A boring quilt top re-imagined

Hi everyone, I'm Laura McGrath, and I was one of the original artists on this blog way back in 2010. I'm doing a few posts this month, on a few random topics that are totally unrelated. I'm one of those surface design people who likes to try everything, but it doesn't always work out the way I'd hoped (or planned)...

Here is my first topic--This quilt top was one I sewed together many years ago, and has been in my UFO pile forever. It's about twin bed size, and just very "blah".

I decided to spice it up a bit, so I got out this Cleanline Resist that I bought a while ago and never used, and painted some of the resist on some new screen printing screens I had made up. 

This product is about the consistency of acrylic paint, yet is water soluble, so it will eventually come off the screens.

I mixed up some Procion dyes and sodium alginate thickener to pull through the screens.

I like how the original patterns of the fabric still shows through.

The screens were good for about 6-7 pulls each before the design disintegrated

I think I used Mixing Blue, Sage, and Bronze dye colors, but I didn't write them down so I'm not 100% sure of that.

I had to pull out a few of my other screens to finish since the quilt top was so big!

So here it is after washing, it looks a little different now, doesn't it?

I liked it, but wanted to do more.  Since I had no emotional attachment to this piece (meaning I don't care if I really mess it up) I decided to do some more. Stay tuned!

water refections

Beginning with a photo of reflections of a red canoe on the water. I took a workshop from Kerr Grabowski in 2011. A great opportunity since I had watched her DVD on deconstructed screen printing about a zillion times and yet still wanted to be able to ask questions and listen to her comments and encouragement to everyone in the workshop.

 
Her screens looked more experienced!  She never washes them because she likes the serendipity of stray bits of leftover color and there's less risk of the frames getting soggy and rotting. 




 





So after letting the screen dry overight, I printed it several times on a length of my handwoven cotton.  There was more texture in the image than I got using commercially available "quilters" cotton. The dye sat proud on the fiber unless I used a lot of print paste and pushed hard with the squeegee.    Several repeats filled the fabric.



Unfortunately, what I had envisioned as red turned out to be hot pink.  I am not a fan of fuchsia dye; I should have known better!



Oh, well, when life gives you fuchsia, you make fruit punch. 



Deconstructed Screen Printing with pink commercial fabric, embroidery on a denim background. 

Printing on Fabric... Printing on Lutradur Fabric.

 Printing on Fabric ...Printing on Lutradur

Printing on actual fabric is not hard. It is the same principle as printing on Lutradur.  You can buy pre treated fabric on carrier sheets from many sources. Check your local shop first. I have never tried the pre treated sheets. Maybe you can comment on your experiences.


I usually do my own fabric a muslin or white cotton. I pre treat with Bubble Jet Set (see earlier post)  Then I  iron it to a carrier sheet.

What I wanted to tell you about with this is I like to print my picture on fabric and on a separate piece of Lutradur. Then I layer them. Up close there really is no advantage but when you stand back your eye makes it seem a bit 3 d. I think this is really cool.

My original picture

My picture printed on colour washed lutradur

My picture printed on fabric

The picture printed on fabric and layered with the Lutradur.
I like the effect and it appears 3 d when you stand back.

Fabric printed with our Mr. Snook

Mr Snook layered with Light Lutradur

Mr Snook layered with coloured Lutradur. 

Try the layered look.

Jo
thesewinggeek.blogspot.ca

Give Away.

All people who leave a comment on the and then we set it on fire blog in the Month of May is entered into the Give Away of Leslie's e-book 

Leslie Riley's e-book to be given away by C & T publishing

You get one entry for making a comment. (please make sure I can contact you via that comment) 

Bonus Prize

But in order to win what I call the Bonus prize 

 you have to work harder... 

You can only be entered into the Bonus Prize by

1. Having a tip that you have shared on a posts topic.

2. Tell me you have tried something as a result of this May’s posts on Lutradur and what it was.

3. Become a follower on my blog.

(I don't want to coherence any one in becoming a follower of my blog so you can skip that one if you want to .... no pressure.)

So you can enter for Leslie's book by commenting any comment... (one entry per name) 

Or by doing #1, #2, and/or #3 for the Bonus Prize.