Improvised printing

I have been trying to find a good surface on which to do more fabric printing.  The best combination so far for home-based, restricted space, seems to be the broad ironing board, with 4 layers of blanket, and a layer of calico.  Yesterday's experiments were more roses on the blue dyed cloth with Liquitex fabric paint ( applied to the stamp with a brayer) in two blues and a mixed purple.  Good transparency with these and the hand of the fabric hasn't changed much. Good wash-resistance as well, tested this morning.

I then got very improvisational and rolled the remaining paint, diluted with water,  from the brayer onto unpinned cloth on the printing surface.  I like how industrial this looks.

I'm going to use this bit in a journal quilt.

Today's sunshine is a welcome contrast to the sky earlier this week.

Stamped and stitched

As a dental phobic, I did not enjoy 3h in the surgery today having two very old, mercury amalgam fillings replaced in two molars - Scottish teeth, a disaster on so many fronts.  It felt like I had done a 3h gym workout by the time I was finished. Perhaps the dentist felt like that as well, after keeping me relatively calm. 

Textiles came to the rescue in the afternoon, with experiments involving stamping the motif from last week's trapunto roses.

Definitely worth exploring further, with different sizes perhaps?

Conference stitching - quilting is complete

Remember this post from 3 weeks ago?  I am currently trying to work on a surprise project , and the recipient was unexpectedly at home all day today, when I expected him to be out.  So, I had to devote my stitching energies to something else.  Practising with BottomLine thread as both top and bobbin thread, a size 70 needle,  and trying out  a Supreme Slider, this was all stitched freeform, with the spine of the feathers marked before starting.  i am pleased with this, ( approximately 20 x 25 cm)

Discharging…………

……..is a verb that can have several meanings.  At Morley this week and last, we were working with this fabric, and removing the colour with..

This was astonishingly effective in removing the colour, literally working in front of our eyes.  Using various stamping, dribbling, painting and folding techniques, this gave a grand series of marks on the cloth





which were then over dyed with Procion p dye paste this week, to colour the areas where the dye had been removed.  The dye was applied in several ways :

• by scraping it on with a credit card - a strangely compelling and satisfying technique that makes a great sound on the cloth
• by painting it on with a paint brush
• by squeezing it on to the cloth with a plastic needle-nosed bottle

Then we used another discharging agent, Formusol, which can be added to Indulca paste to allow the formusol to be used like a print paste.  This is a bit more fiddly as the cloth has to be steamed to activate the pete, but it seems even more magical as the discharged print is not revealed until the cloth is unrolled after steaming.

Discharged circles, made using discs of acrylic, smeared with the paste ( using a foam brush) and then stamped on the cloth.

The words again - probably their last outing as I only have one more week in the studio.
The dyeing technique is also called illuminating discharge, and it is possible to do it in one step, but the college has a limited range of colours available so this method gives more scope for mixing our own colours.
These will both be over-dyed next week.  I'll also try this on some of my own dyed cloth - so many possibilities.

Stamping and stitching

Experimenting at the weekend with more stitching on some of the stamped blocks. I found some threads ( while looking for something else, inevitably) that I thought I had lost. These blocks are about 10 cm square.

I also practised some tassel making that our groups did at a workshop earlier this year. This book has very clear instructions and inspirational ideas if you want to follow-up on tassel making.

Stamping - but not my foot

After the rant below, I'm now back on an even keel and ready to try some of Sally Kelly's ideas from our workshop with her.

I have stamped some gold acrylic paint on to black cotton and then stitched some tight and loose French knots with my current favourite Sulky variegated orange cotton thread.

The group below are stamped with biscuit cutters, but not stitched yet. the acrylic paint doesn't withstand washing, so is really only for decorative use.

Lovely workshop with Sally Kelly

Lovely workshop last night with Sally Kelly who often has projects in "Stitch" published by the Embroiderer's Guild. She gave us all a calico square stamped with fabric paint and a selection of threads. Using couching, seeding and any other stitch we fancied, we stitched using the stamped patterns as a basis for the design. Very interesting to see how each person used the stamped image, and lovely to do.
I photographed this on a blue paper napkin and it goes very well on there - if I had tried to find a match I would have been there for hours! Serendipity is often the best project planner.