encaustic wax

Encaustic was is a technique I have heard about, but till today had not used. On Ebay I got a collection of different colors wax. Only small blocks but great to start with. As this is something I don't want to risk a regular iron with, a visit to the thrift store was necessary.

Some colors were applied to the iron which was than placed on top of fabric while moving it at the same time:

This piece of fabric is a drop cloth. I used it to find out whether regular cotton would work with this technique. Disperse dyes only work on synthatic fabric and I was not certain about this encaustic wax.

Next attempt was on a piece of watercolor paper. I love this result:

Placing it upside down on some other paper or fabric and iron from the back was not a success. Only very little color transfered.

After using the wax it was time for some more experimenting and several oil pastels/crayons were used. Most of them were bought at the dollar store. We discovered that all of them can be used for this technique. You probably go through them a bit faster, but the price is lower.

art cloth

A couple of months ago I started working on a 5 yard piece of art cloth. Several techniques have been used on it already and today I added another one. Out of freezer paper I cut funky spiral shapes. Ironed the freezer paper on top of the fabric:

And applied paintsticks to it. I used blue, teal, green and silver. Brushed the paintsticks over the fabric. Removed the paper. This is how it looks now:

I like the ghostly effect it has because not everywhere the same amount of paintsticks shows up. At least one more technique will be used on this cloth. I know what I want to do, but the fabric has to cure first. Depending on that result, it might be the final one, or maybe another might be needed.

journal quilt

For May's journal quilt I used not the ordinary quilting materials :-). On this picture you see felt, burlap and concrete:

I unraveled the burlap and handstitched this to a piece of felt. Without unraveling it, the burlap would not have been 'transparent' enough to my liking.

It is beginning to look more interesting, but it needs a bit more. Using thin foam I cut out irregular oval shapes, placed these on top of the burlap and spread mixed concrete in it. This was put away till the next day. After the foam was removed, the journal quilt looks like this:

At first my idea was to paint the concrete, but I must say that I like it how it looks now. As usual the size is 7"x10". Title is 'Stepping stones'.

b/w fabric & yarn

One of last week's shopping trips was to Gruber's Quilt Shop, the most fabulous quiltshop I know. As usual I could find some b/w fabric to add to my stash :-)). This and batiks are the only commercial fabrics I buy. Here is a picture of some of them:

When I was there I also wandered into the yarn department and found some lovely yarn. Okay during the day the temperature was in it's 80's, not exactly the temperature to think about scarves :-), but in one evening I knitted this one - using needles size 17:

background fabric

As background fabric for my C&G quilt I bought 3 yards of 108" muslin from Dharma. I did not want to struggle to get a straight seam in the background fabric :-). At the moment I am staying with my friend Kelly in MN and she has a toploader in her studio. Normally when I am at home I handwash/rinse my fabric, but when this is 3 yards I am happy to use a washer to dye it in. For this piece I used 2 oz. of Burgundy from G&K. Had no idea how dark or how light it would turn out, but I must say I like the result I got:
At JoAnn I bought a bolt of Roclon bamboo/cotton fabric. I had never used Roclon before, but have heard a lot of comment on it. For comparison I put in a piece of this Roclon and a piece of P&B (the fabric I use normally). The difference in intensity is impressive:

The fabric at the left is P&B, the fabric at the right is the Roclon bamboo/cotton. I must say that I like the drape of the bamboo and if you want pastel colors it is suitable, but I won't buy it anymore in the future.

Sun

I have not blogged lately because my time was filled with travelling, chatting and shopping. However the last couple of days the temperature here was above 80 degrees so ideal weather for sunprinting. Here are pictures of two of my prints:

For this one I used cobalt blue and emerald green. Placed some grasses on top of it and sprinkled some salt. While we watched the paint dry we did some more chatting - and ate some chocolate :-). This is how the fabric looks now:

Canal houses

Most of the time I am working on more than one project. The last couple of weeks I was - besides working on the c&g quilt - also busy with the canal houses. They are not finished yet, but this is what I did till today:

All fabric is handdyed/handpainted. Some embellishment are added.

1.494 pieces of fabric

This top is so big that it is difficult to take a decent picture of it. This is the best I could do:
The background for my c&g final assessment quilt is finished. In total there are 1.494 pieces of fabric stitched together to create these storm at sea blocks. All of them are hand dyed or hand painted. Roughly eight yards of fabric has been used. I find it difficult to say exactly how much fabric I used, as I went through my stash and picked out every bit - small, partly used, or still unused - of fabric in the colors I could use. Size is 60"x60". I can hang this top on my design wall - it just fit - but I cannot walk back far enough to take a picture of it. Next step will be to make a sandwich of it using fusible Hobbs and backing fabric. Realising how big this is, I am glad that I have a longarm.