Print play

One of the things I like most about art quilting is having the freedom to play and discover new ways of creating interesting effects. I have been playing with making prints lately. I had read that you could make prints using fusible web and found that to be something I'd like to explore. So here is what I found. First I started by painting a very watered down setacolour fabric paint wash onto the web side of paper backed fusible web. I let the paint blend and run, then left it to thoroughly dry. I cut this "feather" shape and simply applied a hot dry iron. The print is quite spotty because the actual amount of pigment from the paint varied greatly across this first sample. Okay, but could this be subjected to water? I set out to answer that question. I cut and ironed some small random shapes, submerged and agitated it in soapy water, wrung it out let it dry and then pressed it using parchment paper as a shield and it looks great, no colour loss at all.

I then tried this same idea using inexpensive crafter's acrylic mixed with a bit of textile medium, painted this feather (left)
cut it out but only the general shape leaving some unpainted web to see what would happen and repeated the pressing process.
This works as well but left the painted area of the fabric with a slightly rubbery texture. This sample also passed a quick wash test.

Now I like the idea of being able to print a shape with out
any intricate cutting so I painted directly onto the web once again this time using a watered down setacolour paint, as you can see there was some bleeding which could lead to some other interesting effects especially with added thread painting or beading but in the end I cut each section separately and got a sort of stencilled look. I will continue playing to see what can be achieved. Imagine the possibilities!