Passion Play - Piece 3

The 3rd piece in this composition is the largest.  It was about 7 x 9 inches, and was actually a test piece for a larger piece, where I was trying out my ideas before working on the "real" piece.  So keep in mind that whatever you make, even if it's just practice or testing ideas, can find a home somewhere.

This is the piece of fabric I started with.  The picture below was taken after the thermofax screen printing with 2 different screens and thickened dye.  But the thickened dye had lost a lot of its effectiveness, so most of what you see here washed out.  When you look at the final piece, you can still see the images from this stage, but they are definitely deep background.

After settling on this piece for my test sample, the next thing I did was print another background image with a round gelli plate.  I used a blue textile paint and used a textured squeegee to make swirls in it.  Then I placed the fabric on the plate and tapped gently to transfer the image to the fabric.  The picture below is of the larger piece after I made the sample. I didn't have a picture of the sample with just the gelli plate added.

Back to the small piece.  The next layer I added was the thermofax print of the ferns.  I used 3 different colors of paint (I think) that I blended with white to lighten the colors.  Here's what the screen image (available in our Etsy shop) looks like, and below that is the picture of the test print.

And finally,  a close up of the part used in Passion Play.  The stitching on the circular gelli print is done with #5 perle cotton in a variegated thread.

Printing Inspiration Package

I recently received a birthday gift of a package of books, DVDs, and other supplies for print making that was offered by Interweave/Quilting Daily.  Look at all this inspiration!  (A little overwhelming, actually.)

There are 4 books that cover various types of printing - gelli plate printing, screen printing, stamping and carving your own stamps, and Printmaking Unleashed, which features a wealth of over 50  techniques for mark making.  Also included is a pad of printmaking paper, a squeegee, a thermofax screen and stencil by Julie Balzer, and 2 DVDs.  Exploring all these techniques (some new, some not) will keep me busy for quite a while!  Not to mention  another recent book acquisition with more things to try. 

Julie Booth's recent book features fabric printing with food and found objects from the kitchen.  I see lots of ideas for experimentation in PGFiber2Art's future, especially for Quilt Camp 7!

QC6 Day 8

July 7, 2014
This morning I spent some time sewing to complete a quilt row that I started putting together last night.  It is for the Virginia Row by Row Experience.  This is actually a national shop hop for quilters' as they travel around through the summer.  There are quilt shops in 34 states participating, and over 1250 quilt shops!  If you visit participating shops in person, you can pick up a free pattern for a row designed by that shop.  The theme is "seasons" so all the shops chose one of the 4 seasons for their design.  Many shops also offer kits for their row if you want to make yours just like theirs.  If you combine 8 rows into a finished quilt and are the first person to bring it to a participating shop, you can win 25 fat quarters of fabric.  Row by Row Experience is the national page from which you can access all the participating states and shops.

The row I am working on was designed by Artistic Artifacts.  Judy featured thermofax screens created by PGFiber2Art (that's me and Elizabeth!) and wooden printing blocks with strip piecing to create a contemporary spring row.  I followed her lead to create my own fabric featuring text screens ("art" and "stitch") on top of a gelatin plate printed background, and added a final layer of screen printed ferns.  The base fabric was hand dyed, so the whole piece was created from scratch beginning with white cotton.  (I shared the picture a few days ago but will show it again.)  This is the row that Judy designed.

Here is my hand-made fabric.

This is the row that I made using my fabric and pieces of batik for the strip piecing.  The darker strips between the rows is some of the "tree bark" fabric shown in yesterday's post.  That will also be used for the binding after the row is quilted.

I'm not planning to make a quilt with the rows I collect (at this point); so far I'm just thinking table runners.  We got the pattern from Keepsake Quilting (New Hampshire) last week, and will be visiting a few more shops tomorrow.

QC5 Day 4

July 3, 2014
Today started off similarly to the last two; a trip to the library to print some order receipts, followed by the post office for mailing orders.  The post office happens to be right next to Geez Louise, so of course we had to stop in and look around!  I found a set of 8 linen napkins that will be good for dyeing, and the real treasure, an old ledger dating to 1899!  Just look at the penmanship!

Yesterday I shared my sun printed fabric; today I added another layer with screen printing.  On the left is a sample Elizabeth printed on commercial fabric. On the right is my piece where I used the fern and pine cone screens that we made yesterday.  This is what it looks like now, although I don't think it is finished.  I think more layers are in order.

I also shared a picture of the t-shirt I started.  Well, I'm back to square 1 with that project.  It needed to be soaked in a soda ash solution before dyeing, so I did that this afternoon - forgetting that the warm water would wash out the color magnet!  So its been drying the rest of the day and I will have to redo the color magnet tomorrow.  (Soda ashed items cannot go in the dryer - they can catch on fire!)

Meanwhile, I put another piece of fabric in the dye I had prepared and couldn't use for the t-shirt.  I did some gelli plate printing and more screen printing, and prepared a silk screen for breakdown printing - that has to dry completely so at least 24 hours, maybe longer because of humidity.  So far I am really happy with the new screens we created yesterday.  More pictures of those prints tomorrow.

Ended the day with a late afternoon swim in the lake - it was like bath water, but still refreshing.  After dark the rain storms moved in - lots of thunder and lightening to go with the fire crackers being shot off all around the lake.  I'm sure there will be lots more of that tomorrow.