As the holidays grown closer, finding dates to gather has become a challenge. So, this month's meeting was only about 2 weeks apart from our Oct. meeting...yet we still had plenty to share and chat about.
Gen had access to a trunk of fiber memories made for her daughter and granddaughter. This bunny quilt is as fresh and adorable as it was many years ago.
Gen, the expert at all needlework techniques, shared several smocked garments she had made. Lot's of oohing and ahhhing here.
Last month we did micro-wave ice-dyeing. But because Gen is now working mostly with paper she decided to dye t-shirts and pillow cases for her daughter. Here are two of the shirts.
Susan had two quilts that were developed in another group she belongs to. They did a round robin of sorts with 8 members. Each started with their own block and passed that block and their fabrics to the next person...that person added a block made from Susan's fabric PLUS 1 signature piece of their own. AND.....to make it even more challenging, this was timed for 30 mins. for each round. They all left at the end of the day with a quilt top!
The second time their group tackled this fun activity they worked with solid fabrics. Our Fiber Junkies group had been exploring surface design/dyeing/painting/etc. techniques now for nearly 12 years, frankly we are getting a bit burned out. So, we are thinking about adapting a similar activity for an upcoming meeting.....stay tuned.
Susan also shared this stunning piece which started with a photo of barely visible architectural shapes on the side of a building in downtown Asheville. She had it printed onto fabric by Spoonflower and proceeded to create this awesome piece of wall art.
Detail
Our project this month was experimenting with water soluble crayons and pencils. Pictured is Gen drawing directly onto her screen using Inktense blocks.
The image was then transferred to fabric with the use of a textile medium that is squeeged through the screen.
Judy is rubbing one of the water soluble crayons onto her screen which is picking up the image of a 'stone' stencil she has beneath it.
Here's her stencil that still has the color remaining from the rubbing.
A view of her fabric after the imagine has been transferred with the use of textile medium. That product helps to dissolve and move the color to the fabric but it also stiffens the material quite a bit. Once dried, heat setting with an iron is also suggested.
My very unsuccessful piece....after not having any luck transferring the lopsided gridded stencil design from my screen, I ended up adding more color by simply scribbling directly to the cloth.
I'll speak for myself.....as I found this to be a very disappointing method. I don't believe any of us, except Gen got a usable piece. To me it was tedious and didn't achieve decent images. I like many other methods of marking fabrics much better.
6 comments:
Boy you ladies were busy. It is disheartening to spend a lot of time on a technique and not get a usable piece.
Hmmm...I think I would have tried other mediums, too, such as simple print paste. And if using textile medium, why do we only need a few drops when we add it to non-fabric paint? Isn't it supposed to promote better absorption and adhesion of paint to fabric? I know you've been doing this stuff for lots of years, but this particular exercise left me with more questions than most. Surface design has soooooo many factors to explore, but I can also see why you want a break from it with a little 'relaxing' timed piecing experiment! You guys have so much fun!
So true Kathy.....we all thought this method that we'd read about didn't make sense....but then again neither did our microwave ice-dyeing and that was fabulous......so we can now say...been there done that and move on!
We used both thickened dyes and just plain print paste...wasn't my favorite technique either...not sure I'll do it again but it was fun to play with. Love seeing your show and tell!!!
Good idea to get your play time in before the holiday season and the snows fly (though I believe that may already have happened). I love the quilt top activity. Your group could surely enjoy it and then add surface design elements. Great show-and-tell.
I agree Mary...I've crossed it off my list for a long while....maybe forever...but good to know what you don't want to do...BUT the wine and company was great!
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