Masks and Painting Progress

You are all probably growing tired of seeing all the mask tutorials circulating online, but I think we are gonna be wearing them for quite some time. So, why not have a design that is easy to make, functional and great fitting. I am not doing a tutorial here....instead,  I am going to direct you to the site of the amazingly talented Judy Coates Perez where she has posted a wonderful step by step tutorial, includes a link to a video by the original designer and as an added bonus, Judy has designed fabulous fabric that you could purchase to make these masks (each one is her incredible artwork)

I have made a few in this design and I have to say they are the best fitting yet, the shape gives you more breathing room and allows for a much better fit on the face. I originally made masks fashioned after the pleated medical type.....I like this newer design so much better.  I followed the instructions but I did make a couple of modifications. 

 

 

instead of a 3rd layer of cotton, I stitch a piece of non woven stabilizer to one of the cotton layers. ( its the stuff people use to stabilize/back machine embroidery work. It acts as an excellent filter.

 

for the nose wire.....I have been using twist ties. but sometimes they are pretty flimsy so I get around that by putting 2 or 3 (depends on what I feel it needs) together and then doing a zig zag stitch over top to keep them all together to serve as one solid bit. 

 this design also makes the masks reversible.....so you can use a vivid fabric print on one side and something a little more subdued on the other.  wear the one that matches your mood (or situation) that day. of course, be sure its been washed before switching it out.

Currently it can be difficult to avoid both news about Covid-19 and politics......while I strive to stay informed, I decided I also needed to find something positive to focus my attention on. Back in the spring I joined Anna Mason's School of Art. I have been working though a variety of skill building lessons

I thought I would show you my most recent paintings. This one was a lesson on how to handle painting glass.

and this Rose is an "advance" level lesson. I was concerned that I might not be ready for the complexities of this one, it took me a very long time, I worked slowly trying to capture the detail. I love that you can loose yourself and shut out the rest of the world as you put brush to paper

 

Building a Drop Spindle.....some assembly required

This past summer I spent some time learning to "spin". Not only did I want to spin my own yarn, but I also wanted to make my own spindles. I stuck with the k.i.s.s principle and kept it simple.

What I did not already have on hand only took a trip to the hardware store, where I was able to pick up some wooden wheels, beads and dowels.
Now, they don't need to be pretty to function.....but heck, why not make them nice to look at too! I decided to try colouring them, wanting the beauty of the wood grain show through, but not wanting to go buy several cans of wood stain (would have been expensive and wasteful) I found that my transparent textile paint worked just fine. I used Seta-Colour transparent paints thinned with water.

Once the parts were dry, the spindles were assembled and a couple of coats of varnish were applied. I pre drilled a tiny hole to make it easy to screw the cup hook in the center of the dowel. In order to get a nice tapered end, I just used a pencil sharpener.  Told ya I kept it simple.

Not only do my spindles work great, they are a little less boring to look at now.

I find it interesting that a few bits of wood and a cup hook can transform a pretty pile of fluffy fibres (this is a Merino and Tencel 50/50 mixture) to a beautiful finished yarn ready for my needles.

Easy Batik Method

I have always wanted to try Batik, but space is limited, I don't have a spot to play with wax and dyes, no where to really get "messy"
Recently, a reader and I were emailing back and forth, talking about various classes, workshops, techniques. She described a batik method where instead dye baths, the dyes are simply painted on.  well this really got me thinking....I wanted to try it so badly....but had no supplies on hand.
Those who follow me regularly KNOW that was not about to stop me....Like Clark Griswold...."I was on a QUEST"   :-)

So here is what I did

I have one of those little wax burners....you know the ones, you put a small cube of scented wax and melt it with a tea light candle placed underneath.  Okay....I now had hot wax.

I took a piece of muslin, lightly drew a design and then placed this in an embroidery hoop.

Next I traced the outlines using nothing more than a cheap paint brush dipped into the hot wax. It is going to take a little practice to get smooth lines but for my first time I am really quite pleased.
I checked to be sure the wax was going right through the fabric,

to give you an idea of size.....that hoop measures 12" across

then it was time to paint.....and that is what I did, I used textile paints diluted with water so that they flowed. I also used a little bit of acrylic ink (just to see how it would work)

I removed it from the hoop and continued placing more paint, I don't like to waste anything, so I threw some of the leftover colours into the blue background.  This was now very wet so I could test how well the wax would work as a resist.  You can tell that the work was good and wet by the reaction to the handful of salt I tossed onto the whole works before leaving  it to dry

Once it was dry, I placed the piece inside layers of newsprint (clean, unprinted) paper and set my iron to a low heat.....the heat from the iron melted the wax...the paper absorbed it.

now, of course, you know I HAD to add some doodling

This was such an interesting experiment, I can hardly wait to try it using some paraffin ( I have no idea what that scented wax is)  Next time I want to try doing several layers of wax and colour. 

Wash test

 My last post about using paints and inks on fabric along with various "extenders" led to many of you asking if the painted/inked fabric can be washed. The short answer is that once heat set, these products are supposed to be permanent.......but, of course, I had to test this. I took the sample that I showed in that post and sliced a couple of strips off, enough to be able to wash (by hand, in warm soapy water) I made a couple of notes so that I could easily line it all back up again, I did it this way so that I could now compare the washed pieces to the originally painted/inked fabric.

Looks good to me!

 There was no bleeding and it appears that there was no colour loss or fading either. Generally, we are not going to wash a painted quilt but, it is nice to know that if it did get wet, it won't be ruined.

Presenting.........Graffiti

The 2010 Grand National Quilt show opened today. This year's theme is "Off the Wall"

I am thrilled to say that my piece titled, "Graffiti" was accepted into this juried show and I am really looking forward to attending the opening reception being held tomorrow afternoon at Homer Watson House & Gallery in Kitchener. Maybe I'll get to meet a few of you there.
The show runs until June 13th so if you are in the area, I do hope you'll get a chance to attend.

I have always been inspired by some of the remarkable graffiti I see, so this piece is making a statement.....well asking a question really.

I am not sure if you will be able to decipher what it is saying from this photo but just let me tell you that this quilt design is made up almost entirely of lettering, there are 12 sections or "pies" with every other one being mirror imaged that repeat the message, it reads from the center out. This piece is a whole cloth, hand drawn and painted quilt.
Can you tell what it says? I'll explain more in my next post

I really enjoyed quilting this one so click on this photo for a bit of a closer look at the stitching.

In the next few posts I will be showing how this piece progressed from start to finish so I hope you will want to follow along.

Trial and Error

For some time now, I have been wanting to try using inks and paints with Aloe Vera gel as a medium to blend colours in painting on fabric. I don't like to feel as though I am "wasting" time or supplies.......but you know how it is......if you wait for the right project to come along it may never happen.
So I took that same doodle from last week and drew it on fabric again, changing it slightly each time I traced it. I used a brush to apply the clear Aloe Vera Gel ( the stuff you use for sunburns) onto my image.

Then began applying the paint or ink to each one. I photographed the results with text showing each medium used below it so you could see the end result.
Each one ( ink or paint) was used straight from the bottle and applied with a brush. I found that I had the most control with the paints as the ink is very thin and you have to be extra careful that you don't get "bleeding"and even though I was extremely careful I still got some colour bleed, I know that it would not bother most people but it really bugs me when it happens, and too me, ruins the piece....... ah, but not really.
I used it as an opportunity to do something I had not originally intended. So with the ruined piece I pressed some paper backed fusible to the wrong side, cut it out and put it onto a red background for a completely different look.

From Logo Design to Quilt

After having my design chosen as the logo to be used for next year's CQA event, I decided to see if I could turn it into a quilt.
On a white tone on tone cotton with a vine and leaf motif, I painted in the colours I wanted.
I probably could have gotten away without piecing the circle, but I did want to be able to tuck the tree roots into the seam.
So the blue was painted, the tree trunk and roots are actually Lutradur cut with a heat tool. I painted the outer circle yellow, being careful to leave the flying geese area blank so it could be treated separately.
I hand lettered the text using a micron pen. I also used the micron pens on plain white cotton to re-create the designs on fabric for the "foliage" on the tree.

I thought I'd apply something a little unexpected to the binding so I began by printing a sheet of text on cotton which was then cut on the bias.
The broken black outline of the circle is hand stitched while the rest is free motion machine quilting.

Here is the finished piece, it is titled "Coming Attraction"

Bring on the Sun!!!

We have been experiencing some fantastic weather the last few days. I just had to take advantage of the beautiful sunshine and do a little sun printing.

Lightly dampened fabric was painted with diluted transparent Setacolours, then, I just tossed on several different objects to see what effects I might like. I used jewelry bits, rice, bag tags, toothpicks, ivy and fern leaves, bobbins, safety pins and even elbow macaroni that was all left in the sun.
Here are some of the results.

I took one piece of fabric..........scrunched it up, poured the leftover paints onto it and left it to dry giving me this interesting piece.

Then of course there is what always ends up being my favourite piece, the "clean up" cloth. I use a damp piece of cotton to mop up all of the excess wet and dry paint on my work surface and this is how it turned out.



I liked the safety pins so much I did another piece the next day.
I definitely have plans for this piece

Painting Fabric and a 1st Place

I really enjoy painting fabric and managed to get a little time to devote to it this week. The first photo is of fabric I purposely painted.



The second is of painted dryer sheets



Look how cool they look when you start overlapping them, I just love the texture and transparency that this provides.

Don't the fabrics and dryer sheets look great together?


The final photo is the result of clean up. The darkest muddy one is from cleaning up right after my painting session the others are the result of wetting the surface and cleaning up all the bits of dried paint on it. I like to do this at the end of a paint session just to see what I might end up with.

I do not really "paint"my fabrics (not with a brush anyway) I pour paint onto my vinyl covered table and then proceed to lay or drag the fabrics though the paint until I get the desired look. I almost always, then throw generous amounts of Pickling salt onto the pieces that are then left to dry. The salt will start to "pull" the paint which gives some really terrific effects.

Last week the Quilting Gallery hosted Nature's Best on-line quilt show. I entered pieces in both categories and am so delighted to be able to say that in the Large category my quilt Earthbound placed first. I was given 1st choice of the prizes so I chose the Aurifil threads, I think I might like to try to create a whole cloth quilt with them. Thank you to everyone who chose to cast their vote for my work.

What do you do with used dryer sheets?

Here is a great creative way to add to your stash by using something you'd normally throw away
Recently, I began saving my used dryer sheets and was waiting until I had a bit of time to experiment.
I mixed up some well diluted Seta Colour paints and just sloshed it onto some dryer sheets.
I also laid a few small objects and leaves on top of the wet paint, then left them to dry in the sun for a couple of hours
I had never actually tried sun printing before but it is exactly that easy.
Although, I do think next time I will dilute the paint a bit less in hopes of getting stronger colour and greater contrast with the void left by the objects.

Just look at the great colour and texture that is achieved. See what happens when you layer them....blue over yellow, over orange, over that wonderful green.

While the dryer sheet is wet with one colour why not add another and let it run and bleed to make a very interesting looking piece
...................imagine the possibilities!


Simply heat set with a hot dry iron and they are project ready.

Painting and Shopping

I have decided to try to take a design and create it using many different techniques, many of them new to me. This image is from a stencil, I made a few changes and I will continue to change it and add elements as I make each new piece. The idea is sort of a cross between a BOM and small journal quilts, I hope to have a number of panels that can be joined together at year's end to make an interesting piece.
I began by drawing the outline onto pre-washed cotton. I painted this using inexpensive acrylic craft paint mixed with textile medium. It is totally washable after being heat set.(although most of my pieces are not likely to ever be washed)
The next step will be to add thread painting which brings me to the shopping part of this post. I was at one of my favourite quilt shops today, The Marsh Store. I made the trip in order to pick up some Setacolour fabric paints. ( I am beginning a collection ) and of course I just had to check out some of the other wonderful things they carry. Every time I visit that shop I find that there is something else I simply must have. Today it was these "Oliver Twists" hand dyed cotton machine threads. They come packaged as a group and as you can see, this group called Forest Floor is perfect for my current project, hmmmmmmm this may be the start of another collection.