Adding Color & "Fugitive Media"

As I was finishing the latest Grevillea piece I wanted to add some extra color to the quilting design ... while there are lots of ways to do this,  my favorite media at the moment is the  NeoColor 11  Watersoluble wax crayons ..... 

 The question is ......  what is the best way to make them permanent on fabric?

This week I discovered an interesting article written for Quilting Arts TV by Kerr Grabowski with the intriguing title " Making Fugitive Media Permanent on Fabric" .   The article advises applying a layer of transparent base extender, normally used to lighten textile inks and bond them to fabric.

So for this exercise I coated the areas of Neo Color 11  with the extender using a paint brush ... the extender has the consistency of a thick cream ... so that makes it easy to apply!! 

This extender can be used to make NeoColor 11,  Soft pastels and charcoal permanent on fabric! So there is more experimenting to come!!

Thanks for reading .... CC

Stitch First Applique Later!

With my new Grevillea piece I reversed my usual construction process by stitching the background before the applique!  Now this is not a new idea but one I've avoided because I like the flexibility that finalising the composition first allows.  Stitching first requires a bit of a leap of faith!  

Step one was stitching the background.  Doing the stitching first makes the process very easy, no shapes to navigate around so the stitching is very fluid and it's easy to achieve a good result.  It also helps to integrate any additions/variations in the background design.

With this piece I added the applique shapes in two steps.  Firstly the main structure of the flower and the leaves and secondly the overlapping flower shapes, stitching them down as I built up the design.

If you have followed previous posts you will know that I have had quite some issues with skipped stitches.  These skipped stitches occur because of movement in the layers as the needle  passes through multiple layers and are very frustrating!!!  By stitching the background first this issue is not longer of concern!!   So making this piece has been a much more enjoyable experience .......

                   'Peaches & Cream' - Grevillea 3   © Carolyn Collins 2017   16" x 16"  

Have you tried stitching first and what did you think about the process???

Thanks for dropping by .....  CC

Painting Fabric

I've been trying our some ideas for painted backgrounds this week as part of my plan to only use fabrics only my own fabrics .....    In each of the samples I painted Permaset Textile Ink applied with a sponge/palette knife, a stamp and a brayer .....

Text

Gesso

Collograph

Seed Stitch

In the text sample I used a Pigma 05  micron pen in black and rust to write on the fabric before painting.  The Pigma pen works well without leaving any build up of ink.  Writing on hand dyed fabric works well ... in this sample I wanted to test the effect of painting over the written text.

For the gesso sample I painted white gesso with a paintbrush across areas of fabric and allowed it to dry before painting.  The gesso adds a subtle texture.

The collograph plate was made with a hot glue gun - the plate didn't work as a stamp directly onto fabric, so this time I stamped onto a Gelliplate and then printed the sample as a monoprint which produced an interesting result.

The seed stitching used Perle 8 and Perle 12 threads prior to painting. This results in a nice texture .... I have contemplated removing the stitching to see the result.

I'm going to use the handwritten text for the background in the next Stepping Stones series piece .....