, so I'm sure there are more to come.   The day was spent mainly in the house, not much work in the "studio" today. 

This morning was a good time for computer work.  I added 4 of our new screens to the PGFiber2Art Etsy shop - check them out!

I printed fern #2 (above) on the fabric from yesterday that has gelli printing and 1 layer of text screen printing.  I really like the way it turned out.  I also threw a few previously dyed pieces into the soda ash solution to get them ready for over-dyeing to spruce them up.

And then this afternoon I made a strawberry pie - at least we could have a patriotic desert with our hamburgers & hot dogs!

I attempted to do a little bit of sewing but didn't get very far.  That was my day.  How was yours?

QC6 Day 4

Today started off similarly to the last two; a trip to the library to print some order receipts, followed by the post office for mailing orders.  The post office happens to be right next to Geez Louise, so of course we had to stop in and look around!  I found a set of 8 linen napkins that will be good for dyeing, and the real treasure, an old ledger dating to 1899!  Just look at the penmanship!

Yesterday I shared my sun printed fabric; today I added another layer with screen printing.  On the left is a sample Elizabeth printed on commercial fabric. On the right is my piece where I used the fern and pine cone screens that we made yesterday.  This is what it looks like now, although I don't think it is finished.  I think more layers are in order.

I also shared a picture of the t-shirt I started.  Well, I'm back to square 1 with that project.  It needed to be soaked in a soda ash solution before dyeing, so I did that this afternoon - forgetting that the warm water would wash out the color magnet!  So its been drying the rest of the day and I will have to redo the color magnet tomorrow.  (Soda ashed items cannot go in the dryer - they can catch on fire!)

Meanwhile, I put another piece of fabric in the dye I had prepared and couldn't use for the t-shirt.  I did some gelli plate printing and more screen printing, and prepared a silk screen for breakdown printing - that has to dry completely so at least 24 hours, maybe longer because of humidity.  So far I am really happy with the new screens we created yesterday.  More pictures of those prints tomorrow.

Ended the day with a late afternoon swim in the lake - it was like bath water, but still refreshing.  After dark the rain storms moved in - lots of thunder and lightening to go with the fire crackers being shot off all around the lake.  I'm sure there will be lots more of that tomorrow.

QC6 Day 3

Today was a better day, at least I got started on some things.  It's hard to believe its day 3 already - I feel like I've been in a fog.  I took 2 hour naps at 5:00 for the last 2 days.  But today I made it through the whole day awake!  This morning I spent some time figuring out what to start on.  I intended to start with gelli plate printing a background layer, but then side tracked to 2 other things and never got back to the gelli plate, so that will be on tomorrow's agenda.  First I prepared a piece for sun printing.

 

I started with a fat quarter that was pale yellow from a previous dye bath and placed it on a foam core board covered with plastic.  You can see from the pink on the sides that it has been used before.  The first step is to saturate the fabric with water, then apply paint.  I used Pebeo Setacolor that was diluted about half & half with water and brushed it on with a foam brush; I used, green, yellow and blue and blended them together.

 It picked up a few spots of paint from the plastic, but that's OK.

Then I placed my printing objects on top.  I had some new stencils I wanted to try, but they didn't take up enough space so I added some natural elements - ferns and wild flowers.

After everything was in position I covered it with a piece of organza and tacked it down. That keeps things from blowing away or shifting position if there's a breeze while it sits in the sun.  It needs to sit in a sunny spot until its dry.

When it's dry, you can remove the organza and printing elements.  It needs to be heat set (with an iron) before washing.  You can always add another layer of sun printing or other surface design technique.  Here's the finished piece, although this photo came out lighter than it really is; the color above is more accurate.

The second thing I worked on today was trying a new product called color magnet.  Its a dye attractant, so when you dye something, more dye is attracted to the parts that have the color magnet applied.  I screen printed some flowers on a shirt, and left it to dry overnight.  Tomorrow I will apply the dye. (You can see the sun print in the background - that is the true color.)

And one more thing I did today was make and tape more screens!

The fern and pine cone were gathered on my morning walk, and tomorrow I will be able to print them!

QC6 Day 2

I'm off to a slow start this year.  This morning we had to go to the library to make some image copies to burn screens that we had orders for.  Then come back to the house and make the screens, package them for shipping.  By then it was lunch time, so it made sense to eat before we headed off to the post office, Keepsake Quilting and the grocery store.  By the time we got back, I was ready for a nap!  Got up to eat dinner and clean up, but still am not too energetic so I am blogging instead.

I did start off the morning by sorting through some of my supplies and playing with some pieces from previous years, on the far end of the table.

Elizabeth prepared a previously dyed piece with a flour paste resist so it could sit in the sun to dry.  While we were at the library, a small critter jumped up on the table and walked across it.

After our stop at the post office, we headed on to Center Harbor where Keepsake Quilting is located.  They claim to be the largest quilt shop in the US, and have a huge mail order business as well.  Since it is July 1, this is the first day of the Row by Row Experience shop hop and we wanted to pick up their free row pattern. 1250 shops in 34 states are participating.  From July1 through September 2, quilters can stop in a participating shop and pick up a free pattern.  Most shops will also have kits available if you want to make your row exactly like theirs, or you can choose other fabrics.  If you make 8 rows from different shops in your travels and combine them into a quilt, you can take it to a participating shop to be eligible for a prize.  Here is Keepsake's row:

Guess it's time to figure out what I'm going to work on tomorrow!