home
about the artist
gallery
blog
links
contact

Archive for the ‘photo transfers’ Category

The Printed Fabric Bee – Old World Maps

Monday, January 5th, 2015

 

10896168_10153028907239439_4654010410383683100_o

 

Old world maps was the theme for December – given to us by Lisa Chin. This was a real challenge for me. I started by Binging old world maps. I saw a theme of symbols that were used, but I felt it was a graphic that would be used by others. I wanted something different and I like to try different methods of image transfer. In my search, I came across this pirate treasure map.

arr_treasure-1

My creative brain kicked in and I decided to do a Citrasolve transfer and then color in some details with Inktense color pencils. First, I found a great fabric in my stash of hand dyes that resembled the map. Then I photoshopped the map to black and white, printed it in reverse and then made copies on my old Canon copier with carbon based toner.

treasuremap

Here is a very bad photo of my supplies: Citrasolve, bowl and cotton balls.

citrasolvesupplies

It is very easy to do this transfer. You put the toner side down on the fabric and rub with cotton ball wet with Citrasolve.

citrasolveoncopy

I did not take many process photos – sorry – I just got involved in getting it done because we were going to be in CA for the last week of December. Once I was happy with the transfer and it was dry, I colored in details with Inktense color pencils. To set the color, I dampened a piece of muslin with water, placed it on the fabric and ironed it until it was dry.

Here is the 9″ by 16″ piece for Linda:

xmarksthespot

Here is the six inch piece for the giveaway. For a chance to win this collection of fabrics, leave a comment on our Printed Fabric Bee blog or on Lisa’s blog.

oldmap6inch

A Quilting Day

Tuesday, March 6th, 2012

Here is a long detail shot of the quilting on this piece. I have spent most of the day doing rather monotonous quilting on this. All the stitching runs horizontally. I am changing colors of thread for each season. I just have fall left to do.

Here is winter with gray thread.

Spring:

And summer:

This piece relies on photos that I have taken of Mr C, Scooter and my neighborhood landscape. Even the screen was created from a photo. Today, on the SAQA list there was much ranting and raving about whether using photos in your work is real art. Since lots of people do it, you can imagine the brouhaha this caused. But, it didn’t bother me. I have put a lot of effort into this. I didn’t just take a photo and print it on fabric. I had a vision for what I wanted this to be and worked with the photos to make that happen. I think it is art.

Working with yellow is not as difficult as I thought it would be. Tonight, I did some needle felting because I didn’t want to rethread the sewing machine.

Taking Care of Business

Wednesday, February 15th, 2012

Here is my blue 3 x 3 for today. Love doing the zigzag free motion quilting.

It was a day of getting stuff done. Shipped a quilt to Seattle for the regional SDA show. Sent the scarf to Janet. Did a big Constant Contact mailing for SDA. Worked on the SDA website. Missed a local SAQA meeting – oops!

I also worked on some photoshop images for a project which is currently on the front burner. The theme involves walking around the neighborhood with Scooter and Mr C. Here is what I have so far.

 

So that is the news from here.

Portland Places

Sunday, February 27th, 2011

I spent a good part of the week-end manipulating photos in Photoshop which I then printed on Extravorganza. The photos are of parks and landmarks around Portland. I have fused them to the quilt background. This is a photo of Cathedral Park which is under the St. John’s Bridge.

I also am auditioning some of my organza water fabric as an embellishment for the river.

I think it gives a lovely depth to the composition. Once I fuse the organza down, I can start quilting.

I took some photos of Scooter today, just for fun. Here he is for all the Scooter fans. He has his nice heavy, fluffy winter coat. He loves the cold weather and the snow.

On another note, we are getting such lovely reviews of our Twelve X Twelve book. Be sure to check out Virginia Spiegel’s review on her blog.

Woe is Me

Monday, December 8th, 2008

This was one of those Mondays when nothing was going right. I know you want to hear all my woes, right?

Number one. My laptop died on Saturday. I thought it was caused be a dead battery and a power cord with a short. Turns out, there was a problem worse than that. Anyway, I got a pretty good deal on a trade-in and a new open box Mac I-book. Open box means that it was purchased and returned and I got it for a discount. I get the new Mac warranty. I also get a new carrying bag and a Lacie external back-up drive. I was hoping to pick it up this morning, after they had copied all my files to the new computer. But they called and said that it kept freezing up and so they had to try another method. Tonight, they called and I can pick it up tomorrow. Woohoo! Can’t wait.

Number two. This morning I packed up my nice clothes that are too big and took them to the nearest consignment shop. They only took about 1/4 of the things I took in. They said they were not “their” style. I said, Oh, that is why I can never find anything here. You don’t carry “my” style!! So tomorrow, I am going to call the Savvy Plus consignment store to see if they are interested. I find it amusing that they want items purchased in the past year to year and a half. And yet, when you look around the store, she see all this stuff that you know is older than that. Sigh. It is so much easier to go to the Good Will and forget about cash!!

Number three. Two weeks ago, I ordered 3 rolls of fabric prepared for printing on a large format computer. the company is ColorPlus, in Las Vegas. Last Tuesday, I called to find out where my stuff was. She said it had not been sent because the organza was not in. I said, just send the silk and the cotton – I needed it yesterday. She said she would send it priority mail. You guessed it. No fabric has arrived. I called again. I was told that they would call back in half an hour to let me know if it had been shipped. No phone call. I will try again and tell them I have 500 fiber artists reading my blog, and they will hear about my problem!! (Sometimes a little exaggeration works!)

Otherwise, it has been very pleasant around here. Olivier left at 4:30 this morning. I never got to take a photo of him in his cool coat, but I found one on the Internet. He is on the right. He found some wonderful vintage German-made opera glasses at an antique store on Saturday. We had a great lunch at Papa Haydn’s. The Bach Christmas Oratorio was absolutely divine. It includes 6 cantatas and is 3 hours long, but very worth it. It was followed by Wassail and cookies.

My latest project, while I wait for my fabric, is a collage titled “Pilgrimage”. I have printed a photo of our group on organza and also have a photo of footprints on silk. I have made thermofax screens of the religious symbols in the background. The orange linen will be the base for this. I am going to try writing on it with a syringe or tjanting tool.

Lastly, I was talking to Mr C in his office and looked out and saw this wonderful sight of water droplets on the strange flowers that bloom in the fall on the plant outside his window. I tried to get a clear photo of it using the close-up button. If you click on the photo, you can see the droplets a little better.

Here is another shot of the flowers.

My friend, Diane, takes incredibly beautiful macro shots of flowers. My camera cannot compete with hers, but I love trying!!