painting – Page 38 – Daily Fiber

Catch-Up Friday

Posted on February 21, 2020 by Laura Kate

Since I didn’t finish any of my fiber objects this week, I have decided to write a progress report. You see above about ten inches of the Weaver’s Square pattern, which will become a colorful vest for my daughter. This is the back of the garment. The front I have planned will be much more subdued. While working with seven strands of yarn each row has been a challenge, the satisfaction of the work and the excitement of seeing the color emerge has more than compensated for any difficulty. I have chosen to switch out the vertical colors at a rate of two or three for every band of horizontal color. As a result, the pattern has a more vertical effect.

Another work in progress is picture above. The quilt sandwich is constructed and some stitch in the ditch took place. At that point, I decided to work some embroidery in the flower squares and add hand quilting to the strips.

I also felt that a border was essential to provide balance between the light and the dark sections of the piece. Going further, I plan to hand-paint this border in multiple hues. It will be exciting to see how well that goes, and it will take me more time.

Last week-end I started a tutorial on painting with water color on paper. This class was offered on Bluprint.com. Despite a little trepidation, I am sharing my work today. Keep in mind I am a rank beginner and be kind.

**Color Block using primary colors, salt, colored pencil and micron pens.**

Such a fun week. Sometimes I have to pinch myself to remind me that this life is real.

colorwork, painting, quilting

Painting Thread

Posted on January 25, 2020 by Laura Kate

So far I have found myself frequently frustrated while shopping in my local craft store for decorative topstitch thread. My local craft store, which is a Hobby Lobby ( I have a love-hate relationship with H-L,) has a limited selection of quilting threads, none of which are what I am wanting for my current project. And the threads that are available are not particularly affordable.

I have nothing to lose in experimenting with painting my own thread. (Not be confused with thread painting, a hand embroidery craft in which stitches are worked densely to create a painterly landscape of thread on fabric.) I have everything I need.

1. A 50 gram spool of 100% cotton DMC thread no. 10 in an off-white color. 2 Assorted jars of Jacquard Dye-Na-Flo fabric paint. 3. water proof freezer paper. 4. latex gloves.

After coiling several yards of thread and tying them together with string, I let the thread soak in the paint for about ten minutes. Wearing latex gloves I lifted the coil from the paint, squeezed out the excess and laid the threads on paper. Drying took several hours. The next day I pressed the dried thread with a hot iron, under a pressing cloth, for about 30 seconds. This was my attempt to fix the color. Because Jacquard Dye-Na-Flo is an acrylic paint, it is essentially color-fast from the moment it dries. But if you want to use the paint on an item that will be washed, I would recommend letting it cure for at least a week before washing.

Here are my hand-painted threads wound on spools.

I love that the paint gave the thread a variegated effect. I’m not sure if this happened because I mixed paint colors together or because I had a cord tied around the coil. It certainly makes for a splashy look.

**Airplane is in natural thread. Moon is stitched with painted thread.**

So far I haven’t noticed any color bleed on my sample fabric. Tomorrow I will start using it on my quilt. I’m excited to see how that goes.

drawing, painting

Fun with Fish

Posted on January 22, 2020 by Laura Kate

#doodlewashJanuary2020 This one’s for you, Charlie.

Here’s a whole school of the little wrigglers. When I found the reference photo on Unsplash, I just couldn’t resist those beautiful yellow tails. I will confess to adding Micron ink to the sketch after the water color paint had dried.

drawing, painting

The Time Between Fiber Object Work

Posted on January 19, 2020 by Laura Kate

Since I received such nice art supplies for Christmas, I feel the imperative to put them to good use. In my breaks from sewing, knitting and doing chores, I’ve made a few pictures.

**Lemon floating in the air. Water color with ink added.**

The first reference photo came from a painting tutorial by Lindsey Weirich, the Frugal Crafter. The second came from a Christmas card. Each took me about an hour to finish.

Today I will be volunteering with my husband at the downtown park. We and several other able-bodied folks will be putting the lighted Christmas displays back into the warehouse until next season. Like most small towns, ours relies on many willing volunteers to make the holiday magic happen.

I don’t expect to work on any fiber objects or sketches until tomorrow.

painting

Winter Weather Strikes OK

Posted on January 11, 2020 by Laura Kate

I wanted to call this post Hunker Down Kind of Day” but alas, I had already used that title. Today was the first time this winter when the weather felt and looked like winter. I was really in the mood to celebrate the snow fall. So I decided to break out the Christmas gifts, which included a set of water color paints and a block of hot-press watercolor paper.

There ensued several moments of consternation after I opened the package of paper. It seriously looked like a solid block of wood. I could not for the life of me figure out how to remove the cover page and access the paper. But then, I remembered UTube. Ah. A quick search on line and I found a video that showed me what to do.

Next I loaded a Lindsay Weirich tutorial page in which she paints a fox in the snow. You can find it here.

https://thefrugalcrafter.wordpress.com/2019/11/28/sweet-sleepy-watercolor-fox/

Here is the reference photo that Lindsay used.

So cute!

I got out my new Arteza watercolors and began painting along with Lindsay. This image shows my work after I had applied the first set of washes.

While my paint was drying, I joined husband in the family room. He was sitting in front of the fireplace, basking in the warmth and reading. So cosy. I sat and knitted for a bit while he read. After thirty minutes, my paints were dry and I returned to the studio. It took less than an hour to finish this painting.

What fun. I’m glad that I have decided to learn how to watercolor.

Well, the snow has stopped. After lunch perhaps I will take a walk to enjoy the winter wonderland before tomorrow, when the snow and ice are likely to melt.