fabric friday

using up left over paint

playing in Photoshop

fabric friday...playing

Still some time to enter the giveaway.

Linking up with Off the Wall Friday. Come and join in!

Bird House

Carrying from my last post, when I began designing a bird house I ended up with all these different parts which was really far too complicated.

First step, Simplify it to just the one piece.

Next, mark out the design in pencil.

Paint in the shadows to give a dimensional effect.

For this I used neat paint, mixed with textile medium (or in this case Aloe Vera gel, because at that time I did not possess any textile medium).

The colour was obtained by mixing a small bit of black with the bird house colour.

Adding the medium/gel allows you to work slowly and accurately with the paint and to build up the layers of colour.

To quote a famous Meerkat "Simples"......apologies to non U.K. readers who won't know what I am referring to....but if you are curious look here.

Are you ready for your close up?

The painting has been done, and you are getting close up angled shots.

Gloomy, wet conditions here mean that it is still wet. Plus the light is not good for photos.
I have tried to inject a bit of summer colour while we wait for the Jet Stream to move!

 Maybe this was a bit too much, but never fear.

A few more warm colours and a bit of toning down has resulted in this.

There might be few more light patches when it has completely dried!
I am not sure what I feel about this at the moment. I am fighting the urge to get a dark thread and stitch around the flower design.
I think I prefer the back!

I can see this working on a cushion or table runner maybe but as a piece of art I'd need something more. I have gone back to look at the work of June C Barnes and can see that I could achieve more contrast with the right choice of colours. More experiments with this technique are needed I think.

Well, that is it!!
I have reached the end of the scrap bag !!! Time to move on to other things.
I hope you will check back on Friday for an overview of the whole project, and and my thoughts on the experience.

Recommended

I am sometimes surprised that there are often those who interact with me or this blog who do not realise that what I do here is mainly about PAINTING fabric and not dyeing fabric. Now I know that you can paint a fabric with dye but MOST of the time, everything you see here is done with textile paints and not dyes.

It began with this piece.

Which was the final piece that I had to do for City and Guilds Patchwork and Quilting. It had to be monotone and after dyeing yards and yards of fabric (with varying success) I was looking for another way, so I decided to use textile paint. All of the fabric for this piece was done with one small pot of Pebeo Setacolor  Transparent fabric paint, with more or lesser degrees of water added to achieve the different values.

Well what can I say, for someone like me, working in a domestic situation, I was hooked.

I wanted to learn more and with that aim in mind I purchased this.

As you can see it is well used and I still refer back to it often. It was my guide to getting to know the ins and outs of fabric painting and if you are keen to have a go this would be one of my Top 5 recommendations.

Those eagle eyed among you will have noticed that I recently added an Amazon window to my blog.
I have done this not because I anticipate financial gain but because it seemed to be an easy way of showing you the books that I have used and would recommend one obviously being this one.

I can also recommend her DVD. If you want to see more of Mickey Lawlers beautiful hand painted fabric visit at SkyDyes.

And if you like books stay tuned because by the end of the week I will be having a giveaway of Seaside Home.

"the sun has got his hat on..."

You know that expression- Make hay while the sun shines.....

Well in this house it is- Paint fabric while the sun shines!!!!
Making the most of the unseasonably warm March weather!
Hope you have all had such a fabulous sunshine filled weekend.

fabric friday

Moody. Just like the weather here today!
Have a good weekend!

fabric friday (kind of...)

Ever since I began painting fabric I have been saving the selvedges.

Sometimes they are painted in situ and then removed. Sometimes they are removed before painting and then I keep them to mop up any bits of paint that have are left over. (I know, I need to get a life!)

I have already made a diary cover with them, but you only ever need one of those, and I did attempt making a pencil case, but zips are really not my thing and I don't want to have to repeat that experience too often!

I can maybe see a string quilt in my future but before I commit to that I am looking for suggestions. Any ideas?



hand painted fabric friday

The sun is poking it's head out of the clouds today, so I have been painting some skies.

Painting a summer sky would seem to be a relatively easy thing to do, but because there is a larger  water to paint ratio (to get the pale blues needed) they don't always turn out as well as I would like. The water can "travel" and not always in the direction you want. Fine if it is a hot day and the paint dries quickly, but in January......

Not to worry. It is easy to go back and add more paint.

That's better!

Getting Organised

These fabric rolls have been languishing in my loft since before Christmas. It's time to get organised.

All cut (or rather torn) up ready to for painting.

Maybe like this.
Until next time!

Stamping and Stencilling on fabric friday

hand painted fabric, a photo by Quilt Routes on Flickr.

This is an old one, but I don't think I have shown it here before.

Busy,busy

I have begun to put some new kits together and here is a sneak peek.

Things have been a bit slow, as those of you who read my blue hare blog will know, because a kitchen fire this summer has slowed the creativity a bit.

However, in an effort to get things moving again I have joined the Blogtoberfest, commiting myself to blog every day of October. You can join in at any time if you fancy the challlenge.

On the Quilt Routes front I have decided it is about time I got around to stitching this piece.

I use it to demonstrate stamping when I give my talk, which involves looking at different ways of painting and printing on fabric. I made the stamps for this using pizza bases (details to come later) and when I say bases I don't mean the dough base but the packaging base. I have to clarify this because I was once asked how I stopped the paint from breaking up the dough!

Stay tuned.

Giveaway Day

NOW CLOSED

I am participating in the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day today.

This is new territory for me so I hope you like what I have on offer and that you leave a comment on this post to be in with a chance.

What is that saying?  "You have to be in it to win it!".

If you are a first time visitor to the site, I hope that you can take the time to look around to see what I get up to and that you like it enough to make a return visit.

My giveaway includes one fat quarter each of Night Sky, Summer Sky and Sunset Sky hand painted fabrics.

Also these sample packs of greens and blues, along with a "Pebbles Pack" which contains a variety of stone and pebble fabrics. Included is a pack of painted and dyed scrim to use as embellishment on your creations.

I will also throw in a "Beach Bundle" shown below.

And finally, you can chose one of any of my kits.

More details about all of these giveaways can be found at my Etsy or Folksy shop, where you can get to chose which kit you would like!

For those who are already into Art and Landscape Quilting I am sure you could put these supplies to good use. For those of you who are not, then this is a great chance to dip your toe in the water.

You can see how I use these fabrics on this blog, here and over at my flickr gallery.

Thanks for visiting and hope you come back soon.

Now off you go into blogland and try and win some more goodies.

Nearly forgot! I will post these goodies to anywhere in the world.

UPDATE: I thought it was against the rules but everyone else seems to be doing it, so if you become a follower as well, you get an extra chance to win. The winner will be contacted by email..... you know the rest.