Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Progress of members' challenge quilts

Here are the photos of other members' challenge quilts at our May 21st meeting:

Chris finished piecing her quilt top, and began hand-appliqueing the leaves.
It will be gorgeous when the rest of the leaves are applied!
Erika's quilt on the design wall.
 Apologies for the blurriness of these photos.  We were fast losing sunlight and trying to compensate by turning on all the lamps and overhead lights . . .
Top of Erika's quilt.  The row of single squares shows
all 12 surface-designed fabric swatches from our exchange.
Bottom of Erika's quilt.
Maureen's music-inspired piece also showcases
our 12 fabric swatches (center, bottom).
We didn't get to see everyone's work-in-progress, as some members were traveling and others' quilts were still at their homes, pinned to design boards or in too many pieces to transport to the meeting.  As usual, I seem to have made the least progress!  I can never seem to get cookin' until a deadline is looming too close for comfort.  And even then, I'm still changing my mind . . .
My painted and thread-painted bubble trees, where
the resist failed to hold back the paint!
Technique:   Working with a resist* in a small plastic bottle with a thin metal applicator tip, I outlined the areas that would become tree trunks, branches, the half-circle shaped "bubble," as well as the edge of the grass line.  (* I used Presist, a water-soluble resist that works on cotton fabrics.)  Once the resist was thoroughly dry,  I sprayed a light mist of water on the grassy area before painting it with diluted Setacolor paint, knowing that would help the paint blend.  I should have remembered to suspend the fabric onto stretcher bars (as in silk painting), and because I didn't, the wet fabric clung to my plastic-covered painting surface and the green paint migrated above the resist lines of the grass.  Elsewhere, I painted on dry areas and the paint stayed within the lines (except for a bit on the far left).  Once the paint was dry and heat-set, I rinsed out the Presist, then began thread-painting, a technique I love.
This was a fun experiment, though not 100% successful.    I overdid it on the smallest tree on the right. Earlier, when applying the Presist there, I had problems getting it to flow in a  smooth, thin line.  The resulting blobs meant that after rinsing out the Presist, the white areas to be thread-painted were much wider than in the other two trees.
And after this experiment, I realized that the scale of the trees was all wrong.  So it's back to the drawing board.

Monday, May 21, 2012

Happy 3rd Anniversary!

For the Fiberexplorations group, this month marks our third anniversary!  I think that's cause for a celebration, and our monthly meeting is tonight.  Hmmm . . . cupcakes!  I still have time to make them.

Deb won't be at tonight's meeting, but she sent me a photo of  her almost-finished (just needs more quilting) challenge quilt  to share:

Deb Sorem's Fabric Swatch Challenge quilt.



I think it's exuberant, fun, unique, and expressive of her personality!  Hope to get more photos at tonight's meeting.

Saturday, May 5, 2012

A little silk painting

As usual, I'm procrastinating on starting my project for the current Fiberexplorations challenge.  That's not to say I haven't made any progress; it's just not direct progress.  I decided to add a river to my design, which allowed me to indulge my desire to do some silk painting, which I hadn't done in quite awhile.  I love how the colors flow, spread, and blend, and then to add salt, and watch the little bursts! come up . . . ooh la la!


Hand-painted silk.
Another view.

This time, I used silk satin, which is a little heavier and more luxurious-feeling than the lighter-weight China Silk (Silk Habotai) I used on previous projects.
And one more!
Now the hard part: cutting it up.  Do I cut the river out of one piece?  Or cut the whole thing up and piece it?  These are the types of decisions that keep me stuck in procrastinating.

Products used:  Jacquard Silk Color Dyes (Green Label)
fixed with: Jacquard Permanent Dyeset Concentration
on silk satin from Dharma Trading