hand painted fabric – Page 11

Haiku illustrated

Posted on May 22, 2019 by Laura Kate

So here is what has happened since you last checked in with the haiku project. I have transferred the image of the jaguar to fabric.

Using Jacquard Textile paint, I added the features and spots to this beast.

Next I hand embroidered the details, including eyes, ears, mouth, paws and whiskers.

Here are the fabrics I chose, in the general layout I wanted.

The next step was to embroider the haiku onto the dark green rectangle. It was important to me to replicate Henry’s handwriting as well as I could. I enlarged the original on the printer. Using chalked paper, I traced over the letters to mark them on the fabric. Then I embroidered the letters in white floss.

Finally I appliqued all of the pieces to the background fabric, machine-stitched around the raw edges, and embroidered the last few white whiskers on the cat. Here is the piece in its current state:

And here is a final close-up of the jaguar.

My original goal for this piece was to illustrate Henry’s poem, and to practice embroidering hand writing onto fabric. At the outset, I never expected to paint the fabric so much. But I’m glad I did it. I learned more about how to apply paint to fabric. And I ended up with a colorful and meaningful piece of fabric art.

colorwork

Mother’s Day 2019

Posted on May 12, 2019 by Laura Kate

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY,

JACKIE, AMANDA, KATHY, TERESA, AUDREY, DEBBIE, MELODY AND JOY.

Jacquard Dye-Na-Flow color washed on cotton poplin, with fabric marker lines.

drawing, quilting

In the Mood to Doodle

Posted on May 6, 2019 by Laura Kate

For no apparent reason, I woke up this morning with the urge to doodle. Well, really, I was thinking about a project to offer my young fiber artists. The older group is working hard on their mini string quilts. But the five to eight year old students aren’t ready, skill-wise for such a complex task. In the spirit of quilt-making, I decided to let them design 4-square blocks using fabric markers. Hence the desire to try it out for myself. I started by cutting a 9 by 9 inch square of muslin, then ironed in creases to divide the block into four 4-inch squares (plus seam allowance.) So here I am, staring at a blank canvas. I found the experience slightly unnerving. Ultimately, I let the sights of nature in spring-time inspire my doodles.

Here is what I came up with.

I have to admit that sharing these drawings is not easy for me. I am still such a novice at it. But I’m told that to improve drawing skills one must practice daily. I struggled with the markers bleeding a bit. The fish were the most fun to draw.

hand embroidery, quilting, sewing

Fiber Arts Class String Quilt Sampler

Posted on May 4, 2019 by Laura Kate

Dear Fiber Friends,

After five days of baby care and two days of travel, I have insufficient creative energy to start something new. So it’s a good time to finish up the works in progress. Primarily on my mind is the string quilts that my students are working on. It is my practice to have a good example of a finished work for my students, both to inspire and instruct. As I previously posted, I had finished the top. Today I completed the backing, quilting and binding of this sample. Here is the piece squared-off with the backing fitted and pressed. This piece will be self-bound by folding over the backing.

**Wonky perspective is due to my odd camera angle.**

I decided to use as many different (beginner) quilting techniques as possible, so that the students could see the possibilities. The image below shows the piece after quilting is done. I used hand quilting and some machine quilting.

Quilting techniques include knot-quilting, buttons, running stitch, and contour quilting by hand; and stitch-in-the-ditch and parallel lines by machine. And here is the finished sampler with binding blind-stitched. I used folded corners, since I consider mitered corners to be a more advanced technique.