hand painted fabric – Page 4

Work in Progress: Badlands

Posted on October 5, 2022October 4, 2022 by Laura Kate

When I last wrote about this art quilt project, I was waiting on a delivery of fabric.

Here is what my quilt looked like at that point.

I had selected some fabrics from my stash. The sky and horizon segments had been painted and positioned. My first module of background ridges was cut-out, fused and stitched together. I liked it a lot. But it was clear to me that I needed more orange and purple fabrics to really represent the scene as I designed it.

This photo shows my reference image and the three batik fabrics that arrived from Fabric.com last month. I was pretty impressed that the fabric colors looked just like they did on my computer screen.

So, full steam ahead with the work!!

Half-way assembled:

In this photo all the segments are finished and in place but one – the lower right. You see the segment’s base fabric that I plan to use.

At this stage I am very encouraged, and kind of excited. The lines and colors of the work represent my inspiration very well.

After I finish sewing down and quilting the background and middle ground, I will turn my attention to the focal point and foreground. Then comes a bit more painting of details before the final assembly.

knitting, painting, quilting

A Couple of WIPs

Posted on September 7, 2022 by Laura Kate

Yesterday I officially lost at yarn chicken.

I have about 16 rounds plus the toe left to knit. Grr. So I wandered through my stash to see if I could find a good substitute and come up with a gameplan.

This morning, entering my studio, I suddenly spied The Swatch. Then I remembered that I had knit two swatches for this project! Both of them included the cream yarn.

In other news, I have been painting fabric for the Badlands quilt. Here is a group of color samples in my chosen palette.

I also spent a lot of time simplifying my sketch and making a pattern on freezer paper. This pattern will become the cutting guide for the quilt’s segments. I don’t call them blocks, because they are all different shapes, following the major lines of the subject.

I actually got underway with cutting and sewing some of these segments, starting from the background.

I’m pretty happy with the work so far. But now I am waiting on fabric to be delivered. In acknowledgement of my rather crude fabric painting skills, I broke down and bought some batik fabrics with colors for the middle ground of the design.

In the meantime, I plan to paint the backing fabric and make the quilt sandwich this week. Then I will be ready to move forward as soon as the package arrives.

quilting

SAHRR Round 2: Fire

Posted on January 25, 2022 by Laura Kate

Photo by EKATERINA BOLOVTSOVA on Pexels.com

No, I’m not burning my quilt. Instead, I have applied this round’s prompt of Diamonds to my Fire block. My logic for this choice is that tongues of flames, such as you see in the image above, can be stylized as acute triangles, with the narrowest point at the top. If one has a more romantic leaning, one might say that diamonds are created by the forces of pressure and HEAT in the bowels of the earth.

The piece of fabric I chose to represent Fire is a beautiful brocade woven on white with a clear orangey-pink thread. The shape can be described as a series of diamonds inside overlapping circles.

I chose these fabrics for the diamond-inspired border:

**The yellow and orange print is one of my hand-painted fabrics. I created the circles by stamping red paint using the back end of a Nerf bullet.**

Fortunately, I learned how to make triangle shapes out of strip sets from a Craftsy class presented by Joanna Figueroa.

https://www.craftsy.com/class/smarter-strip-quilting/

After sewing a light and a dark strip together, I cut the sets on a 45 degree angle to get diamonds. Then I sewed them into strips and attached the strips to the right and left sides of my brocade fabric.

For the bottom border, I used a strip of the soft coral ombre fabric.

Here is my block so far.

It’s not perfectly square, and I have yet to decide on what fabric to use at the top of the block. I’ll have to let the options stew about in my brain for a while. Once completed, I intend the block to measure about 17″ square.

If you’re interested in seeing more Round Robin projects made by some awesome quilters, check out Emily’s blog and the Linky party invitation embedded in her post.

http://thedarlingdogwood.blogspot.com/

collage, quilting

Wednesday WIP – Art Quilt

Posted on June 30, 2021 by Laura Kate

Yesterday I spent some time working through the design and material choices still facing me with regard to “Catbird Sings.” I settled on the arrangement for the lower half of the work, tacking it into place. The violet satin cord will serve as a transition device linking the lower to the upper half of the piece.

It will be couched into place when I start sewing. Next I chose and cut out various bits and bobs from two printed fabrics to represent his varied “cat calls”.

The colors all link well to the palette chosen. The wavy lines will represent the loud squawks. Before proceeding to the next steps, I treated all the edges with Fraycheck.

Those wavy pieces in particular will shred massively if not treated.

I was ready to test some layouts for the upper half:

I like this grouping. But do I use the daisies with petal sides up……..

….or petal-side down. Hmmmmmmm….. I like the line created by the upside daisies.

And here is how I left the work. Before I finalize, I will need to decide on how I will quilt all of the different sections. It won’t do to fall in love with a layout and then struggle to quilt around it.

I’ll sleep on it and see how I feel the next day.

colorwork

Wednesday Color Experiments

Posted on June 23, 2021 by Laura Kate

While perusing Bethan Ash’s book on quilt collages, I suddenly realized something.

I have been experimenting with fabric paint on quilt cotton for the past two years. And yet I have never used the most basic of all paint techniques: Spatter!

I decided to remedy that omission today. First, I went to my fabric stash and picked up some muslin.

This most basic of all fabrics is lightweight and inexpensive. I cut a width of fabric piece, dividing into three rectangles to match the size of my work surface.

I decided on three color schemes: primary colors, secondary colors and artist’s choice option. For my spatter tools, I chose a 2 inch brush, 1 inch foam brushes and a toothbrush.

After pressing the muslin, I laid the first piece on my white board. Then I spritzed it lightly with water. Working from lightest to darkest shade, I dipped the brush into the paint and then shook, jiggled, and tapped it over the muslin until the drops reached all areas of the fabric.

Since it was a sunny day, I took the first one outside so it could dry quickly right on the board. Once dried, I moved on to the secondary colors.

This is a very pretty combination.

For my last combination of colors, I chose magenta as the first color. I had purchased this paint recently and hadn’t even opened the jar. To accompany the magenta, I mixed the left-over violet with the left-over blue to get a cool purple. The third color will be black.

I like this sample the best.

You may be wondering how I plan to used these samples. Well…….I’m not exactly sure. But since I am pondering improvisational collage quilts today, odds are good that they will get fusible adhesive attached to them and cut up into smallish pieces.

Then I will play.