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Archive for the ‘painting fabric’ Category

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Trial and Error

Monday, October 25th, 2010

After mistakes and some experimenting, I finally got a piece of fabric that I am happy with. You can click it to see it enlarged.

After the last failure, I decided to mix up some turquoise dye with thiox discharge paste. I have done this in the past to get turquoise deposited where the fabric is discharged. For some reason, turquoise does not discharge. Remember that a couple of weeks ago, I was discharging black fabric. I had some paste mixed up and sitting in my dye kitchen. I blithely added turquoise dye and went to work.

I wore my respirator!

And after the fabric dried, I ironed it and then threw it in the wash. Guess what? I ended up with a piece of rust silk with no marks at all. Well, I forgot that thiox paste is only good for about 24 hours. Duh.

My next experiment was to mix dynaflow paint with the de Colourant paste. I made more marks on the rust silk.

After I steamed it with an iron, I could see from the back that the rust had discharged.

When I washed it, I got the subtle verde green color in the first photo. I am very happy with it.

I am working on two projects that need to be completed by next Monday. The other is for a juried show at my church, Trinity Episcopal, titled: Mirror, Mirror, a show of self portraits.

I did a self portrait a  few years ago for a Quilting Arts challenge — a Picasso version of my younger self. I decided to do an updated version and mount them together – sort of me – 50 years apart. The older me is more colorful! Here they are with the newer version a work in progress.

I have been having fun and feel very energized after a fallow period. The studio is a mess which means I am in creative mode.

Posted in 12X12 challenge, Discharging fabric, Juried Shows, My creations, painting fabric, self portraits | 6 Comments »

Wow!!

Tuesday, July 27th, 2010

As of 10:30 tonight, 95 people have left a comment, hoping to win Jane’s book. It was so much fun reading all of your comments today. On Friday, I will use a random number generator to announce the winner. So if you are just reading my blog today, you still have time to leave a comment on yesterday’s blog for a chance to win Jane Dunnewold’s new book, Art Cloth.

I was so tired after dinner tonight that I thought I could not possibly do a fiber sketch. I printed out my leaf templates on freezer paper and played some solitaire on the computer. I went into the studio to iron the freezer paper to the painted lutradur and I suddenly wanted to use some of the lutradur for a sketch. I titled it summer. By the way, I cut out some leaves and the lutradur is going to be perfect.

This morning, I washed out the dyeing that I did yesterday. Got some great results with the t-shirts. The fabric was less than spectacular.

I used a cool black dye for this shirt – you can see the blues that have shown up.

For several of the shirts, I used chocolate brown and teal — I really like this combo.

Here is another version of the teal and brown for Mia.

This is some cheese cloth that got dunked in the black dye. I like this.

This is another piece done with teal and chocolate brown. I think this will bee really cool for discharging.

I love this wacky piece. I hung the fabric on the clothes line and poured various leftover dyes on to the fabric ala Robbi Eklow. I love a piece of fabric like this that can be cut up and used in compositions. There are many fabulous elements to this.

Joining  me in the studio was my faithful assistant, Scooter. He remains calm, cool and collected through it all.

Posted in Dyeing, Lutradur, painting fabric, Scooter, Sketchbook Project | 6 Comments »

Dyeing, Painting and a Chance to Win Jane’s New Book

Monday, July 26th, 2010

I have had a busy day and am feeling great. I made a trip to Target this morning to buy more t-shirts. I had some left over dye and decided to dye some shirts for my M and M and Mr C hinted that he would like one, too.

I scoured the shirts and got everything dyed by early afternoon. I had enough dye left to use up on some fabric. I had mixed up some chocolate brown, teal blue and black in addition to the red, blue an yellow that was left from Saturday.

I bought some light weight lutradur at Fabric Depot on Saturday which I think will make nice leaves for my latest aspen piece. I painted it with Jacquard Dyna-Flow this afternoon. I love the colors. I will make leaf patterns with freezer paper and spend tomorrow night cutting and cutting.

Tonight, I am feeling rather tired and achy from all the standing and walking the dog so I decided to start working on Allegro, by next organza pocket piece. Since I need to make the background quilt before I attach the pockets, I have to know the exact measurements. For the 12 by 12 piece, that was easy. Here is my start. I think it might be easier to work it out on graph paper.

The darker pockets will fill in around the white pieces. I am trying to decide if I need to paint more of the white pieces.

Now, I have an extra copy of Jane Dunnewold’s new book, Art Cloth. It is a fabulous how to book from the queen of surface design. Leave a comment and I will do a random drawing on Friday.

Posted in Dyeing, My creations, painting fabric, Uncategorized | 129 Comments »

Just One of Those Days

Thursday, July 15th, 2010

I was planning a nice long day of studio work today. I painted some new aspen bark fabric because I was not happy with what I have. I am not sure if I will find a use for the other bark, but it is only fabric.

I needed to clear off my work tables so that I could fuse the large whole cloth background and backing. I got a good start on that before I realized I needed to pick raspberries. With Scooter at my side, we picked almost 2 quarts today. Then, it was off for our morning walk.

After lunch, I had my latest minor medical emergency (LOL)! I had a spontaneous nasty nose bleed. It took the wind out of my sails, to say the least. My Dr. suggested that I go back on a baby aspirin a day when I saw her last week. Well, that was not a good idea. I mentioned this on Facebook and one of my friends told me that many foods are high in salicylates. They include blueberries, cherries, wine, almonds, omega 3 fish oils, vinegar, tea and many other common foods. I consume these almost every day (especially now – peak cherry season!) I am thinking that I eat a diet that does not require me to have a baby aspirin – or maybe only one a week.

After I recovered from that, I went back to the studio and finished felting a little piece for my sketchbook project. It is rather naive — I think maybe I should stick to abstract, but it is helping me learn how to manipulate the roving under the needles.

Here is the back of the piece.

I managed to get the front and back of the new aspen quilt Mistyfused. I rather like the paint on this. It was the undercloth for the other aspen piece. Here are a couple of detail shots.

I also received my autographed copy of Jane Dunnewold’s new book, Art Cloth. That required some of my time, too. Her book, Complex Cloth, literally changed my life.

It is filled with beautiful art cloth and great how tos. You can order it from Jane’s website: Complex Cloth.

Posted in Art Cloth, Felting, painting fabric | 4 Comments »

Giddy!

Wednesday, July 14th, 2010

This has been a fantastic day. The Twelves received a pdf preview of our book, Twelve by Twelve. It is gorgeous, with loads of color photos of the quilts, our processes and our studios. The text is full of love and wit. I was in tears as I read through it. It is a real book, and it is a gem — way beyond my expectations. I can’t wait for the publication in the spring.

I am happy for the beautiful weather. It is just perfect now. When I could tear myself away from the book, I enjoyed being in the great outdoors. Wednesday is farmer’s market day. We had a great dinner from my findings. Tomorrow morning, there will be more fresh berries for breakfast.

I did get to the studio for a bit this afternoon and again tonight. I am working on two pieces concurrently. If I am going to meet all my deadlines for August and September, I have to get cracking.

I am loving the beauty of my red and black painted organza pojagi squares. I am so glad I made the effort to paint silk. It is so luscious to work with. Each little pocket is such a delight when it is turned and pressed.

I also have been cutting aspen trees. I touched up the paint on the background on Sunday. I am also working on the leaves which I want to  print on silk organza.

So, there you have it – why I am giddy tonight.

Posted in 12X12 challenge, My creations, painting fabric | 8 Comments »

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