Summer Flowers

A few rainy day flower photos with a sunny Asiatic Lily tossed into the mix....

Sun Printing Fabrics

That little side trip to Vermont whetted my appetite for fabric painting, so I squeezed a day of play into my busy retirement schedule. As is my habit, I gathered my supplies and tools needed to work on some prototypes for a larger piece I have in progress. And then I proceeded to set up for sun printing. I do that all the time..decide I am working in one technique and then change midstream and start another. This probably drives others (read: husband and offspring) a bit crazy, but it seems to work for me. I am running one process through my head, all the while getting another process set up.

Well, it turns out I picked an A-1 day for sun printing! The tools are basic and the process is easy and fast. I used PFD (prepared for dyeing) fabric, a couple of Setacolor Soleil Paints I had, some wide bristle and sponge brushes, a spray bottle, a piece of foamcore covered and sealed with plastic wrap, some painters tape and a handful of coarse salt.

Then all I needed were objects and materials to print. I collected some leaves, grasses, weeds, some plastic doilies that had been my Grandmother Robertson’s, some buttons, coins and chain.

After cutting my fabric to the size that would fit on the foamcore, I ironed it and taped it in a few strategic spots onto the board so that brushing paint on it  wouldn’t be tedious.

I sprayed my fabric to the extremely technical point of “very wet” and then started brushing paint on. If you don’t have Setacolor Soleil Paints, you can use Setacolor Transparent Paints watered down in a 1:1 ratio. 

If it is really sunny and hot, you need to do these steps fairly fast because your paint will dry quickly. This did happen to me several times and I just gave my fabric a spray of water and I got another effect doing so.

Once you have your paint on, then you pick your items to print, lay them on top of the painted fabric and press them into the fabric. This is also when you can toss the coarse salt over the fabric for added effect.

Then you wait for the paint to dry, which on a beautiful sunny day, doesn’t take any time at all.

Once your painted fabric is dry, remove the objects and materials you used to print, remove the tape and then using a hot dry iron, press your fabric. It’s now heat set, pressed and ready for use! Fun, fun!

Today at Blossom Bake and Create blogger Lynda has a great post with links to even more information about preserving botanicals for use in printing. It is an excellent post and I am anxious more now than ever to get collecting some grasses and leaves to preserve for future surface design sessions.

I am linking to The Needle and Thread Network.

Scrappy Log Cabin Variation - A Client Quilt

This lovely scrap quilt started out much larger than the size it is here. Sandra reconsidered its dimensions, took it back home and the second time I had it to quilt, it was somewhat reduced, though still a generous king size.

Because there were two distinct color ways in this log cabin variation, I wanted to use matching thread for each section as opposed to an all over design in one color of thread. So, in order to achieve the look I wanted, I stitched in the ditch around the off-white sections and then quilted the two sections separately, but always using the same color bobbin thread.

This meant the quilt was rolled and re-rolled several times, but I feel the result was worth the time and energy.

I quilted a free style flower, leaf, swirl combination in the dark logs and then stitched a smaller leaf design in the off-white, lighter sections.

I purposely left space around the ditch lines because I wanted to maintain drape and avoid having the quilt become too stiff.

There were quite a few hours put into this quilt between Sandra and I, but I think we both feel the result was well worth the extra effort.

Vermont Quilt Festival 2014 meet Thelma and Loiuse

As I have learned over the past month or so, it doesn’t take much to upset your plans. One week into my “retirement”, as I rushed from one task to the next, I managed to injure my foot. We are big walkers, hikers and bikers in this house, so an injury, especially one that keeps your feet up and out of closed toed shoes, sure can upset the apple cart. I learned the hard way that a pretty minor injury can keep you from your favorite activities and can certainly curtail all others. Driving a car is tough, especially a manual. So all those trips to the beach..haven’t happened yet. My trips to PEI...nope. Even quilting has been difficult because after a few hours of standing, the foot swells. A nuisance? Darn tootin!

As the healing progresses, there was one trip I have been able to take. Thanks to the lovely driving skills of my partner in many quilt related crimes, the Louise to my Thelma, I was able to get to the Vermont Quilt Festival In Essex Junction, Vermont. As we drove that long and at times, very windy road, me with one foot hiked up on the dash, we did solve a lot of world problems (well, quilt world problems). We also managed to find possibly the best maple walnut ice cream on the planet. Oh, and the BEST crab cakes ever. Go to Pauline’s, you won’t be sorry! And on the way home, the house special pizza at Pat’s Pizza won high marks, especially since it could also be ordered gluten free. But, I think Pat’s was in Maine. It was a long drive. We crossed three states..

While at the show, Nancy and I took two classes together, both very informative and enjoyable. The first day long class was Beginning Bead Embroidery with Fibre artist and beader extraordinaire, Lisa Binkley.

This was the class sample Lisa prepared for our day

Lisa was very patient, very organized, had great class samples, and was such a kind, pleasant person. She was extremely encouraging and although I recall her standing on a chair at one point to get people’s attention (there are always one or two in every class that never know when to be quiet), she kept a huge smile on her face. I have beaded for a long time, but it was great to get a refresher and just sit and play for a few hours. Seeing all the beautiful, detailed work she brought along to share with her classes was very inspiring. 

Lisa very graciously posed with me

The second day we took a class called Paint and Stitch: Peacock Feather with Susan Brubaker Knapp. Susan calls her technique thread sketching and we spent the day re-creating her peacock feather piece that adorned the pages of an issue of Quilting Arts Magazine. Susan uses a brand of paint that was new to me, so I was intrigued to give it a try while having her as my resource for any questions I had. It was great fun sitting and painting fabric and chatting with Sharon, a very interesting table-mate, also recently retired.

This is the piece Susan included in the Teacher Show

Once our pieces were painted, we started the process of adding the stitching. Susan is a very knowledgeable and organized instructor with a very sharing nature and she graciously answered many questions we had about materials other than the ones we were using in this class. She also brought along a huge selection of her pieces for us to ogle and somehow I managed to not take one photo of any of them!! Susan has just completed her first year as the host of Quilting Arts TV and I suspect her down to earth demeanour makes her an excellent choice for the position.

Susan also graciously agreed to a photo

A Scrap Quilt

This is a quilt I recently finished for an old friend.

Freda and I first met through the Greater Moncton Quilt Guild and she has been making quilts for many years.

These days she makes most of her quilts to sell at the local quilt shows.

Freda provided me with a poly batting and I used very simple quilting designs on her scrap quilt.

A Client Quilt of a Musical Theme

This quilt was such an absolute pleasure to work on.

The piecer, Elaine, is a very skilled seamstress and she did an wonderful job creating this beautiful top as a gift for her grandson on his graduation from high school. Music plays a prominent part in her grandson's life now and will continue to do so, and thanks to his grandmother, he will have this lovely themed quilt to keep him cosy as he begins university this fall.

Elaine told me she liked my swirls and leaves, so swirls and leaves it was! As I free styled over the musical instruments on her carefully pieced blocks, as well as on the pre-printed panels, I tried to create movement and what I imagined to be beautiful music flowing from the horns, pianos and stringed instruments.

I quilted this with a variegated Rainbow thread on the top and a honey gold Glide in the bobbin. I didn’t get a close up of her backing fabric, but it was music bar-lines with notes and treble clefs.

  

Happy Canada Day!

Canadians are just so darned awesome...Oh....Canada! Happy Canada Day!