...And Then We Set It On Fire

Soft Scrub Experiment

2012-02-27T20:26:00.000-05:00

I have been wanting to try Soft Scrub as a discharge agent and this month gave me a good reason to finally get around to it. I also have been wanting to try discharging on a patchwork piece of fabric. I like the idea of the material being different but the discharge pattern going across the different fabrics to uniet them.

I used a block leftover from this quilt.

And here are my results.

I am underwhelmed. It is much more subtle than I would have gotten from either bleach or Decolourant. This actually shows two attempts. The first time I stamped the dry fabric and let it sit for about 15 minutes before washing it out with water. I could see very little change. So I stamped the wet fabric again and let it sit for about 30 minutes. Still when I washed it out, there did not seem to be much change. To neutralize the bleach, I put the fabric in hydrogen peroxide--more expensive than anti-clor but still not expensive and I had it on hand--and let it sit for a couple of hours.

Here are two detail shots. I do plan to use the same stamp with some thickened dye before calling the block finished.

Sometimes A Do-Over

2012-02-26T18:45:00.003-05:00

is a really good idea.

These are the same three pieces that I was unimpressed with on Friday.

I mixed up a flour and water resist, let it dry, and then sprayed on some bleach.

I think I might have saved myself the trouble of the resist and just lightly sprayed them. But I really like these.

Experimenting with Bleach

2012-02-24T18:40:00.001-05:00

First the successes. Seeing the interesting results obtained with resists in the previous posts (especially the one with the flour -- that's right outta my playbook) I decided to get out my old smocking pleater and pleat up some fabric for discharge. It was fun because I didn't care whether it was on grain (a must for hand smocking) or even if I "popped" some of my pleats.

I used some Egyptian cotton that I keep around because with deColourant it discharges to white. The top two were folded in half, then pleated and dipped in a diluted bleach solution. I really like the patterning, but I'm not crazy about the color. The bottom one was pleated in a single layer and I brushed on deColourant, then hit it with the hair dryer. Nothing happened. So I moved downstairs and hit it with my steam iron and got the wonderful stripey effect.

I know I've been AWOL a lot lately from the blog world. I haven't even done any snow dyeing because my personal life is crazy busy these days. Of course, there hasn't been much snow, but it snowed last night, so I thought, "Snow discharge!" I sprayed full strength bleach over the top of the snow packed on three different scrunched-up fabrics.

This was the Egyptian cotton. Blah. I like the pleated stuff better -- I'm thinking I may have to mix up some flour and water and re-do it.

This was some commercial purple batik that I must have really liked because I have a bunch of it in my stash. I will probably over-dye it. Meh.

This was Kona black. Again -- not thrilled. I'm thinking another resist (and bleach or deColourant). I wasn't crazy about previous experiments with deColourant and resists, so I suppose it's worth a try with bleach. And I've decided that snow is better reserved for dyeing.

Also - completely unrelated to this month's technique

2012-02-24T15:02:00.000-05:00

I actually used some of my dispere dye/transfer painted fabric in a piece and thought I'd show you it:

And I really like the result - so I can see myself using this technique a lot in the future!

Discharge paste = Decolourant?

2012-02-24T07:28:00.003-05:00

I hope so!

I didn't have any Decolourant, but had discharge paste, (although I used a Canadian supplier) and I had a piece of procion MX dyed fabric that hadn't turned out so well, so I put them together. :) I used one of the stencils that I've had around forever and never used, just dabbing the paste on, and I think I've improved it. I could quilt the dog out of it with some bright coloured thread and play with a bit - and maybe have something good!

and then I used another stencil with discharge paste and Procion MX dye powder (mixed straight into the paste) and then applied in the same way.

I used a blue for the birds, brown for the branches, green. for the leaves and red for the berries. On the right, I used an iron, and as you can see, didn't get the expected results in terms of colour. On the left, I tried it with a heat gun - got a better bleaching result, but not a better colour result.

I have tried it in the past on RTD cotton fabric and gotten much better results with the dye/discharge paste combo; but as you can see, on this fabric (a heavy cotton jersey ) - not so much!

And the experiments continue...

Discharging with Decolourant

2012-02-20T14:04:00.006-05:00

Yesterday I used some Decolourant to discharge. This is a product that you can paint onto fabric or stamp it on. It really didn't smell too bad, either, which was good since we had a "snowstorm" here in North Carolina, a pretty rare occurrence (2" of snow), and I had to stay in the house and work on this.

This was the Decolourant on a blue cotton fabric, a commercially dyed solid. After stamping on the product, I let it dry, then ironed it using the hottest setting.

The color changes a little, it turned more purplish-blue after ironing.

I also stamped a hand-dyed piece of bright pink, then ironed, and it turned very white. Then a black commercially dyed solid, and it turned kind of a rusty white. Both kind of look like batik.

This product didn't make the fabric stiff like paint does, and wasn't nearly as stinky as bleach.

A Late January Post

2012-02-17T21:20:00.000-05:00

I know. I know. January is over and I should be discharging things. I'll be doing that tomorrow. But first I want to show you the un-quilted so not completely finished third piece I started in January. As a reminder, I started off with this intermediate piece from a Nancy Crow workshop.

Then I showed you this piece that showed some slicing and dicing.

Here is the finished piece, "Building in Space"

Now I am off to discharge and then use the fabric to make a sketchbook cover using Beth Berman's tutorial.

I'll post pictures when I am done.

Jumping on the bandwagon...

2012-02-15T23:33:00.000-05:00

I started with a piece of black, heavy weight jersey cotton, marked it with chalk and then loosely pulled some threads through the markings. (You'll note that I decided not to do the circles on the top left hand-side after all.)

Once I pulled the thread tight I used a small sized squeeze bottle of bleach to apply bleach along the pulled areas, and sprinkled drops randomly over the blank area. When completed, the result was:

Which I'm rather pleased with.

I'm succumbing to the pressure

2012-02-15T13:20:00.000-05:00

This is not my favorite time to be bleaching but I thought I'd share some really old pieces I did a few years ago. This is my travertine tile entry way inside my front door.

I had a few left over (yes, I laid this tile myself) and used 3X3 tiles, sprayed them with bleach and dropped some black cotton on it. It actually came out very well.

Even before I did this one, Rosalita and I did bleach on a piece of black cotton with dried flour paste mixture on it. The flour paste dried and cracked and we sprayed some bleach on it. That was nice too.

And this is an area in my regular studio that faces the barn (2 feet away). The window is a slider and unlocked all year so I don't get a cramp trying to unlock it. I just slide the window open, put the fan on which is blowing out and fiddle away. I wouldn't use bleach but I do iron discharge paste, transfer dyed and burn and melt organza, Tyvec and generally anything I can put color on and melt. Very fun.

And this table is CLEAN. You should see it when it's not...

Bleach Discharge--Quilter Beth

2012-02-15T12:50:00.000-05:00

I am hoping to do some bleach discharge later in the month; but, in the meantime, I'd like to share some I did a little while ago.

I started with some pieces using bleach  in a spray bottle. If you would want to do this, I suggest you do it  outside (which I did--even though the temperature was in the 30s). You  MUST HAVE good ventilation when working with bleach and anti-chlor. I  thought the pieces turned out interesting. I'll be doing more of them.

This is what I started with...some string and two keys strewn onto my fabric.

I used straight bleach sprayed from a spray bottle, and this is what I got... 

After  I sprayed the fabric with bleach, I let it sit a little while (until  the color was a bit darker than I wanted). Then I removed the  objects from the fabric and put the fabric into an anti-chlor solution  (for five minutes) to stop the discharge of the dye. I waited a bit too  long on this particular piece. I think it turned out a little too light.  What I think I'll do with it is overdye it with a color. The anti-chlor  solution I used was 1 teaspoon of anti-chlor to 2 1/2 gallons of  water. I rinsed the fabric in cold water after the anti-chlor bath. I  followed this same procedure for all of these pieces.

This  is what turned out when I used "Jet Black" fabric from Blank. The color  is a beautiful rusty/reddish brown. The picture doesn't do the color  justice. On this piece, I again used the keys, some jute, and three  bottle caps. 

On  this piece, I sprayed bubble wrap with the bleach. Then I placed the  fabric face down on the bubble wrap and lightly pressed the fabric  into it with my gloved hands. After that, I put the fabric on the table,  added some string and a glove and lightly spritzed the whole piece with  the bleach. I let it sit for just a little bit before putting it into  the anti-chlor solution. I like the depth in this piece.

I have lots of ideas about things I can use to make more of this unique fabric. It was great fun. Why don't you give it a try?

A couple of discharge projects.

2012-02-15T12:02:00.001-05:00

I am hoping to work on some discharge projects this weekend but till then I thought I would show you a couple of wall hangings I have. They are not "high ART" but I have them hanging in my office and actually get more comments on them than I do on my more sophisticated pieces.

This is a piece of black cotton from Joann's that I brushed with Decolourant to see what would happen. I know it is Decolourant because when I used bleach, the fabric discharged to brown rather than this grey. To integrated the two colors, I used some embroidery floss to quilt outline the discharged area. I was experimenting with copper wire and affixing beach stones.

In this piece I got a bit more adventurous and did the quilting with the embroidery thread before I discharged the material. If you look in the discharged areas you can see the added texture I got from discharging it after quilting.

Are you familiar with Decolourant? Here is the product page with how-to's for painting, printing, stamping, screening, and spraying with Decolourant. I'll be doing some of that this weekend!

Discharging -- first with bleach

2012-02-05T15:35:00.004-05:00

Discharging (removing color) from fabric is probably most commonly done with bleach. Since that's what I had on hand this weekend, that's what I decided to work with first.

I choose some really ugly fabrics from my stash, some commercial prints/solids, and some that I had already overdyed with MX dyes some time in the past.

I just stacked up a few layers, then I got out my plexiglass circles and clamped them tightly. (These plexiglass pieces are available from http://www.etsy.com/shop/r0ssie, by the way)

I stuck this all into a gallon of water with about 1/2 cup of bleach in it. After about 20 minutes, I removed from the bleach/water and stuck in vinegar. Of course, all of this was done in my garage with the door open due to the fumes.

Finished pieces:

This was a funky batik, I like the discharged colors a lot more than the original.

This piece was originally golden yellow, and I had overdyed it with a dark green a while back. The bleach took the dye out, but left too much of the original design in. Definitely a piece destined for the burn pile now.

This was another piece of fabric I tried this with:

After discharging, I over dyed these, one in green and one in blue.

I had wanted to compare the bleach discharge with Rit Color Remover, but it was too cold here this weekend to work outside in my garage. Stay tuned!

I am blown away

2012-01-31T15:40:00.000-05:00

by all the fabulous work that is coming from the group. And not one looks like anybody else's! Wow!!

After a break for almost a week for entertaining houseguests here from out of town (the last one left today) I haven't had time till today to work on the two center sections of the block I cut up.

Remember these?

Here they are after quite a few cut-paste-recut-etc. I think it needs more of something. All I wanted to do was get rid of the swastika and I have succeeded. But...

This is just one section of the blocks I sewed together to show what you can do. But you've done much more interesting and beautiful work, so I don't think you need any more instructions! I'm glad we had a chance to play together and Iove seeing what you're doing! Thanks for inviting me!
hugs,

I Finished One Too!

2012-01-30T13:09:00.000-05:00

"Sit Down -- I Think I Love You"

30" by 36"

Yeah -- I stole the title from an old song. I "accidentally" made a block that kind of looked like a chair and so I went with it and made some more. And then I found some chair fabric in my stash, so I added some of that too. The block in the middle came from the tiny stash of "finished" blocks that have been inhabiting my wall since I last posted. It's probably my favorite.

These are the ones left over. I think they need some friends.

I did some pretty basic quilting -- usually when I'm making something, I'm thinking about the quilting as I make it. Not so with this. Maybe because it's new? But fancy schmancy feathers or loop-dee-loops didn't really lend themselves to this kind of piecing. I want to experiment some more with that.

I used strips cut from a strata of dark hand-dyes for the binding. I notice that most of these quilts don't have traditional binding on them -- I'll have to experiment more with that too.

Finished!

2012-01-30T00:01:00.003-05:00

When I talked to you last, I had what would normally be a finished quilt top; but had decided to do more - so I slashed through the top, and added some inserts to make "Shattered" which would be of a piece with my burgeoning "fractured" series.

I was pleased that it fit in so naturally, and pleased too, to try something out of my comfort zone.

This was a really fun exercise - thanks very much to Rayna and Judith (for introducing us to Rayna's technique) - a great start to a new year.

Free-form Quilt--Quilter Beth

2012-01-29T12:15:00.000-05:00

I've been playing with making an actual quilt from the larger free-form piece I have made. The last couple of days I have made some black "blocks" for the borders. Each block is made of lots and lots of pieces of black fabric. At this point, it is up on my design wall in the "thinking" stage.

Today, I think I'll experiment with adding strips of the striped fabric around all the sides of the center piece. I want to lighten up the border a bit too, so I'll also add a bit of the striped fabric in the border (to make it look like the stripe is trying to escape from the center). I'm planning on adding a striped binding to it when it is finished. Of course, everything is just speculation right now. We'll see...

UFO tutorial - day 2

2012-01-27T00:34:00.000-05:00

Here's where I started.

Tonight I took out the rotary cutter and went to work. While I was deciding how to slice them, I wondered what would happen if I fan-folded them and cut through three layers at once. So I tried it.
Here I am, fan-folding the fabric.

Now all three layers are together and it's time to put a slice through them.

When I open it, here's what it looks like.

Three uneven cuts in one fell swoop and four sections. Later, I will cut it up again but in the meantime I will start with the two narrow sections in the middle and insert a strip between them.

But then I think I'll flip one side top-to-bottom before I insert anything.
A strip of lime green batik that is lying around seems like a cheerful way to start.

Since these blocks are different sizes (the reason they may never have been made into a quilt top)

I decide to trim off the excess and put it aside. Maybe I'll use it later for something else. Yes, I used a ruler, but really only when I trim.

I don't know what I will do next but these blocks have a long way to go before I can make the swastikas disappear. Stay tuned.

Free-form Blocks--Quilter Beth

2012-01-26T14:02:00.000-05:00

I finally had a chance to cut into the remaining portion of this quilt top. I removed the outside blocks and cut into those first. (I posted those results earlier.) I left these nine blocks together, because I wanted to see how different the results would be if I worked on a larger unit. These are the nine blocks I left together.

I went from the above nine blocks to this...

I liked this better than what I started with, but I didn't like the big white strip in the middle.

The strip was really too narrow to cut apart, so I used a fabric dye stick to put a blue "strip" down the middle. I liked it better but was still underwhelmed.

Then, I did some more cutting and added some black and white striped fabric along with two of the blocks I had previously transformed. I think this is something I can work with.

My first kick at the can...

2012-01-24T23:35:00.002-05:00

You may remember that I started with an odd assortment of blocks that were given to me as part of a birthday block exchange. I decided to first cut them into equal strips.

And then chose some additions from my scrap stash in the same two inch widths.

I fussed with the layout until I found something I was happy with...

And then sewed them all together.

Normally, I would stop here; this is my comfort zone and what pleases me aesthetically: a limited palette and not a lot of pattern in my fabrics - but since were "what if"-ing - I didn't!

Stay tuned...

UFO Tutorial - day 1

2012-01-24T22:22:00.002-05:00

I have a box full of random, un-used, leftover, odd-sized, ugly, new and old blocks. Some of them I have already improved.

And a couple have even become small quilts. This one was snapped up as soon as I finished it and is now hanging in a young teenager's bedroom.

So how do you turn an ugly duckling into a swan?

These six blocks were in a bag of vintage blocks I bought, sight unseen, at a flea market years ago; they have been in my trunk for ages. As I look at them now I know I would never have bought them if I had seen them. I don't know what the pattern is called but they are clearly swastikas to me. I estimate that they were made in the 1940's, but some of the fabrics look like 1910-20 vintage, as well.

I decided that cutting these individually would be too much work, so I sewed them together and will cut them as though they were a whole top. They are hand-pieced and I was happy to see that they were not all the same size and that a lot of the seams were 1/8". This is true of many old blocks; who came up with the "you must have a 1/4" seam" idea??

As I cut this thing up and re-sew it, you will be along with me to see what works and what doesn't because I never know in advance what I will be doing. I'll take pictures as I go along and will be happy to answer questions. It may not turn out to be a masterpiece but for sure, it will be better than THIS!
Stay tuned.

A Peek at the Third Piece

2012-01-23T18:30:00.000-05:00

Rayna will be posting her tutorial this week but till then I thought I would give you a peek at my third piece from Rayna's book. Here is the 3 x 4 foot top that I started with. It is an intermediate piece from my first Nancy Crow workshop.

I cut it into 12 blocks which are roughly 12 inch squares and then started slicing and dicing the blocks. Here is where I am at now.

I think it is 5 or 6 blocks on the design wall so far. I make no guarantee that the arrangement will stay the same for the finished piece. We'll see what the rest of the blocks have to add to the composition. But so far, so good! --Judith

More Free-form Blocks--Quilter Beth

2012-01-17T10:36:00.000-05:00

I had a chance to work on more blocks yesterday. I put them on the design wall with the first two blocks. This completes all the single blocks I separated from the original quilt top. Next, I'll be working on the portion of the quilt top I left intact. (I left nine of the blocks together--like a big nine-patch block.)

It was nice to work on these bright colors yesterday, because we had another one of those DREARY, gray days. These colors make me happy--they remind me of stained glass windows.

Working on the blocks is addictive. I understand, now, what Rayna means when she talks about "What if?" in the book. As I worked on these blocks, I said things like, "What if I slice into the border around the block?, What if I use a strip set as an insert in the block?, What if I shift each section of the block up and add pieces to the tops and bottoms of each section?, What if I use a slice from a strip set as a part of the block border?, etc." This is TOO MUCH FUN!

Once I play with slicing and dicing the remaining portion of the quilt top, I'll have to decide how I'll put the pieces together. Will they become one quilt top, two, or more? How will I put the pieces together? Hmmmmm, I don't know, but it will be fun to see.

A fellow traveler

2012-01-17T08:31:00.000-05:00

One of the many Dutch quilt artists I follow is a woman named Nienke. I read her blog daily and noticed she was working on a quilt as she followed our blog. These are some of he blocks she has been working on and this is what she made with it. Beautiful colors and patterns. Her blog is worth checking out.
p.s. Use the Google translator on the right of her blog

step one and a half

2012-01-17T00:19:00.000-05:00

Since washing didn't improve this fabric, I decided to overdye it to get rid of that white. White is really hard to use because that's where you eye goes first when you look at a piece of art (or anything else). If there is anything you do not want your eye to go to, it is this cloth!

I knew it had to turn green but didn't want to go so dark as to obliterate the pattern. In retrospect, dark would have been pointless; nothing could have made that brown and pepto-bismol pink disappear. Anyway, in the absence of soda ash, I tried green tea. Nope - the fabric turned a barely beige. Went to the studio, picked up some soda ash and then this morning, overdyed it (again). Better, don'tcha think?

I was hoping it would turn into something beautiful at midnight (Eastern Time Zone) tonight, but no dice. In my disappointment, I am going to sleep. Maybe tomorrow I can cope with it between my other two must-do projects.

My book is here!

2012-01-16T00:24:00.001-05:00

Well, not "here, in my hands", but "here" I can pick it up at lunchtime!

So, what I'm going to be working with are these birthday blocks that were the result of a miscommunication with my group. I asked for blue or purple stars, but most people gave me blue AND purple stars. So, they didn't go with each other at all, and consequently, not much could be done with them.

Given what other people have posted on the blog so far, I thought I would start with these two blocks as they needed the most help;

but in the end, decided to go with this block as I have a lot of fabrics that would fall within this range.

So, give me a chance to read the book, and I'll be on my way within a couple of days!

*rubs hands together*

Another day in slice-n-dice-ville

2012-01-15T16:18:00.000-05:00

Done for another day. I basically don't like what I did and I am not looking for compliments in some passive aggressive way. I DO like this one and will probably make it into a stand alone piece.

I just need to find a way to knock back the orange. Time will tell. These are the other three.

I WAS listening to a pretty good book on MP3 which covered both days so it wasn't a complete waste of time.

Sometimes I Hate Blogger

2012-01-15T12:39:00.000-05:00

Because it won't let me post comments. For the past week. So I'm putting up a post with my comments. In the previous post, Beth from Maine, my wall and floor are covered with strip-sets that I've sewn in the past week. I'm trying to find the motivation to go work with them. I do like your purple blocks.

Kit! I know you found the book -- but I tried and tried to post a comment -- my friend, Cathy Neri, of QBU Books has a special limited time offer for "friends of Karen" for Rayna's book -- it includes free shipping. You can reach her toll free at: (877) 315-7131 or at QuiltingBooksUnlimited@gmail.com.

Quilter Beth -- I love those colors -- I'm wondering, after looking at yours and Beth from Maine's posts, if I need to ditch the soft colors and go back to my brights.

Judith! Your pieces are just fantastic. Again, I think I need to ditch the soft colors -- it's so cold outside, I must need brights! Although, my son liked the dragon fabrics I used.

So now I'm going to go downstairs to pull some COLOR from my stash and see if I can perk up all this blah. TTFN...

Finally with it

2012-01-15T11:13:00.002-05:00

I got the book and read it a few days ago and was itching to start. I made 4 blocks that I really love just not all together. I sewed each of the blocks to another and I don't like it. I am thinking of make 4 small pieces with these blocks as the centers. Meanwhile, I will continue to work on strip sets in yellows, greens and oranges and see if inspiration strikes.

I can't believe this is the end product of an entire day.

Beginning a Free-Form Quilt--Quilter Beth

2012-01-14T11:30:00.000-05:00

Last night, I had a chance to work a bit on my free-form quilt. It is SO much fun to work without rules. I started with the blocks I separated from the quilt itself. (I'll work on the remaining portion of the quilt later.)

It is so dreary and gray outside right now that working with lots of color feels REALLY good. This is currently on my design wall.

Saving a UFO

2012-01-14T09:25:00.003-05:00

Unlike Beth, I rarely finish anything before I am lured away to new interests. I used to beat myself up about that but now have accepted that free-spirit part of my personality. Because of my habits, I have tons of UFO's to choose from but I have decided to combine three pieces I created in my first Nancy Crow workshop. None of them are worth finishing on their own but could come together nicely in a free-form quilt.

The first assignment was to create a black and white motif sized at about 2 x 3 ft.

The second assignment was to use that motif to create a 2 x 3 ft piece incorporating whites, off-whites, black, and greys.

The third assignment was to create a 3 x 4 ft piece using the same motif and incorporating browns along with the previous whites, blacks, and greys.

To join with them I found these orphans from another quilt that will begin to give some color to the mix. These were cut back before I quit using a ruler to cut my fabric.

WISH ME LUCK!

Second piece from Rayna's book finished

2012-01-13T09:20:00.002-05:00

Well, not finished finished but the quilt top is done!

Contain the Light

Commercial and Hand-dyed Cottons

38 x 47 inches

Progress on my white blocks

2012-01-09T22:19:00.000-05:00

I first showed you the white 4 1/2 inch blocks that I am slicing and dicing in this post. The plain white blocks were slightly changed and marginally more exciting when I started. I have continued working with them and have gotten far more free with my rotary cutter. Here are some of my newer revamped blocks.

I have started joining the revamped blocks with strip sets to create a new art work--my second from my experiments from Rayna's book. I am very excited about this new work! I'll show pictures of it as it gets closer to being finished.

Stripping Therapy

2012-01-07T16:04:00.002-05:00

I got Rayna's book yesterday afternoon. I opened it up and it was like she'd been spying on me in my most private moments in my studio. I've been doing a form of this piecing for a couple of years and using the bits for bags and as backgrounds for art quilts. I've even been calling it "free-form piecing." But I never thought of cutting up those old orphan blocks and using them in quilts. I wanted to run right downstairs and paw through my boxes of scraps and blocks and get stitching.

But, alas, on Fridays I am just exhausted, so I had to content myself with reading the book (yes, I read the whole thing) and going to bed with visions of strips dancing in my head. I was really taken with her quilt, "Strata," and took a few moments to analyze what I liked best about it so I could create something with that feel in my own manner.

So this morning, after I fed the darling husband and myself, I divorced myself from the rest of the family and boogied downstairs to commune with the scraps. I got down the two boxes of strips that I had been saving (cleverly labeled "cools" and warms") and ran my fingers through them feeling like Midas with his coins. Then I got out the laundry basket of scraps and the box stashed under it. Then I excitedly got out the box of orphan blocks and discovered the finished pieced baby quilt top and another bag of blocks. Then I sat down on the floor, feeling totally overwhelmed with all this stuff. How was I ever going to sort through all this stuff?

Okay -- maybe I should just forget this for a while and go to the grocery store. But then I remembered what Rayna's friend said, "When all else fails, sew strips." So I pushed the box of orphan blocks, the overflowing laundry basket, and the boxes of "warms" and miscellaneous scraps away from me and picked up the box of "cools" and set it next to the ironing board. I realized that what I liked best about "Strata" were the cool greys, blues, and greens and the soft golds punctuated with the bits of reds and purples. The reds and purples are arranged in such a way that they look like structures in an Asian landscape. Very appealing.

So I pulled the lighter colors from the box and started stitching them together. I found a half of a block and some strip-sets from other projects, so I sewed them together too. Then I started pulling the darker colors from the box and sewed those together. I stopped when my bobbin ran out and the needle needed changing.

This is where it stands. I'm going to the grocery store now, but I think when I get back, I'm going to get into my stash and pull out the soft golds and greys and start sewing together strips of those.

Who knows, I might even find a use for this ridiculously ugly piece. I've kept it for years because it is a really nice piece of fabric (good-quality sateen), even though, in a spectacularly bone-headed moment, I stamped on it on the wrong side. Not that it matters, it's still staggeringly ugly. I guess I should admit, I don't love all the bits I sewed together today, but none of them compares to the piece above.

Sorry about the verbosity of this post, I usually try to save that for my own personal blog, but there will be only one post from me today and this is it.

Orphan???

2012-01-04T16:42:00.001-05:00

I am one of those obnoxious people who finishes every quilt started. Ugly but true. Then I remembered a traditional quilt I made for myself that held very special meaning to me. It was a green and purple "Drunkards Path" 96 "X 96".

When I was making the 24" blocks, I made one too many. I do believe that makes it an orphan. I started to take the large 24" block apart into the 16 - 6" units then stopped. I think I will leave some of it together and see what interesting slices I can make. I still don't have my book back yet and I actually haven't read one word of it. So I am anxious to get it back so I can catch up with everyone.

Poor little orphan

I've Picked My Project for January--Quilter Beth

2012-01-03T13:38:00.000-05:00

I'm SO thrilled that Rayna Gillman is our guest blogger for this month. I have been a fan of hers for quite some time; and I have several UFOs, orphan blocks, and other miscellaneous quilt pieces from which to choose a project.

I'm hoping to do more than one piece, but I'm not sure whether time will allow it. I have, however, chosen a piece to start with. It is a piece I made when I worked through Lyric Kinard's "Art + Quilt" book. As I worked through each exercise, I documented my progress on my blog. (If you'd like to check that out, you can see it here. Enter "Lyric Kinard" in the Search box.) It is a project I did when I was working on a Value and Hue Exercise from her book. It met the requirements of the exercise, but it was nothing I actually would use.

I'm thinking I will like it much better after some manipulations using suggestions from Rayna's new book "Create Your Own Free-Form Quilts." I'm excited to see how different it will look.

behind the scenes

2012-01-03T12:56:00.000-05:00

Hi everybody!

I'm so excited to be a guest blogger this month and I promise to put up some real posts and tutorials when I'm finished writing my magazine article that is due next Monday (AARRGH!). In the meantime, I'm getting all the posts and will comment when I can. I've got one piece on the wall in process, created from strip sets and squares that I've cut up and put back together-- but I don't have time to finish it now.

In the meantime, here are a few "outtakes" that didn't make it into the color chapter of my book (maybe I need to write a whole 'nother book on the subject? What do you think?) Anyway, I was cutting up a UFO and showing some alternatives for what would work in terms of color. I confess that I don't usually do this -- I just work intuitively. But here are some pix I took, just in case. When you are writing a book or an article (or a tutorial - LOL) you never know what photos you will want to use.

original block

auditioning strips to insert

sliced and inserted into block, turning sections every which way.

block sliced again and more auditions below

Which colors would you choose? Which would you guess I liked the best?

Stay tuned!

Read the Comments

2012-01-03T11:01:00.000-05:00

Dear Readers,
During January Rayna is going to make comments and answer questions in the comment section of our posts. So, please check the comment sections of posts this month to catch her.

Cutting up an "ugly" block

2012-01-03T09:32:00.003-05:00

I'm feeling kind of guilty about calling this block "ugly" because it was one of a series of similar blocks that my mother made before she died in 2007. They were apparently all destined to be a quilt, but she never got the chance to finish it. The pattern just isn't my style, so I decided to slice it up with my rotary cutter.

Then I sewed parts of it into strips, per Rayna Gilman's book, mostly using a bunch of scraps I had leftover from a Judy Niemeyer quilt top made last yer.

Now I have four sets of these strips, and will have to decide how to proceed with them tonight (after work).

January is all about Free-Form Quilts!

2012-01-01T21:32:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year! I don't know about you but I am starting off the year with super excitement knowing that Rayna Gillman, author of Create Your Own Free-Form Quilts, is going to be a guest on the blog! In Mid-January, she will be posting a tutorial on the chapter in her book titled "Reinventing UFOs with strips and bits."

Until then we are preparing by playing around with other chapters and techniques from her book. Here is the finished top I created with strip sets from an earlier chapter in the book and my double F motif. It is currently about 36 " square but will shrink when quilted.

Now I am moving on to Rayna's chapter on "A square is a square is a square." So, I found these white blocks that I prepared for who-knows-what. How convenient!

Notice the little bit of pink dye on the corner? I am hoping it won't show. If it does then I will make it a design element. LOL Anyway, I have been trying some of Rayna's variations for spicing them up. Here are my first squares using the white blocks and some left over strip sets.

I'll keep making some more spicy squares and trying more variations. I'll post pictures as I progress.

A Little More Plastic Play

2011-12-31T16:45:00.000-05:00

I borrowed the bag idea and made a tiny one to match the shoes in my previous post.

I lined the plastic fabric with the sparkly dress fabric I used to make a gown for my daughter's doll -- the same way I did the slippers.

I'm not crazy about the jewel on the front and I'm not sure how to make an elegant closure on such a small scale. I'm thinking I'll just sew on a snap and cover the thread on the front with the jewel. Unless someone has a better suggestion...

Working my way Through Rayna's book

2011-12-27T02:01:00.000-05:00

I don't know about you but I am so excited to have Rayna leading our experiments in January! She will be leading us in reinventing UFOs.

I have already gotten started on a different chapter in her book. An early chapter is on making and using strip sets. Here is a picture of an art quilt I am working on using strips sets and the Double F motif I have used before. It is not finished yet but I am really excited about it.

Not all blocks are created equal. I made some ugly ones that did not make the quilt. Lucky Me!

You will get to see them again in January when I use them as my UFOs.

Button, button, who has the button?

2011-12-26T08:00:00.003-05:00

Do you remember that game from when you were young? I doubt than anyone under 50 remembers it now. But since I was thinking about buttons, I thought of the game.

First I read the post by Kit who said the melted plastic was so thick that no needle would ever go through it. Then I read Lin's Arty Blog about making buttons. The two ideas came together and I thought, why not make buttons?

First, here is my wonderful husband washing the dishes while I am melting plastic and trying to turn them into buttons. Aren't I a lucky woman!

Okay, on to my fun. I saved my plastic shopping bag from Barnes and Nobles.

I cut off one of the decorative sides, wrapped it in plastic wrap, folded it into 4ths, and proceeded to melt it with the iron.

I then cut the plastic with a pair of heavy-duty scissors into squarish and roundish shapes. I could have made them neater but I then I like things with character. I melted holes for the thread by holding a nail with pliers over the stove burner till it was hot then poking holes in the button. While I would think twice about using the buttons on clothing that would get washed frequently and go into the dryer, they are stiff enough to serve as reliable closures.

And the BIG WINNER is...Lynn from Alamosa Quilter

2011-12-25T20:20:00.001-05:00

Lynn! You won Rayna Gillman's new book, Create your own free-form quilts. Congratulations!! Please email me at quiltordye@ftml.net and let me know where to mail it. If you do it quick, you can have the book in time to start on January 1 as we reinvent UFOs with strips and bits (pg 66).

Create Your Own Free-Form Quilts Give Away

2011-12-23T14:54:00.000-05:00

Only hours left before Rayna Gillman's book, Create Your Own Free-Form Quilts, may belong to you!! The drawing will be at noon Christmas Day. For more information about how to enter to win, read this post and leave your comments there. Good Luck!

It Arrived Today!

2011-12-20T19:29:00.000-05:00

When I got home from work there was a package on the doorstep waiting for me from C&T Publishing. It was Rayna's new book that we are giving away on Christmas Day!

"What?" you say, "You are giving away Rayna's new book, Create Your Own Free-Form Quilts?" Yes, we are and all you need to do is post a comment here to be entered to win. If you grab our Fire Blog logo for your blog, and leave us a comment to let us know, then you can be entered a second time.

I bought Rayna's book a few weeks ago and have been thrilled with it. It really is book that I can and do use. In fact, I am combining the double F motif I used in Nancy Crow's workshop with some strip sets I learned how to make from Rayna's book. No peeking yet but I think it will be a winning combination.

Meet Mr Heat Gun

2011-12-19T22:24:00.000-05:00

I am mostly satisfied with the texture on my compost fabric trees so now it is time to start auditioning leaves. Since I want a leaf with as much character as the tree trunks, I have tried burning a variety of types of fabric and non-fabrics. Here are my experiments and my results.

First I made a quilt sandwich with the same type of fabric as the trees. I wanted to know what the leaves would look like on the black linen and whether the felt I used as batting would be a problem if melting stuff on it.

Next I photocopied some leaves that I had pressed. I wanted to have the copies to help with the size, shape, and veins of the leaves.

Then I started stitching various fabrics, including tyvek, onto the quilt sandwich. The tyvek I had previously painted green. All of the rest of the fabrics were various weights and types of polyester. The stitching was the outside edge of the leaves and the veins.

Once I had several leaves sewn, I started heating them with the iron to see what would happen. Not much. I should have done a better job of trimming the leaves before I ironed them. I had expected the fabric not sewn down to just melt away. Not so much. It melted into the fabric. I'll do better next time.

So then I moved on to the heat gun. Much, MUCH better. Now I am starting to get the texture I wanted and the extra fabric on the outside edge finally melted away.

Take a look at this one. It is really nice. However, the leaves were flat. FLAT! I could just not bear to put them on my lovely trees.

So then I moved on to melting plastic. I put some of the more promising polyester between some layers of Glad Wrap and took the iron to it. While it was still warm, I cut the melted stuff into leaf shapes. Pretty but not enough texture yet.

Here they are after meeting Mr. Heat Gun (he is one hot dude).

I also tried cutting the tyvek into a leaf shape and taking the heat gun to it for texture. Much better results burning the tyvek before sewing it down. Here are both the green tyvek leaf and the plastic leaves pinned on the trees. Beside it are the leaves on my quilt sandwich.

While I like several of the results, I am not satisfied that I have found the right leaf for the trees yet. I will let you know if it turns out to be plastic like this month's technique or tyvek like a couple of months ago.

Plastic fabrics

2011-12-17T16:54:00.002-05:00

Last weekend I assembled some supplies to create some plastic fabric. I used saran wrap and paints, adding a layer of plastic and some paint til I had about 6 layers built up.

Then I covered with parchment paper and ironed it til it was fused together. It was pretty quick, I had two sets made in a few minutes.

I then took the fused "fabric" and sliced it into squares, rectangles, and cut some into circles.

I sewed some of the circles onto a piece of gauze-like fabric using a free motion stitch. It was kind of hard on my sewing machine, as the paint was too thick in parts, and kept gumming up my needle. If I ever do this again, I think a light wash of paint would be better for my machine.

This is a portion of the sewed piece, held up to my window so you can see the translucence and the stitching--

Another piece I created the same way, except I used squares instead of circles. Then I cut into a square, put a piece of ribbon through it, and now it's a homemade Christmas tree ornament.

This is a piece created using one of the plastic fabrics, cut into squares, then mounted onto a piece of a hospital laundry bag that dissolves in water, kind of like the dissolving stabilizers. My friend at work, Eileen, gave me one yesterday after I saw her blog post about them. I just sewed straight lines on the piece, instead of doing any fancy stitches, and then melted the laundry bag away.

This piece is going to be cut up, too, but I'm saving it til my week off after Christmas when I might have a little more free time!

HOLY HOT PLASTIC

2011-12-13T07:42:00.003-05:00

I ironed 4 layers of shopping bags (no.2) together under parchment paper with fine scraps of fabric between layers 2 & 3. The bags didn't like the fabric and I had to iron on 2 more layers on the "iron side" of the piece. Here are the pics of my process:

This is the "iron side" of the piece. I have parchment paper on the ironing surface, 2 layers of bags, hand smoothed, fabric scraps then 4 layers of plastic bags. I covered all with more parchment paper and ironed - not too much because it wants to ripple.

This was the side touching the ironing surface. This ironing took place by my window with the huge exhaust fan on since the fumes are most probably toxic and these irreplaceable lungs are keeping me on this side of the grass so....
For some reason this reminded me of pampers (which I never used - always cotton!- aah fiber)

So I decided to free motion to flatten the plastic puffs down and add more color.

Then I made an envelope with a gold elastic and button closure. This will be nice for keeping flat memorabilia like cards.

One Year Anniversary and a Present for You!

2011-12-10T11:49:00.000-05:00

January is our one year anniversary and we want to celebrate! Rayna Gillman, author of Create Your Own Free-Form Quilts, has agreed to join us as a Guest Blogger in January. She will be giving us a tutorial on her chapter on "reinventing UFOs with strips and bits." (This is just so fabulous!)

To help you prepare we are giving away an autographed copy of Rayna's book on Christmas day. Just leave a comment here for one chance to win. For a second chance, grab our blog button, post it on your blog, and leave us another comment with the link to your newly embellished blog.

Good luck to you! I am so excited for our January celebration!! I love Rayna's book!!!

Judith

Playing with plastic

2011-12-08T07:45:00.005-05:00

I played with this technique over the weekend; using grocery/store bags, dry cleaner wrapping, thickened plastic wadding and bubble wrap.

Mostly, I just melted stuff together. :)

I was interested in the types of textures I could get with the different weights of plastic; but because the dry cleaning plastic would have been excessively boring, I first put two squares as a base, mixed up some craft paint on top, put another two squares of plastic on that and melted away,

Four layers wasn't enough (paint ALL over my iron), but 8 was, and I got some really nice results that were highly coloured, very pliant, and easy to quilt.

I also tried it with some white grocery bags for a less vibrantly coloured result and in my finished piece, layered the different kinds of plastics and some of the colours together.

I also tried putting "stuff' in between the layers: sequins, tiny beads, bits of fabric, plastic mesh and the like - with varied results - I may use those bits and bobs in other pieces in the future:

But often, the result was such a hard mass of plastic, I couldn't imagine using it in any way except possibly, sculpture!

It's not clear from the pic above - but this turned out be a lump of hard plastic that no needle could ever get through!

In the end, I took some pinks and greens and whites, cut them up, layered them and put them together in a little wall hanging. BSP (Beloved Spouse) *LOVES* it and thinks I should work with melted plastic all the time.

It was fun - but that's enough for me. :)

Kit

Playing With Plastic - Karen

2011-12-04T16:31:00.000-05:00

I have been saving the bags I get in the produce department for a while -- they're great for picking up after my dog. So I grabbed a few of them and ironed them together. They looked kind of blah, so I borrowed some glitter from my daughter and sprinkled it on the ironed bag-fabric, then covered it with a sheet of plastic wrap from the kitchen.

I really like the look, but the wrap shrunk up at a different rate than the bags and I got all this cool texture.

But the texture was too much for the project I had in mind (that first piece will go on my "little gems" pile.) So I laid out three bags (I cut off the handles and bottoms so they would lie flat) and sprinkled on some more glitter then covered it with another bag. I ironed it flat between two sheets of parchment paper.

Here is a close up of the glitter trapped between the not-quite-opaque bags.

I used big paper clips to hold the pattern on it for cutting. --I keep a bag of these in my studio in all different sizes -- it's amazing how useful they are.

And the finished product -- little fairy slippers for my daughter's doll. The plastic fabric is just clear enough to allow the yellow fabric to show through.

I think I would like to try this with tiny snips of fabric sandwiched between the layers of plastic. And, of course, with paint.

December Technique--Plastic Fabric

2011-12-01T10:59:00.000-05:00

The technique for the month of December is making and using plastic fabric. I had tried this quite awhile ago but wanted to experiment a bit more with it. It is easy to make and (hopefully) will get your creative juices going.

The "recipe" for making "fabric" from plastic bags is very simple.

1. Gather your plastic bags. (I like to use the thin ones that grocery stores use, but you can use others.)

2. Cut the bags open down one side and cut the handles and bottom off the bags. You want a fairly smooth surface of bags to work with.

3. Layer 4-6 bags (one on top of the other) between pieces of parchment paper to get a larger piece of "fabric." You can fold one bag to get the number of layers you need to make smaller pieces. (I found that if you mix the type of bags some of them melt faster than others. This may cause a bit more shrinkage and more ripples/bubbles in the "fabric." Personally, I like the texture that gives me.)

You can find Parchment Paper at the grocery store. If you don't have parchment paper, you can also use the paper backing that comes with some fusibles. I think that those non-stick applique sheets would work too.

Here, there are six bags layered one on top of the other.

4. In a well ventilated area, fuse the bags (layered between some type of non-stick material like parchment paper) together by ironing. Start out with a temperature setting of rayon, but keep in mind that you may need to increase the temperature. (I increased the temperature to the highest wool setting.) Keep the iron moving. (Some bags produce more fumes than others. I put my ironing board right next to a window and cracked the window.) It helps to iron the bags from both sides, especially if you are ironing six layers--turn the parchment paper "sandwich" over and iron the back too. Check to see if the bags are fused by lifting up the corner of your parchment paper.

These bags are fused. You can see in the upper left-hand corner where the "fabric" has bubbled a bit. I got a bit impatient and increased the heat of my iron a little too high. I found, though, that I liked the texture this gave the "fabric."

Once the bags have been fused, you can use the bags like regular fabric. (Keep in mind, though, that pinning will create holes in the plastic fabric. You might want to use paper clips to hold the "fabric" instead.) Before using your plastic fabric you will probably want to paint and embellish it. I used acrylic paints and a Sharpie pen to decorate this green fabric.

When you are finished with your "fabric," it can be sewn and stitched. You can use it for purses, iPad/iPod cases, journal covers, etc. You could cut it apart and embellish a quilt with it. There are lots and lots of things you can do with it. I'm anxious to see what creative things you can come up with.

I decided to make a clutch purse out of my green "fabric." I liked the ruffled edge, so I decided to keep it. I am using a magnet (glued with E6000) to close it. I haven't yet decided which decorative closure to use. These are some of my choices--I may not have found the right one yet. Do you like any of these?

Here are some websites that will give you more information.

Tutorial for fused plastic fabric

http://etsylabs.blogspot.com/2007/05/long-overdue-fusing-plastic-bag.html

Video

http://craftingagreenworld.com/2010/05/18/fab-fabrics-fused-plastic-bags-with-video/

How to make an iPad case with plastic fabric and general instructions

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Fuse-Plastic-Bags-into-a-Laptop-Case/?ALLSTEPS

Last one....

2011-12-01T09:14:00.000-05:00

As some of you may know, I've been having computer problems (it's still living with The Geek Squad), so I've had virtually no computer access as work doesn't allow most entertaining type sites.

But I managed to do this: show the last thing I made with transfer paints/disperse dyes in this sad little un-retouched photo taken in bad lighting on a rainy day with my phone!

Later, when I have access to both my computer and the pictures on it, I'll edit this post with a better pic, but for this one, I cut out the shapes on my papers and ironed away - and got some great effects which are not necessarily apparent on this photo.

So, learnings:

1. Unlike some of the others, I didn't use kits, nor did I use transperse paints. I used transFER paints pre-mixed and disperse dyes that I mixed myself to the following recipe:

tsp for a pale value
2 tsps for a medium value
4 tsps for a dark value; and
8 tsps for black

mixing the dye with 1/2 cup boiling water and a drop or two of synthrapol. For watercolour effects on paper, thinning with another 1/2 cup of water

These gave great, results time after time, with no smell and virtually no mess. What mess there was, was easily cleaned up.
2. Using these mixtures and the pre-mixed transfer paints, I had the best results, by far, using art paper rather than bond (photocopy) paper

3. The higher the value of man-made material in the cloth, the better the result was, with 100% polyester "silk" turning out the best result

4. A very sheer polyester tulle had great results with printing on both sides showing through

5. These mixtures can also be mixed with thickener paste thinly mixed for paper, or using a thicker paste for printing, stamping or stencilling on paper very well.

6. Cutting out shapes and/or using resists gives really lovely results as well.

Overall, this is a technique that I will use again - there are some results I got that I have been unable to get with any other technique. If I were making a bed quilt, I would be hesitant about using this technique as there is some prejudice about using polyester/man made fabric in bed quilts - but for art pieces, I have no compunction using it.

I was pleased with both the learning curve for this technique (my first days with it were sad and pitiful!) and the results I got, as well as what I learned.

Don't forget, if you try this technique - come back and tell us!

Multiple Experiments with Transperse Dyes

2011-11-26T19:53:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Beth, I got a chance to play with transperse dyes today. I prepared for the day by ordering the PRO Transperse Transfer Printing Kit from Pro Chem. It had a small amount of blue, yellow, red, and black transperse dyes and the thickening agent to make a print paste. I also scanned some tree leaves I had pressed, Photoshopped them to just edges, and printed the leaves onto thick art paper. For the life of me I can't find the jpeg with just the edges--did I not save it???--but here are the scanned and printed leaves before I turned them into outlines.

Once at Beth's, we mixed the thickener to make the print paste. We added only half the thickening agent before we both agreed that it was way too thick already and we quit. Like Beth, I mixed my dyes powders with boiling water. I chose to mix dark concentrations because I figured I could always water them down. Next I mixed the dye concentrates with the print paste. Then we started with the experiments.

Experiment 1: Transfer printing of painted pictures.
I painted the leaves from the outlines I had printed before. Here is a picture of them painted on the paper.

Here is a picture of them on the polyester silk that Beth provided.

Lessons from Experiment 1: When comparing my results to Beth's, copy paper and unthickened dyes transferred much better than thickened dyes on art paper.

Experiment 2: Transfer printing using a mask.
I painted several sheets with stripes of dyes and then used some more of my pressed leaves as masks. Here are some of the results from that experiment.

Lessons from Experiment 2:

Coolest thing I learned here is that the transfer dye would transfer to the mask. That meant I could turn the mask over and print directly from it.

Experiment 3: Transfer printing from thermofax

At this point I had left over thickened dye and Beth had some lonely thermofax screens. I put them together and printed on paper. Here are the results when printed onto the fabric.

Lessons learned from Experiment 3:

I don't know if I would have better success with a different type of silk screen or if I had screened onto copy paper but these did not transfer well and only transferred once--see the very faint leaves on the second picture? That was my second attempt to print. Quite unsatisfactory.

Experiment 4: Going wild now
Okay, at this point I was having tons of fun layering the prints. Because they are translucent and because I could print directly from the masks, I was just making multiple layers of the same masks/transfer papers in multiple ways. So Beth painted a motif and I started transferring the motif across a width of fabric. Here are pictures of the progress. (Sorry about the shine--wasn't there in person)

Overall Lessons Learned
1) By the time I finished playing today, I decided that I do have a few more experiments that I want to try. It is kinda fun.

2) There are effects you can get using the transperse dyes that you could not get from paints or direct computer printing on the fabric.

Overall, I am still on the fence for this technique. One of the pieces I made today will become a wall hanging. We'll see how the quilting goes to see if I am interested in working with polyester in the future. At this point I have used cotton/silk/linen fabric for so long that I am not sure why I would want to use polyester fabric and if I don't use polyester fabric then this technique is pointless.

I will let you know about the quilting and any future experiments.

Transperse Dye Play Date

2011-11-26T17:20:00.000-05:00

I love playing with Judith. She is so much fun to watch when she goes on a roll with her creative ideas.
Well, I was feeling a bit guilty about not getting to the transperse dyes sooner but Judith came over a rescued me. She will be talking about how she used the materials and I will talk about how I used the materials. I added 4 teaspoons of dye powder to 1/2 cup of boiling water and stirred. I made blue, yellow, red, turquoise and black. I decided that I wanted to do sketches in dye paint so I used a sketch I did earlier for my altered books project and printed an enlarged photo of a crow. I painted over the pencil lines on my sketch with what I thought at the time was black (note to others: LABEL as you mix). I used printer paper. This formula was a bit darker than the medium recipe (3 teaspoons per 1/2 cup). I also made two sheets with just overall color. I wanted to see if the colors were transparent. When I painted red, then yellow then blue with overlapping sections, the transperse dye/paint didn't BLEND making green and purple. I wanted to see if when heated they would blend. They did and quite beautifully. On one of my crows (the one from a photo), I used 3 values of the same color dye/paint. Again I thought I was using black.Here are my results:

You can clearly see the 3 values of blue

This was more sketchy

The ghost is another print under neither it showing through the fabric. Ignore the man behind the curtain.

Too little heat on the bottom

See how light I made the feet? The dye/paint was very watery and you can see the other differing values in the birds body and wings. That was what I was going for.

This one (above) was ruined by steam iron vent holes. That was the first print. We quickly plugged in my solid sole plate iron. You can clearly see the orange and green above.

This was our set-up (below)

OK. This is my 2 cents.
1. These transperse dyes really smell B A D and I mean stink. The stunk up the whole kitchen during the mixing process and every time we opened a container of mixed fluid dye the smell was awful.I have a massive exhaust fan within inches of our ironing surface so there were no fumes we noticed during the ironing part but I bet we'd be choking up a storm without that fan.
2. I thought they were no big deal although I can tell you Judith had a ball. I will probably never use them again - really
3. It was messy since they were fluid however the mess washed right off easily mostly without staining anything.
4. The way I prepared and applied the dye was way easier than Judith's way - she was following direction.
5. I think there s a huge difference between transfer and transperse dyes. Mine were easy to use and I painted on copier paper and got tons (10-15) prints off each sheet.
Stay tuned for Judith's blog post coming up soon.

More experiments and play

2011-11-21T19:31:00.000-05:00

So, for this piece, I took some of my dried painted papers, cut them into the above designs, laid them on my cloth, and then ironed a yellow-green painted paper over top of them to achieve the above result. I think I'm going to go over it again with a green and/or blue paper as well to get a more nuanced result.

For this piece, I cut some papers into triangle shapes and ironed them onto a piece of cloth for a cute piece of fabric. More, after the jump:

I love this piece of fabric and the painted paper it comes from for its water-like effect. The paper was first painted with pale blue, and then, while still wet with green and then darker blue, after which I combed the still-wet paint.

The paper for this fabric was first painted with orange, and while still wet, layered over with a fuschia-mix and a few drops of blue, through which I "finger-painted".

On this one I did a yellow base on the paper, poured black and brown mix on top, and then "scribbled' with my finger through the paint.

Transfer Paints - First Try - Karen

2011-11-20T18:27:00.000-05:00

I finally mixed them up and tried them. The first two photos are the results on some sheer poly stuff. One is from the "fancy" section of the fabric store and the other is leftover from Halloween.

The fabrics are really sheer (you can see threads stuck to my design wall showing through). I think this would be fun used as a technique to put color on some kind of an overlay -- it's very subtle. I plan to experiment a bit more with these.

This was the poly satin from the "fancy" department -- all this fabric was on sale and not terribly expensive. I took a cue from the comments on the previous posts and placed a piece of laser cut paper from the scrapbooking department over the painted paper as a stencil. The color is slightly darker than it looks on my monitor.

And this was my favorite. I did it in two sections, using two different painted sheets. The fabric is a 70/30 poly cotton blend and gave me the best color -- although I may have just gotten the hang of it as this was the last one I did. I really like the color showing through the stencil.

I have to admit, I was dismayed when I mixed up the colors -- the yellow looked kind of brownish and the blue looked purple. When I mixed the two, the color was muddy. I was pleasantly surprised at the change in color on the fabric. I have a bunch more paper painted up, so I'll be playing with it a bit more before I'm finished. I'm thinking of painting an image, then trying to transfer it.

Gather Supplies for the December Technique--Quilter Beth

2011-11-19T12:53:00.000-05:00

Originally, I had wanted to do some discharging with bleach for the December technique, but because of the ventilation required for this technique and considering the weather that most of the group must deal with in December, I decided it would be better to do that in the spring. I know that the holidays are a busy time for almost everyone, so I thought I'd come up with a technique that doesn't require a lot of supplies or time.

I don't know about you, but I like to recycle whenever I can. Well, we are going to do a bit of recycling of plastic shopping bags in December. I have a plastic bag "stash," and I know my husband will be glad for me to get rid of some of them. I think you all already have everything else you might need to embellish the bags. So...be collecting those shopping bags. I'll post detailed information about the technique in December. We might even be able to finish some gifts for friends and family before Christmas (if that is a holiday you celebrate).

An Angie Hughes Post

2011-11-18T13:32:00.001-05:00

Angie Hughes has a post on a transfer printing workshop that I think SHE gave. Any way, lots of great photos

Experiments continued...

2011-11-17T02:36:00.000-05:00

I have been working on other experiments over the past couple of weeks with transfer paints/disperse dyes. For this piece (36 x 24 or so), I couldn't pick up the gloriously glossy effect that this fabric has as I'm not yet that skilled a photographer - but it's really lovely.

For this piece I tore the painted papers into pieces and then laid a piece down, ironed it, laid another piece on top, ironed it - with a fairly light hand onto the fabric, a quite laborious proces, but a result I was quite pleased with.

Because the first piece took so long (about 2 hours), I decided to try cutting the paper into roughly rectangular shapes and then glued them to another piece of paper paint side up before putting the fabric over it and ironing it.

I had already written the on the backs of the papers their colours so I would know what the heck I was doing - as I was laying them down they all looked sort of blackish or blueish.)

Anyway, as you can see, in this piece, the colours were more bright - remember, the longer you press and/or the more pressure you apply when you press the more brilliant your result is. (For me, with arthritic hands, elbows and shoulders, pressure was problematic, so if I wanted brilliant colour, I just increased the time).

So, the top piece, with it's lighter colours, was less pressure and time, and the bottom piece was done with more time.

Another key learning for me in this process was that bond (or photocopy) paper is really NOT a good choice for this process. It will work, but the heating process bonds the colour to the paper (cuz that's what it's made to do, after all) so you'll only get one or two good prints from it. I bought a couple of drawing pads and have been able to use that paper - so far, endlessly. (Each paper has had at least six kicks at the can, and one, I've used on nearly 30 pieces of fabric!)

And then I made some papers that were simply dropped onto the table after I'd been painting papers. The colour left on the paper was very light and I was somewhat concerned that the transfer wouldn't be useful, but these were my first passes - and I've since used the papers to good effect - and I'll show you those next week.

I also tried some more leaf resists on a different kind of polyester fabric - a more sheer fabric that would be good for a different kind of application.

And then I went back to the original fabric with fern resists again - this time laying the sheets of painted paper over the fabric and ironing small sections over them.

This week, I also received in the mail my pre-order of Holly Brackman's The Surface Designer's Handbook which has an entire chapter on disperse dyes and a comprehensive section within the chapter on transfer printing.

Holly recommends the following dye amounts:

1 tsp for a pale value
2 tsps for a medium value
4 tsps for a dark value; and
8 tsps for black.

She suggests mixing the dye with 1/2 cup boiling water, a drop or two of synthrapol. For watercolour effects on paper, she suggests thinning with another 1/2 cup of water.

For different effects she suggests mixing with a thickener paste thinly mixed for paper, or using a thicker poaste for printing, stamping or stencilling on paper. She also offers another page of suggestions for different variationsIf I try any of these, I will of course, post the results.

The book is an excellent buy for in any case whether you're interested in transfer printing or not - well written with clear, detailed instructions, and good quality photographs of both the process and finished results.

Disperse Dyeing--Quilter Beth

2011-11-12T13:30:00.000-05:00

I finally had a chance to "play" with disperse dyeing. I had never even heard of it before, so it was something TOTALLY new to me. I purchased a 100% patterned polyester table cloth thinking the pattern might produce some interesting results, and my friend had a "Transfer Printing Kit on Polyester using PROsperse Disperse Dyes" from ProChem on hand. The kit included 10gm Yellow D118, 10 gm Bright Blue D459, 10 gm Red D360, 75 gm Thick F (used to mix the thickener paste), and 50 gm Metaphos (also used to mix the thickener paste). We mixed some dyes to get a purple and an orange so we'd have more variety in color. We really had fun painting the papers with the thickened dyes. For all the papers, we did one layer and let it dry (which took way longer that we thought it would), then we did another layer of dye on top of that.

As you can see, my first results were terrible. Hardly any color came off the paper onto the cloth. I started ironing the papers from the top right...then down...back up to the top...then down, etc. On those first two, I followed the directions that came with the basic transfer printing kit. Those instructions said to "set the iron at the top of the polyester range and iron for 1 minute for a pale shade and up to 5 minutes for a dark shade." I ironed both of those for more than 5 minutes at that polyester setting without good results, so I upped the heat to a cotton setting and increased the ironing time on all of the other pieces. I ironed each succeeding piece for a longer amount of time with much better results.

My friend and I each did several small "prints." The painted papers are on the right of each of my samples (except for the one in the bottom left-hand corner). That print is a reprint of the second paper on the right using more heat and a longer ironing time. Wow, what a difference!

This is my first attempt.

This is my second attempt.

Here is where I upped the heat setting on the iron and ironed for a longer time. The background was painted first, then I used a stamp to make the yellow image.

You can really see the pattern on the table cloth in this print. I painted the background of this one and used yellow dye on bubble wrap to make the design.

I also used bubble wrap for this print.

My favorite pieces are the images where I used bubble wrap. I'm planning on overprinting some of the designs I'm not crazy about with other designs. I like that effect (see Robin's images below). I've been thinking of ways I might use pieces of these samples...stay tuned.

These are the samples my friend did.

Robin painted, stamped, and overprinted some of her designs.

This was an enjoyable experience, but I don't think it is something I'll use frequently. The long ironing time made it really tedious for me.

First finish...

2011-11-07T09:39:00.000-05:00

Happy Monday!

This is something I made with my first set of transfers...

I began by using this mottled yellowy brown background - which I created by first covering my paper with orange transfer paint, then adding stripes of yellow disperse dye over that, and over it all, droplets of brown dispere dye. I then smooshed all the colours together by making a pouncing motion with the flat of my hand. Once it was dry, I ironed it to my fabric. (To get a more intense colouring, I would have had to iron longer - but I wanted this mild version.)

Next, I used this orange/yellow combo (as above) and ironed sections of it over the mottled mustardy-yellow background.

This paper (now dry) is a combination of greens. The same disperse dye green, "au naturel" on the left, mixed with a little black on the right and a little blue on the blackish looking streak/drips on top. (All the mixing was done while wet.) I have to say, this particular paper is my favourite - it produces a nice yellow green, a brilliant blue-green and a leaf green - all in the same paper! I think I've used it on every single piece of fabric I've produced for the Fire tutorials (and that's about 30 pieces of fabric - so far! - which goes to show how many times you can re-use these papers.)

I got a fern from the garden and used it as a resist before laying different sections of the green paper above all over it. ( By the way - when ironing - I've been using a padded surface, a piece of craft paper, my fabric, the transfer dye paper, and then tracing paper over that to protect the iron - and the iron has to be dry, hot and constantly moving with good pressure to get good results.)

After quilting, I added some pastel dye sticks, watercolour dye crayons and a gold leaf pen to enhance, and then decided to add some beads - for a little sparkle.

Stay tuned - more ferns using different colourations and layers to come - some "prints", and some really lovely (even if I do say so myself!) abstract colour cloths to come in the next weeks.

If you're working along with us, please post your links in the comments!

Kit

Great book

2011-11-04T11:21:00.001-04:00

Here is an entire book about transfer (Transperse) dyes

Here we go...!

2011-11-04T04:15:00.002-04:00

The basic technique is as follows.

Mix your disperse dye according to the directions and/or mix your transfer paint
Paint your paper (Let dry thoroughly)
Iron onto your fabric
Enjoy the results!

There doesn't seem to be a lot of available reading about transfer paints/disperse dyes - a lot of people seem to use it, but almost none seem to talk about how they do it. I ordered a booklet from an artist who offers courses in the technique, but was quite disappointed with the result - the directions were pretty much what I gave you above, and lots and lots of pictures of what she did with the technique, and no information as to how those results were achieved - other than labels like "layered disperse dye". *ahem* Nonetheless, I found four or five people online who gave sketchy outlines of what they did, cobbled them all together and gave it a whirl.

As is my usual impetuous style I dove right in. I conducted a couple of unsuccessful experiments before I realized I needed to figure out what was going wrong, so I backed up and made the sample chart, above.

The lines are as follows:

Transfer paint diluted with water to the consistency of thickish watercolour paint
Straight transfer paint (which is surprisingly goopy and thick)
Transfer paint mixed with (Speedball) base extender
Disperse dye with base extender
Disperse dye with base extender and water
Disperse dye with water

(in all cases I used 1/8 tsp disperse dye to 1 tsp base extender, where water was used, I used two tablespoons of water). As you can see, there were no "failures" in the mix, but the most intense colours were produced using either transfer paint straight out of the bottle or disperse dye with base extender.

The paper above is plain bond. There was no difference in how the dye transferred from bond or sketch paper to fabric, but the bond paper tended to curl under the weight of both paint and disperse dye so my preference was for the sketch book paper.

You can also see from the pic above how goopy the paint was - and how difficult it was to tell which colour was which. In light of that, I suggest you label each paper so that you know what colour you have - I did some plain solids in purple, cherry red and black and couldn't tell which were which when they were dry. Surprise!

I cut some of the painted and dried paper up, laid it out on my 60% polyester fabric, ironed ruthlessly and hoped for a good result.

Although I ironed FOR-EVER with good pressure this was the sad result I got. I tried it with other man-made fabrics I had in my stash, and got equally poor or even no results. For kicks and giggles, I also tried transferring on cotton and silk and got zero result. It was like nothing happened.

Sylvia Naylor (one of the artists I read who uses this technique) suggests using only 100% polyester, acrylic, etc. My intent was to go out and buy some different fabric the next day; but luckily, I found a piece of 100% polyester curtain fabric from the 80's in my white scrap bin and:

Eurkea! Well - except for where you can see that I held the iron still. Keep that iron moving!

Initially, I wasn't trying to do anything fancy - I just wanted to see what the paint/disperse dye did, so I did a number of tests like the one above - just to see what intensity of colour I ended up with once the

Make sure your paper is COMPLETELY dry before you iron, or you'll end up with burnt blobs of paint as above.

then I tried a little paper resist:

and then I tried layering a solid colour paper over bits:

A note about ironing:

Every iron is different, and will produce different results, but you need to iron without steam, on high heat, apply pressure [the more pressure and heat, the more vibrant the result] and you have to keep the iron moving, otherwise you end up with steam vent holes. I ironed on a padded surface, with craft paper under the painted paper and fabric, and tracing paper on top of it all to protect the iron.

So. I think that's enough for today. :) Next week, I'll show you some results with different fabrics, and some layering effects I tried.

Have a great weekend - and if you try this - link up in the comments!

Kit

Where to buy:

2011-11-02T17:05:00.000-04:00

Beth Berman kindly provided us with an option of where to buy the paint materials:

I'm sure it's not the only place in the US to buy them, (and this is in now way an endorsement) but it's a good start!

November Technique

2011-11-01T10:08:00.000-04:00

For November's technique, we're going to be working with transfer paints/disperse dyes.

The materials you'll need are:

transfer paints (I'm using G&S Dyes) and/or powdered disperse dyes (I'm using iDye Poly)

good quality paper

a variety of brushes/sponge brushes

Man made fabric that is at least 60% non-natural materials

an iron (preferably without steam holes)

a variety of resists - whatever floats your boat

I can't give you advice on where to purchase, because I live in Canada and my sources will be different than most of the readers on this blog.

Here are some examples of what can be done with this technique:

Gurli Gregersen produced this whole cloth quilt by using the transfer print method, which augmented with paint sticks and fugitive media.

"Loli Girl" at the Quilting Arts website produced the rocks in this piece by using powdered disperse dyes on interfacing.

And Marie-Therese Wisniowski produced this example using resists and disperse dye.

I'll give you a few days to gather materials and then we'll begin.

P.S. I was editing my first post and managed to delete it - my apologies to the two of you who had already responded!

Cool Hot Stuff

2011-10-31T22:40:00.001-04:00

What can you do with burnt Tyvek? Check out his gorgeous quilt: http://eiloren.blogspot.com/2009/10/end-of-beauty.html

Neroli Henderson (her website is here) also has a tutorial for burning Tyvek leaves: http://web.me.com/eiloren/eiloren/Tutorials/Entries/2008/3/7_Tyvek_-_Leaf_tutorial_2.html

And here is her burned quilt: http://eiloren.blogspot.com/2010/05/burning-quilt-textile-art-with-heat-gun.html

While you're there check out the rest of her blog -- there are artist interviews and all kinds of cool hot stuff. She uses heat on lots of different stuff and includes information on the materials she has used.

More With the Heat Gun and Lutradur

2011-10-31T14:40:00.000-04:00

I used leaf stamps and Jacquard Lumiere paint on the heavier lutradur. I let it dry, then I cut them out and blasted them with the heat gun set on HIGH.

I straightened them out while they were still hot (yes, I have burnt fingertips to prove it.) I'm not crazy about these. I will probably get out the paints and add a layer of color.

These are the lighter weight of lutradur. I discovered that they look much nicer with the heat gun set at the lower setting and some extra patience. The "leaf" on the upper right was done on high, with the other two on low. It took a bit longer, but the result is more what I was hoping for -- a kind of lacy result.

Again, I used the lower heat setting; but a much nicer result, I think. A little more heat and a little more patience would benefit this one.

And because it's Halloween, I just had to use the spider web stamp. I used the high setting on the heat gun and it's almost dissolved. But still spooky, if you're into that...

Melting tyvek

2011-10-16T18:23:00.006-04:00

The other night I painted some tyvek pieces -- today I got my soldering iron out and fooled around melting it, since I don't have a heat gun.

Then I took my iron and put the pieces between two sheets of paper and ran it over the shapes. Closeup of some good texture here:

This one I turned down the iron a little and got a flatter piece.

And here's another colorway that I painted, and lightly ironed the whole piece.

I'm not sure what I'll do with these, I'd really like to see some posts about using the finished products in a project!

Updated wrappers

2011-10-16T15:40:00.005-04:00

These are Rolled Gold Pretzel bags. I painted one on the front and one on the back. I heated them all on the unpainted side. The small bit is the strip of sealing on the bottom of the bag.

The ice cream wrappers bubbled flatter than the pretzel bag which was much harder to control. It just wanted to curl into a ball. I like the ice cream wrapper much better, easier to handle and the end result is much more vibrant.

2011-10-15T11:16:00.000-04:00

Melting Ice Cream (wrappers)

I saw this somewhere and I thought I would take one for the team and eat an entire box of ice creams. That of course was before I stopped eating sugar and grains BUT I still have the ice cream wrappers. In another burst of team camaraderie, I thought I would try painting and melting these little puppies.
Here is the self explanatory process I followed:

The wrapper

Time to paint with artists acrylics

Two pieces before the heating process

Heated with a heat gun

What I found was that the ice cream wrappers melt/blister into smaller bubbly sizes as in more textured than Tyvec while holding their shape better as in not curling into a ball - they stay flatter. They are also easier and more fun to acquire except now I will have to buy the ice cream for other people and ask them to carefully remove the wrappers without tearing. I like this product a lot but now will have a bit of a resentment while other people eat ice cream I bought!! Perhaps the beautifully textured surfaces of these pieces will be enough of a consolation; they are quite beautifully textured.

Using Heat to Add Texture to Fabric--Quilter Beth

2011-10-12T21:30:00.000-04:00

I have been collecting fabrics of "unknown origin" to use in art quilt projects for quite some time. Many of them were purchased with "setting them on fire" in mind, so this month's technique is right up my alley! What I wanted to do today was get an idea how the fabric reacted to the heat so I could see if I might want to experiment further with it.

I used a heat gun to see how each fabric was changed by the heat. All of the fabrics (except one my friend brought along) contained polyester. I have a book called "Raising the Surface with Machine Embroidery" by Maggie Grey that contained a lot of ideas about how to manipulate fabric with heat.

Before I start, let me be clear that if you choose to heat fabric in any way, do it outside. The fumes are harmful to your health! I began the afternoon (outside in my garage) with a suggestion from the book--a chiffon sandwich. I made a sandwich consisting of two pieces of gray polyester chiffon, foil, and fusible web. (I used Heat and Bond Light since that is what I had on hand.) I covered my ironing board with parchment paper and put one of the chiffon pieces on top. I then pressed the fusible webbing onto that piece. I removed the paper backing from the fusible; and while it was still warm, I put some foil on it (shiny side up). I rubbed the foil with the edge of a blunt knife till I had as much color as I wanted, removed the clear top sheet of the foil, and ironed the other piece of chiffon on top of the fusible. (I covered the chiffon with parchment paper before ironing.) This is what that looked like. (The picture turned out darker than the actual fabric.)

Then, as was suggested in the book, I put the sandwich over a piece of velvet, covered with parchment paper, and pressed down firmly. I zapped it with a heat gun after that. I didn't heat it a lot. (I may try that later.) The chiffon sandwich is attached to the velvet.

Next, I spent time zapping different fabrics with my heat gun. Some turned out great; others were dismal failures. This first fabric is a gray polyester that used to be a bed skirt. I think it is my favorite of the day.

This is the original fabric.

I love the really bubbly effect.

These two pictures are the same fabric--top picture is the front of the fabric; bottom picture is the back of the fabric. This fabric turned out very lacy and holey.

In the picture above, I added ink to part of a dryer sheet before I heated it. I wasn't impressed (actually the picture looks BETTER than the original if you can believe that.)

The original fabric is on the left. I thought this would be much cooler; but when I used the heat gun all that happened was that it burned. Again, the picture actually looks better than it does in person.

The original fabric is on the left. The only thing that happened to this fabric when I heated it was that it crinkled a little and sort of shredded.

This is my experiment with Tyvek. I really like the way it crinkled and bubbled. The picture below shows it after I rubbed some Pearl Ex powders onto it.

I tried heating red acrylic felt.

I'm thinking this might have gone better if I had stitched on the felt first (which the book suggested).

This is a strip of poly satin. It crinkled nicely. Then we added some fusible web and foil color to it.

The picture above shows what happens when you make a silk sandwich (rather than a polyester chiffon sandwich) and heat it. It doesn't shrink or bubble or get holey. We added foil cut outs to it. When this was held up to the light, it was semi-transparent.

This white polyester fabric is the part of a bed skirt that goes under the mattress. I liked how it crinkled.

I can really see how some of these fabrics could make an interesting addition to an art quilt. Stitching, beading, painting, etc. could also enhance the look. Now, to figure out how to use these...

A Little Bit of Tyvek

2011-10-11T10:11:00.000-04:00

This is some painted Tyvek that I heated with the heat gun after painting both sides. This first photo is the side I hit with the heat gun. The bubbles face away from the heat.

I felt like I had more control over the heat -- when I use my iron, it seems really easy to get it too hot and cause holes. Of course, it's much less flat than a piece done sandwiched in between two layers of parchment and ironed. But I was able to reheat the curled edges and flip them so they didn't fold into themselves -- I used the clamp from the lutradur experiment so I didn't burn my fingers.

This is the side that faced away from the gun. The paint had soaked through from the other side and there are tiny pinpoints of color under the thin layer of gold iridescent ink. I watered down the inks when I painted them on the Tyvek. My daughter thinks this looks like a fungus.

And this is some building that is going on nearby. I was wondering if this stuff is thicker than the stuff I bought. Also, how do they install it? Is it the backside of the insulation? Or does it come on rolls and is stapled up?

Flaming Lutradur

2011-10-10T15:17:00.000-04:00

Lutradur is a spun polyester fiber that comes in sheets in two weights. I purchased this roll a couple of years ago at a quilt show, but it's available in packages of sheets in two weights at a lot of quilt shops. Leslie Riley (http://www.lesleyriley.com/index.php) wrote a book about it. You can print on it, stitch on it, paint on it -- or pretty much anything you can think of. It's a lot like polyester interfacing, but has a nice lacy texture.

I haven't done much with it -- somewhere in my archives I have an unfinished art quilt where I used it for snow -- if I find it, I'll share a photo.

I got out the acrylic inks and painted a sheet of the ultra light and a bit of the heavier kind. I used inks because they are thin and dry really fast.

Then I got out the heat gun that I liberated from my husband's side of the garage. It gets really hot, so I used some clamps to hold the painted lutradur so it wouldn't blow away or burn my fingers. It smelled like something that should be done only in a well-ventilated area (aka outside).

It got a lovely lacy look -- especially where the ink wasn't. I think if I wanted color, I would put on the paint or ink after burning it next time.

My last fugitive media piece

2011-10-06T00:06:00.007-04:00

Hi there, Kit Lang here. When I left you last, I had used watercolour pencil-crayons, watercolour crayons and a little charocal on my flower. After it dried and I had ironed it to set the colours, I cut out the petals and fused it to a background composed of two pieces of my hand-dyed fabric.

I also used a micron pen to write the script on the right.

I'm really pleased with this first experiment using fugitive media, and it will be something I develop for use again and again.

Further explication of the piece and what the writing is at my blog.

Another blogger shows off her Tyvek work

2011-10-04T07:21:00.001-04:00

Check out this great blog post on working with Tyvek:

http://robbiespawprints.blogspot.com/2011/10/playing-with-tyvek.html

Check out this fugitive art work

2011-10-03T18:50:00.000-04:00

Check this out! I really like the use of fugitive medium on this piece!

Old and New

2011-10-03T16:34:00.006-04:00

Here are two Tyvek pieces I used in an altered book and two new pieces I did a few days ago. The black one is hard to see because the black is so deep but that cobalt edge is yummy. The other newer one is on the bottom. I enjoyed making an altered book even though I thought it was the LAST thing I ever wanted to do. It was a bit addicting!

Better Late Than Never--Fugitive Media

2011-10-02T17:59:00.001-04:00

I FINALLY got to play with my colored pencils and chalk pastels today. I had intended to do it last month (since this was last month's technique), but...life stepped in! I must say, I like the effect. This is the original fabric--a piece I had snow dyed this past winter.

This piece always reminded me of the geyser pools I had seen when we went to Yellowstone several years ago. My favorite was Morning Glory. The colors in this piece were wrong for that, but I used pictures of Morning Glory for inspiration. I wanted to define the outer circular shape a bit more and emphasize what looked to me (and to Judith when I got to meet her in Indy this past week) like bubbles.

(The difference is way more subtle in the pictures than it is in person.) I used the chalk pastels to emphasize the edge of the "pool" and add some shadows around the "bubble" areas. Hopefully, it gives it a bit more dimension. I used a little colored pencil too, but that barely shows up on this piece.

Close Up of Fugitive Medium on Snow-Dyed Fabric

I now can visualize how I will hand quilt this piece (if time permits)...organic lines out from the edge of the pool and lots of circles for the bubbles within the pool. I even found some silver embroidery floss that I might use to give it a bit of shine--like a reflection. I might also add a little shine with a bit of metallic paint.

Thanks Judith for sharing this new technique...now on to "setting things on fire!"

First up: Tyvek

2011-10-01T18:00:00.000-04:00

Tyvek is a made of "flashspun high-density polyethylene fibers" according to Wikipedia. Huh?

This means it's a synthetic material -- you see it wrapped around buildings that are under construction. It's strong, yet is cut easily with scissors. And you can stitch on it!

It's also used in US Postal envelopes. You can buy it, but I prefer the used envelopes. They always have really interesting patterns after their travels. And it's free! Although it's not terribly expensive to purchase.

I painted the inside of this envelope with Jacquard Lumiere paints, let it dry, then ironed it between two sheets of parchment paper. It does give off fumes, so I recommend doing it outdoors.

It gets a raised pebbly look on the side that the heat is applied. It's easy to heat it too much and then it gets holes.

I really like the way the sparkly bits in the paint get a kind of concentrated look after heating.

This is the other side after heating and painting. I want to try the heat gun on some next and I may use the stuff I purchased because then I will have a choice of bubbly or uh, unbubbly. It might be nice to compare painted and unpainted heated Tyvek.

This is "Pods" -- I made it a couple of years ago using gold painted Tyvek for the pods. Then I stitched around the pebbly parts.

Artists: Start Your Engines

2011-09-30T12:24:00.000-04:00

Plug in your irons, warm up your stencil/solder irons, and get those heat guns out. It's nearly October and while the weather is still warm enough to work outside, we're going to really heat it up. That's right -- I may take things a little bit literally sometimes, but it's time to set it on fire!

OK -- not really open flames, but I want to explore the effects of heat on textiles, Tyvek, Lutradur and other poly/interfacing type substances. And anything else that might be enjoyably altered by a judicious application of heat.

One last post about Fugitive Media

2011-09-30T08:06:00.000-04:00

I have really enjoyed this month of working with fugitive media. I have tried lots of different media and have only scratched the surface of the possibilities! I might even get really brave and use the media to not only enhance a dyed fabric but to draw something like Karen did with her heron. Here is the heron appliqued onto her quilt. Stunning is the word I would use for it. If you are also thinking about using fugitive media to create your own drawings, here is one last suggestion for you.

Here is a free ebook offered by Interweave on Pastel Painting. The techniques and processes he describes can be used on fabric! While he is using pastels, the color theory and layering he describes could be used with water-soluable pencils or crayons too I think. Just remember:

The pastels must be chalk or water-soluble. Regular pastels have an oil base that will repel the bonding liquid. If you use a regular pastel, it will wash out.
Take care with the layering that it is not so heavy as to block the bonding liquid from actually wetting the fabric. That is needed for the bonding to occur. It is possible to wet with the bonding liquid after each layer, let dry, and then add the next color layer if needed.
Use a bonding fluid such as base extender, 50/50 glue and water, acrylic media, etc.
IRON it to heat set it.

We Meet!

2011-09-29T19:27:00.001-04:00

I didn't take any pictures but Beth Schnellenberger and I met for the first time this week! We have been blogging friends for a couple of years but had never met in person. She lives in Indiana and I live in Maine. Not all that close. However, this week I am in Indianapolis attending a conference for work so we got together for dinner.

What fun! I got to see some of Beth's wonderful quilts in person, laugh at her jokes, eat while she talked, compare quilting notes, and play the "Who Do You Know That I know" game. She and I have a lot in common I think. We both started out as traditional quilters who got bored. We both try not to laugh (cringe, hide, feel like we are stretching the truth) when we call ourselves "Artists." We are both working at identifying our voices; with the help of other artists we are getting an idea. In fact we discussed that quite a bit.

Beth is taking a class with Jane Dunnewold. Jane pointed out to Beth that she not only had a style but she had already produced a series of three quilts. Beth was stunned. She didn't know that she had either. I didn't know I had a style until I started playing with FIVE and they told me what it was. Why is it that we can't see our own progress and recognize our own work?

I wish this paragraph had the answer to that question but the bottom line is that I don't know. I know that it is true for Beth and me. How about for you?

Judith

Fugitive Medium plus Wen's Workshop

2011-09-29T12:00:00.000-04:00

I promised you more pictures from the SAQA Maine Event that included prints made during Wen's workshop in the morning and then enhanced in my fugitive media workshop in the afternoon. Here they are.

That's Wen.

A Fugitive Medium Experiment

2011-09-28T15:23:00.001-04:00

Today I am being an artist/scientist and experimenting. I have two pieces of fabric that I ice-dyed at the same time. The two fabrics looked very floral to me so I decided to enhance that fabric story. I then drew petal shapes around dye blobs on both fabrics with a micron pen. So far, I have treated them the same.

For my independent variable (or is it dependent variable? I get confused) I used two different fugitive media. For one I use water-color pencils--not inktense--and for the second I used chalk pastels.

I took the two samples around to everyone in my office for their opinions about which turned out better and why. Very interesting results. So, which do you like better? I am not telling you which one is the pencil and which one is the chalk till I get some input from y'all. So, with some pictures closer than other and in no particular order--

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Fugitive Media - watercolour pencils and crayons

2011-09-26T07:00:00.001-04:00

Kit here.

I tried the fugitive media this weekend using watercolour pencils and watercolour crayons.

I started out with a piece of my hand-dyed fabric (from when I was attempting make mandelas with procion MX dyes),

and with a watercolour pencil, I enhanced the fuschia lines that were already dyed in, and added blue at the ends of what I imagined were petals.

Also with watercolour pencils, I added some green. I just left it in the "lined" state as I knew once I added some water, I would be blending. I used a flat, square paint brush with hard rather than soft bristles for the blending.

Then, I used my watercolour crayon to add some more depth to the petals. (I was working outside in the garden, so as the sun moved around it created shadows on my work.)

After that, I used a charcoal pencil, made "feathered" edges at the ends of the petals. Then I used my paintbrush dipped in water to blend the colours I'd added in. In retrospect, I'd do the charcoal step at the end, when my petals were done, rather before;

because after I drew in the petals with the watercolour crayons, I had this odd circle shape. Lesson learned!

I then painted on a mixture of half and half base extender and water, and let it dry. And now all that's left with this is to decide what to do with it.

I've also bought some pastels and will be trying that next. I'll post about it in a couple of days.

Cheers,

Fugitive Media

2011-09-23T09:28:00.004-04:00

Finally, I've had some time to try out this technique! I used some regular pastels on white fabric, just drawing some flowers out in various colors. Then I painted the whole piece a very light lavender using Pebeo Setacolor paint, covered it with textile medium using a screen, and quilted some outlines in black. Here's a picture from late last night when I finally had to put it away and go to bed:

More flowers. It was a lot easier to draw the flowers out first, then sew around them. The textile medium I used seemed to create almost a laminate type of fabric. Definitely gave my sewing machine needle a workout--I want to wash the piece to see if it softens up a bit.

And here's another piece I painted some flowers on with setacolors in pink & yellow, then drew the leaves in with pastels. I learned that the setacolors are pretty transparent and the pastels aren't, as you can see in the leaf on the right side.

I took the textile medium and applied only to the green parts with a brush, then heat set the piece with my iron and threw it all in the washing machine. No fading or anything following the wash.

Finally, this last piece was from the challenge we had recently--there was too much white on it when I got it back, so I decided to color in the white lines with a blue pastel crayon. It actually looks purple in this picture, which makes me thing I might want to color it over in purple.

I screened the textile medium on this, too, and washed it, but it still feels kind of stiff. I just got a cheap medium at Joann's or Michael's, if someone is using a better one that doesn't stiffen up the fabric, could you tell me which one I should try?

Fugitive Medium at the 2nd Annual Northern New England SAQA Weekend

2011-09-19T12:10:00.000-04:00

How about that for a title? I chose fugitive medium this month knowing that I was going to be teaching a workshop at the SAQA Weekend. I basically showed some examples of chalk, charcoal, cretacolor aqua bricks, watercolor pencils, inktense pencils, water-soluable crayons (did I miss something??) art work on fabric and told the participants to go to it. And they did! Here are some examples of their work.

The workshop before mine was presented by Wen Redmond and was Tracking the Wild Print. She showed how to use plants to create a direct, shadow, and ghost prints. Those prints made fabulous first layers for enhancement with fugitive medium. More pictures later showing that wonderful collaboration.

Inktense and Aloe

2011-09-15T19:46:00.000-04:00

I needed an appliqué for a journal quilt I was doing and someone mentioned Inktense pencils, so I got mine out and drew this crane.

I stabilized the fabric by ironing it to a piece of freezer paper.

The last time I wet my Inktense pencil drawing, I got it too wet and the color ran off the edge, so this time I used some clear aloe vera gel and tiny brushes. I got tired of all the little brush strokes (and I was in a hurry) so I got out a bigger brush and really wet it down with the gel. Then I placed it gel/pencil side down on a clean paper towel, placed a piece of parchment paper on top and ironed it with a hot iron until it was dry. Then I rinsed it with cool water and pressed it again.

There is just a tiny bit of bleeding off the edges, but it's much better than it was with the water. And I had a lot more control with the gel. The color is still really vibrant after the rinse.

Judith's Charcoal Technique

2011-09-14T13:12:00.000-04:00

Hi Everyone! Things have been busy in my world, not leaving a great deal of time for my creative endeavors. However, the last week has been husband-less which means our business can be ignored for a few days, so I've been free! Here are the results of the Round Robin which "5" had going over the last few months. From left to right the fabrics belong to Beth, me, Charlene, Rosalita, and Judith's is the horizontal.

Below is a photo of the beautiful snow dyed fabric made by "5" member Charlene. The series of techniques used on this piece were silk screened gold by Beth, fugitive charcoal by Judith, and silk screened cranes by me.

I wish that I had a photo of the original snow dyed fabric to show, but here's a close-up of Judith's fugitive charcoal technique:

Picking out areas to treat with the charcoal added so much dimension and direction for the eye that it defined the piece once and for all as solar. I love that Judith was able to use the circle to focus in all that wild beauty.

And here are Judith, Beth and Charlene of "5" at my studio on September 3rd. We're doing ice dyeing outdoors on a beautiful day. Note the sports bra that Beth is working on! Maybe she'll post a pic of her finished garments. They certainly looked intriguing coming out of the dye!

Throw 'em in leg irons so they won't escape!

2011-09-14T10:31:00.000-04:00

It occurred to me last night as I was trying to go to sleep that I have not stressed the importance of heat-setting the fugitive media after you coat it with the base extender. IRON IT! Until it is captured by the iron, the media can still escape your clutches!

Chalk as a Fugitive Media

2011-09-13T22:42:00.000-04:00

Chalk is one of my favorite fugitive mediums. First because it has more control than many of the other mediums. Second, it is inexpensive. I picked up this box of 48 chalk pastels for around $5 at A.C. Moore. So, let me show you what it can do.

This is a ice dye fabric I made last weekend in a play date with the FIVE. It is looking like flowers to me and I want to enhance that.

I am using this shirt of mine as a model. I like the way the petals are defined and want to try and attempt the same type of affect on the ice dyed fabric.

I used a micron pen to outline some petals. I just kinda drew around shapes in the dye. No formula or pattern here. Then came the fun part.

I started by drawing straight onto the dry fabric with pastels. I didn't add color to every petal but only to those that fit into an entire flower unit. The chalk is subtle so it does not block out the background colors but does add to it to make the flower more cohesive. On the flower on the bottom right I added purple. The one of the bottom left I added white--the purple was already there. The top left flower I added a light blue chalk. Top right I added orange and yellow-orange. I rubbed the chalk lines with my finger after I drew with the chalk to help them blend in. I could have chosen to leave the chalk lines more distinct if I wanted.

Once I had the amount of color I wanted, I painted the chalk flowers with a 50/50 mix of water/base extender. I used a small paint brush because I didn't need to paint the entire fabric--only the part that I added color with the chalk. Here is where the control comes into play that I had talked about before. With colored pencils or crayons, the colors will blend and bleed. The chalk doesn't. You do the blending with your finger while it is dry. When you paint it with the 50/50 mixture, it does not run. Yeah!

Once the flowers were wet, I decided the bottom right flower needed a bit more color so I added the pink. The bottom left flower needed some more white so I added it too. You can tell because the lines are a bit more distinct on the wet fabric than when I added chalk to the dry fabric. I am quite pleased with the results.

Congrats and MORE Congrats

2011-09-12T20:45:00.000-04:00

Two pieces of wonderful news I want to share with all of you!

First, Kit Lang has agreed to join the blog as one of the resident artists! Here is a link to her blog if you have not met her yet. Please give her a warm welcome!

Second, Beth Berman has been asked to be one of the SAQA Regional Representative for New England. She will be replacing Wen Redmond who has resigned to devote more time to her art. Beth has also been asked to participate on the planning committee for the national SAQA conference. Congratulations, Beth, that your creative talent, organizational skill, and passion for supporting and encouraging others have been recognized and put to work!

An old post and a new one

2011-09-12T20:27:00.000-04:00

Here is a link to a post that Laura already posted about using inktense pencils. I love her work and think her post along with the post from Rosalita do a good job of showing you the possibility of colored pencils. In my own experiments with colored pencils I used both inktense and regular water-soluble pencils.

Frankly the only difference I have noticed in the two types of pencils is that the inktense pencils only blend the first time they get wet. Regular water-soluble pencils will bleed/blend each time they get wet. I will use both types on a fabric because the colors are different and it expands my possibilities.

My piece is back

2011-09-12T11:34:00.002-04:00

My piece of fabric is back from the round robin and I have to say in MUCH better shape than when I sent it out. That was one really ugly piece of fabric. The first person did a wax resist and then said sorry it is so dark but I think that really did a lot to make the piece better looking. The original piece was in ugly colors that I didn't even like but after the resist you can just get glimpses of the colors peeking through and it actually looks great. The foils are a bing bonus and my fabric is wonderful now. Thanks my friends.