Fish Prints for Log Cabin Rows

The processes Sue and Elizabeth used for creating their center fish blocks incorporated texture screens in the background.  If you are interested in using this procedure as well, this is how we did it.  Although you could also make yours without a background.  The screens we used for backgrounds included water ripples and 2 versions of a crackle screen.  (Only one crackle is in the Etsy shop, but if you like the other, just contact us by email.)

In the photo above, the bottom half is the original fabric, and the top half is after discharge with the water screen below.  Discharge takes color out of the fabric, and was done with a product called deColourant. The water screen is in the Etsy shop here.

Below are two of the fish prints on the discharged fabric that were used in the row.  The fish are printed with navy blue screen printing ink by Versatex (available from Dharma Trading).  You can see that the water screen adds a lot of texture to the fabric.

Elizabeth chose to use a crackle screen to add background texture to her green fabric. She used Jacquard Products Lumiere Citrine textile paint to add a tone-on-tone effect.  In this angled photo, the metallic component of the paint is most visible.

Here is the fish printed on the background.

In a third option, Sue started with a white background and printed the crackle screen first for texture.  She used Caribbean Breeze transparent paint by PROfab (from PRO Chemical and Dye) and the screen below.  (PROChem also carries deColourant products)

After printing the fish in orange, she realized that too much of the blue showed through, so she decided to mask it by filling in the shape with a paint brush, and then overprinting in a darker blue.

Another way to create the same effect would be to print the fish on a separate fabric, apply fusible web to the back, and then fuse to the background as an applique.  So you can see there are lots of options for creating your fish centers for the log cabin blocks!