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!

fabric friday

Not ready to give up on those blue Summer skies just yet.

 Available here.

Scrappy Sea Scene

I know things have been quiet around here lately, but it has all been going on over on my blue hare blog, some good, some not so good.

Things are starting to settle down around here and I have lots of things planed for Quilt Routes, but I am
sure you know how hard it can be to get back into the rythmn after a break.

I find that just diving in and doing anything creative helps even if it is not something you should be doing. It is just nice to do a fun activity and get the creative juices flowing.
When I saw this post from Alisa Burke I knew it was something I wanted to try.

So using strips of painted fabric and an old canvas not needed any more I did this. 

I covered the canvas in gesso, sticking the strips on whilst the paint was still wet. When dry I made sure everything was secured into place with a couple of coats of artists varnish.
It was so easy to do and very satisfying.
Why don't you give it a try?

Beach Huts Mini Art Quilt Tutorial

Need some sunshine in your life?
How about making this Beach Hut mini art quilt.

This tutorial will show you how to do a diagonally pieced sky using two different fabrics and looks at some different stitching options. It is not a definitive lesson on what you must do to create this quilt but rather something that will help you set you off and give you different options to follow.

Requirement

                           

Naturally I have used had painted fabric, but any fabric can be used.
I am not going to give sizes. Make it any size you wish.
The only thing to remember is that you need  two pieces of sky fabric exactly the same size.
Also
one strip of sea fabric
one strip of sand fabric
a selection of scraps for the beach huts

Piecing the background

Right sides of fabric both facing up, place them one on top of the other.

Using a ruler and rotary cutter, slice diagonally through the two layers of fabric.

Move your cuts out from the inner corner to the outer corner in increments just remembering to make them wide enough to allow for the seam allowances which will come later.

Now alternate the pieces of fabric like shown.

                           

When stitched together it will look like this.

But can then be trimmed to look like this.

                           

Those observant among you will notice that this one is the sister of the previous one as you get two for the price of one with this method.

Now add your sea and sand strips, in whichever order you like.

Here the sea is behind the huts,

and here it is in front of them.

Next time stitching and applique of the huts!

Sunny Sunday

Time to enjoy the sky here in sunny South Wales.

Bunting stitched onto painted summer sky.

Batik scraps for the pennants.

The Beginning. Welcome to my new blog!

This is how it starts. Today I am painting up some more fabric for my Pebble Stack Kit shown below.

First some sky. 

Unfortunately the sky outside my window is a dull grey colour, not the nice blue you see on the table, which means these pieces will take all day to dry.

 

This has been my most popular kit to date, so I need to re stock. I love painting up the fabric for the pebbles. There are so many possibilities.  In the future I plan to share with you the techniques I use for creating hand painted fabrics. I hope you will visit again.