Painting on Fabric Using Shibori and More

 Painting Party  in the Studio

My quilt circle met in person (WOW) in my studio/barn to create some fun fabrics using fabric paints and a variety of techniques as you can see in the examples above.

My new rose bush produced this beauty last week.

 I love all the variety of values contained on this one flower!

More Fabulous Fun with Fabric Paints

Had a lot of fun painting on fabric in my studio barn this past weekend. 

 Here are some of the fabrics I made.

I did a couple Arashi shibori pieces, wrapping the fabric around a wine bottle, then brushing fabric paint on the protruding folded edges.

Above are the finished, ironed pieces. I love how three dimensional they look, even after ironing.

The above piece was first sun-printed and then I silk-screened one of my favorite poems

 by Langston Hughes on top of it.

The piece above and below were made by splattering, splotching and, scrunching.

More Fun with Dendritic Monoprinting

I sewed together the cut up dendritic prints made earlier. 

I then decided the piece needed to be larger, 

so painted another piece of fabric.

I painted this by thoughtfully adding acrylic paint to the dampened fabric, then accordion folded it. Next I added more paint to the tops of the folds and put it outside to dry.

This is what it looked like when it dried.

This is after ironing it. I love 

how the folds look so dimensional.

Here it is after doing dendritic mono printing on it.

I used two of my large 12 1/2 inch square acrylic quilting rulers on which to spread the paint

 to create the prints.

Teaching a Class at Cambria Art Center in March

I'm very excited about teaching a class on painting on fabric for the Cambria Center for the Arts

 in March. If you are local and interested in learning different techniques to create your own one of a kind fabric, sign up for the class. It will be limited to 12 people so that everyone will get the attention and space they need to create some masterpieces. 

There are so many ways to use paint on fabric. The piece above was done on canvas in a very free form way using plastic cards to spread the paint, along with some spattering.

This scarf was done with Dye-na-flow paint using the

 arashi shibori technique.

Painting on Fabric with Betty Busby

   

         The week before Easter I attended a Betty Busby workshop in Carpenteria. It was incredibly fun and inspirational. I learned lots of  new techniques and methods to add to ones previously learned. Betty was a very giving teacher who kept us moving from one creative activity to the next. I brought home lots of fabrics to finish and some ready to be made into art quilts. Unfortunately I also came home sick due to some bad tuna I had the night before we left. I'm finally feeling ok again. Sorry the picture is a little blurry.

   We made some sun prints. We painted the fabric and while it was still wet, we put flat objects and stencils as mask on the fabric. Betty let us choose from the many vinyl stencils she has made using her silhouette cutter.

   We put them outside and allowed the moisture to evaporate.  After they were completely dry, we ironed them and worked with paint markers, intense pens, and more paint to bring out the designs. Below are three in various stages. The top one being the most finished one.

I'll show some more next week. Still catching up on lots of project after being gone almost a week.

Finished New Quilt

Have finished one of two new quilts that will be part of my upcoming show at the Paso Robles library, which runs from July 1st to July 31st.

 Above is the whole quilt, measuring 30" wide by 19" long.

 Above and below are detail shots.

This is the first time I've signed a quilt on the front, like the fabric painting that it is. This may be what's 'trending' for me.

Painting Canvas

Last week I showed some cards cut from grid painted papers I made using acrylic paint.  This week I tried the same technique on canvas.  I stretched canvas using T pins onto a padded board.  Next I put blobs of paint which I scraped down the length and width of the fabric with hotel keycards and discarded credit cards. I used Dynaflow, which absorbed too quickly into the canvas and Pebeo setacolor which spread further.  Finally I carefully flicked fuschia and yellow.  Not sure if I want to cut it up or keep it whole, or use it for a purse.

Collage Quilt about Mom

Every March brings memories of my incredible mom,  who was a March baby like me.   She taught me many things, sewing being only one of them.  She instilled in me a sense of ethics, honesty, responsibility and generosity.  She was a feisty, independent, smart woman. When she was 19, she set off on a solo trip by train to visit the World's Fair in New York City to see first-hand what inventions and ideas were being developed for the future. The theme of the 1939 World's Fair was "The World of Tomorrow."

In researching the fair to create the quilt about her trip, I learned that there was a prototype of the first dishwasher displayed at the fair.  Did my mom ever have a dishwasher in her lifetime?  No, she would joke that she had five dishwashers when asked by us why we couldn't get one.  Of course, the dishwashers were my siblings and me.

I loved to hear stories from my mom about this trip. A postcard she had sent home to her family from New York became the inspiration for me to create a collage-type quilt about her. Below is a picture of mom and the postcard.

The background for the quilt was painted with acrylic paint

 which was first applied to plastic wrap, then transferred to fabric. 

 Mom's favorite colors were red and green.  Below is a closeup

 from part of the quilt showing a picture of Mom and the story of her trip, 

which I printed on organza.  I actually ended up using the front of a different postcard

 which played better with the other photos and background.

Here is a picture of the whole quilt.