Applique Background

I have been thinking about the background for my floral appliqué and finally decided to try painting one.

After covering my husband’s work bench…..

…. I had a look at my green paints…..

…and decided to start with a Moss Green….

I added a fair amount of water to the lumpy paint and started brushing it onto the fabric with a foam brush…

You can see the spot that I started in because it is WAY too dark, but I will deliberately cover it up with a clump of flowers!!

After covering the bottom of the background, I added a darker green to the leftover Moss green, and added more brushstrokes….

I truly like the “streaks” of color!!

After cleaning the plastic, I turned the fabric around and started thinking about the sky portion. I started out with a blue, added water, then some white paint, and more white paint, until I found a color I was happy with…

For the sky, I didn’t want to paint streaks, so I decided to use a sea sponge instead…

At this point, I am liking the mottled sky!!

I decided to deepen the blue a bit, but unfortunately didn’t incorporate the paint well, so I ended up with dark blue dots…

You can see them a bit in this photo.

I then decided to go with solid white and create some “clouds” to hide some of the dots. After I held it up…..

… I realized it needed darker areas at the bottom, so I added some brown to the small amount of Moss Green left over and added additional brush strokes.

This was how it looked the next morning after it had dried, toning the colors down a bit….

To finish it off, I ironed it well, then washed it, hoping to restore the fabric’s soft hand..

It is still a little stiffer than regular fabric, and I will have to see if I can sew easily thru it.

I’ll let you know!!

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But it looked so easy!!

I’m not sure about you, but I can easily get distracted by Facebook and YouTube Reels. In particular, I enjoy watching people buy old furniture and transform it into something amazing, and people doing outstanding watercolor paintings. Lately, I’ve also been impressed by people using a Gelli plate to create prints on paper and fabric.

AND IT LOOKED SO EASY……

So, Friday afternoon I decided to give it a try.

I purchased a Gelli plate last summer but had never tried using it, so out to the garage I went with all of my supplies in tow….

I had no idea of what type of paint to use but decided to start with some paints that I had purchased in China….

I did everything the way I had seen it on the Reels, and this is what I came away with….

I tried several more, but only got one decent print…..

Several more of them came out like this…..

I decided that it was probably too hot so I tried again the next morning….

….and even more disaster!!!

It only got worse as the session went on…..

….and I finally gave up and called it a day!!!

I don’t know if it was the fabric that I was using, the paint that I was using, or that I didn’t understand the technique, but something was DEFINITELY wrong!!

I need to do some research and learn how to do it properly next time!!

But, it was still fun to grab some fabric and play just a little bit!!

Have you tried this technique? Did it work???

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A Gift for Myself

This year I chose to buy myself a Christmas gift!!

Each year Amber (my D-I-L) and I visit a local Arts council craft fair. Amber is a master at finding interesting gifts for family and friends and many of them come from arts fairs, so while she is shopping for others, I often end up shopping for myself!!!

This year I was excited to see that my friend Elizabeth Barton had a booth there. Elizabeth is from here and is well known in the art quilting world, having written two books……

“Inspired to Design“…….

and “Working in A Series“……

In 2011 I took a 1-week class under her at the Arrowmont School of arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. During the first 4 days of the week, we spent our time learning to do Shibori dyeing…..

A Day to Dye For!!!!

Later in the week we used our fabrics to create a quilt from a photo……

I will post more about this quilt soon….I promise!!

BUT…..back to the Art Fair…..

Elizabeth had a booth and was selling some of her quilts. This one immediately caught my eye……

It uses her classic Shibori-Dyed fabrics and the lovely colors work perfectly with my “January Blues” decorating theme!!! I love the pink and mauve highlights that come through the dyes!!

So….to shorten an already long story….

It came home with me and is hanging in my den as I write.

Thank you Elizabeth for sharing your talent with me!!!

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Beading the quilt….

On Sunday, I shared the MQG Fabric Challenge quilt at its final stage…..

….or rather it’s ALMOST finished stage!!

I wanted to add one more thing before I called it finished….

BEADS……BEADS……BEADS!!

I had picked out some seed beads that matched the fabrics……

….and was ready to add them to the Dreamcatcher.

First I had to find all of my beading tools……

…… specifically, a beading needle, beading thread, and tray to hold the beads.

All happily stored in an Altoids tin……

My biggest concern was that none of the stitching showed on the back of the quilt so I was very careful in the sewing.

I started with a knot in the thread…..

and then pulled it to set the knot inside the batting so it didn’t show……

I took one stitch up to the front of the quilt and added a bead.

The stitch going back to the bottom doesn’t go in the same hole but needs to be a “beads length” distance away from the original hole……

I stitched back up in the same space…..

and ran the needle thru the bead again……

This helps it to lay flat rather than have the hole sticking up and also helps to secure the bead.

Then the stitch goes to the back again……

and runs UNDER the backing fabric to the next bead placement.

Repeat this 140+ times and I can actually proclaim that…..

THE QUILT IS FINISHED!!

Catching A Dream

The beads are very subtle but that was what I was going for.

If you have an interest in beading, you might check out this post from a class that I took with Lyric Kinard…..

A little beading (part 1)….

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Freezer Paper to the Rescue

Don’t you hate it when you need to paint one little piece of fabric but you don’t want to have to put down plastic and get out all of the paint trays…. and the palettes….. and the brushes…. and everything else?