How to Paint your own Gradated Fabrics......The Basics

In case you thought it was a difficult process and that I was kidding when I say it's simple to do, I thought I'd just take you through it step by step.
First of all, don't worry if you don't have the same sophisticated equipment I use......I am sure you have something that will work.
You will need to round up a container to actually mix the paint in ( here I used the "lid" from a store bought cake ) but any plastic container that gives you lots of room to splash will work, gather up some paper towels, an old raggedy towel to protect your work surface, some rubber gloves, a container of water, something to measure with (I used one of those little cups that come with cough medicine), a sheet of plastic ( I used a clear leaf bag cut open), stir sticks or Popsicle sticks to scoop out the paint from your measuring cup(don't want to waste a drop), coarse salt ( optional) and of course some white pre-washed cotton fabric.
Okay, so after you have eaten the cake and Popsicles you are ready to begin.
This time, I actually measured everything (I normally just eyeball it)
For this session my fabric pieces are essentially fat eights, each measuring 9 x 22 inches but of course once you get the hang of it, you can easily increase the amount of paint/water mixture to accommodate larger pieces of fabric.I measured 12.5 ml ( 1 Tablespoon) of pure paint and into the bowl it went followed by 7.5ml of water. Swirl it around to mix it all up and throw in your first piece of fabric. This will be your darkest most saturated piece. Sop up the paint mixture and squeeze out the excess ( back into the bowl of course) do this a few times to be sure you have good colour throughout your fabric. Again, be sure to really squeeze out the excess, you don't want to waste anything and you won't want to wait forever for your fabric to dry. Now take this piece and lay it out flat on your plastic sheet. ( I lay my plastic on a piece of Styrofoam so it is easy to pick up and move should I need to)
You are now ready to create the next shade, add another 7.5ml of water ( or just a wee bit less) to your paint mixture, swirl it around to mix well and toss in your next piece of fabric. Repeat as before, sopping up paint and squeezing out the excess.

Just keep repeating this same process with each consecutive piece of fabric, adding that extra water each time to continue to dilute the mixture. See how my last bit of paint looked......very weak but just right for my lightest shade.Once you have laid all of your pieces of painted fabric out to dry, you can decide if you want add some salt. Sprinkling a bit of coarse salt (pickling salt) onto your damp fabric will cause some interesting effects. The salt will "draw" the paint and move it about, a little goes a long way.......and you never really know what you will end up with or you can just leave it be as a "solid" and skip the salt altogether.
That's it, just clean up your little mess ( I rinse everything thoroughly with warm water in the laundry sink and re-use it time after time)
Okay, now you have to wait for the fabric to dry so you might as well go see if there is any of that cake left.
Once your fabrics are dry, you will need to "Heat Set" them to make them permanent. Simply press for a few minutes with a hot iron. ( if you used the salt, you may need to scrape/pick off the dried crystal that remain before heat setting")
Sometimes, ( okay, most times) I get a little carried away with the salt and will need to rinse my fabric after heat setting to get all of the salt completely out.
Here is the result of this paint session that created these gradated oranges.

Painted fabric with a dyed look

I have a project in mind that will require little bits of lots of different colours. I came across this Bali Bonbons (top of the photo) which is comprised of 24 ....2.5"strips. I thought that this was great as there were lots of shades but did not even notice until I got home that there were no blues or oranges. So I set about to augment this group by making some gradated blues that could blend in.
It is a very simple process. Start with your darkest shade, which in this case is a Cobalt Setacolor transparent fabric paint diluted a little with water. I took slightly dampened fabric and just kept squishing it in the paint till it was completely saturated with colour, squeezed out the excess and put it aside to dry. Add a little more water to the paint/water mixture to "lighten" it and repeat the process. I continued doing this until I had these gradated shades of the same blue. While they were laid out to dry, I threw some coarse salt on to get the mottled effects.
Once heat set these are colourfast..........unlike those commercial dyes I purchased..... I tested them and they all bled, so I had to pre-wash and set the dyes before I can begin my project.
Plan to make a few oranges next.

Combining Prompts

The Creative Prompt Project words number 76 & 77 were Night and Flutter. I decided to combine the words. At night this moth will flutter in the glow of the porch light.

Marking Feathers

I have spent a little more time designing feathers and I wanted a way to mark them so that I could repeat a feather over and over if I so desire. So using my Jenny Haskins Magic Heat Cutting tool and some Mylar I created a couple of stencils. They can be used from either side and they should stand up for a very, very long time.
I pounced the design and as you can see I have lines that are clear and easy to follow.


I realized today That I had not posted last week's doodle. This is my response to the 75th word prompt which was Violet

Wan't to see the show?

The Grand National Quilt Show 2010............."Off the Wall" is now available to view online.
You can access it here or by clicking on the link placed on the upper right of my side panel.
It is in PDF format and will take a few seconds to load, grab your favourite beverage, relax and enjoy the gorgeous works by fabulous artists from across Canada. Quite often we don't get to know what an artist is thinking as he/she creates a piece, here you can read their statements and see what techniques were used for each work.
I hope that you will enjoy the show!

Feathers, Feathers, and more Feathers

I LOVE the look of beautiful, graceful curving feathers on quilts but for some reason, drawing/designing them has mystified me. I am determined to be able to do them on my domestic machine, so I have been practising on paper by filling shapes and spaces with feathers. Here are a few that I have drawn.I stitched out a couple as well. This is going to take more practice but I WILL conquer the feather!

I have spent more time drawing than sewing this week. Here is my response to last week's prompt word ........... Celebration.

Glyph

Yup "Glyph" is the Creative Prompt Project's word of the week. A Glyph, is essentially a pictograph or other symbolic character/sign, sometimes cut into a surface or carved in relief.
I had a bit of fun with this one. First I drew my zodiac symbol........ Capricorn.
Next, I finally got around to trying Lino-Cutting. It is something I have wanted to try for awhile. I began by purchasing the basic lino-cutting tools and a piece of linoleum to carve.
I drew a fairly simple pattern which, once carved, resulted in this block/stamp.
I lightly brushed transparent fabric paint onto the block using a fairly stiff brush so that odd little lines would be left behind. I started with one colour and gradually added another as I continued to make the print. Here is the stamped fabric. I can see where the carving needs to be "cleaned" up a little, but I am quite pleased with my first attempt.
Can you imagine the fabulous possibilities that might be achieved by employing this method of print making?

Paper Backed Fusible.........make your own.

Recently I was working on a project that required paper backed fusible, but I had none on hand. I did, however, have some fusible web and thought I'd see if I could make that work. It is simple really, all you need is some fusible web and parchment paper.

Lets say you want to cut out one of these little sewing machines to fuse onto a project........just cut a layer of fusible web at least the size of your fabric piece. Place the fabric right side down, add the fusible web and then add a slightly larger piece of parchment paper. From the paper side, fuse it all together with a hot, dry iron.

Now cut out your shape.
The paper will remove very easily leaving you with fabric that now has fusible on the back. Place it where you want and iron in place........see? simple!
That is what I did with this leaf. Once it had been drawn and painted I wanted to cut it out to fuse it to this fabric, the fusible web/parchment paper worked beautifully. This postcard is on it's way to say Happy Canada Day to a friend.

The CPP word this week is ICE...........with July fast approaching, the only ice I want to think about should be cool and refreshing so I decided that a Popsicle would be just the thing.

All about Colour and "Eye"

I am currently taking my very first online class. I seized the opportunity to enroll in a colour theory class being offered by Judy Coates Perez. (if you are familiar with her work, then you will know why I jumped at the chance to take this course)
I am absolutely thrilled with the way the course is set up and the exercises she has laid out for us. This is a real "hands on" ........work at your own, pace learning experience and I am thoroughly enjoying it. The photo shows some of my "homework"
I am looking forward to gaining a better understanding of colour and perhaps one day to have an "Eye" for it.
If you want to know more about this class and what we are working on, you can read about it here

Can you guess what the CPP word is this week? It is Eye

A Doodle and a Surprise in the Mail!

Those of you who are regular readers of this blog are well aware of my ongoing participation in the Creative Prompt Project. When I began, I never dreamed that nearly a year and a half later I would still be enjoying doing responses to each weekly word.
The latest one, is also #70 in the line up. The word is "Salmon".........now, when I think about using canned salmon to make sandwiches, for me, it is all about the bones. It seems that there are just so many little bones that need to be removed

A little while ago Jaye at ArtQuiltmaker asked if she could use a couple of my doodles for a project she had in mind...........A project that she wanted to do for me as a gift! She asked for a few of her favourites and a few of mine so that in the end I would be surprised.
I sent her some files, but had no idea what she was up to until today when this arrived in the mail. She has made this for me as a thank you for my continued participation...how wonderful is that?

What a terrific pencil roll this is. She printed onto fabric, a couple of my doodles, used some black and white graphic fabric (which I LOVE) on the inside and a very nice home decor fabric on the outside. The question is what shall I keep in this?........ Micron pens, Paint brushes, Watercolour pencils????
Thank you so much Jaye! It is Fabulous!
Love your label by the way!