Painted Fabrics

A lot of extra time on my hands this summer and fall, and much of that time as used to explore surface design techniques which I have been intrigued by for years. Not having had the time to really get the paints and dyes out and just see what happens when it is all mixed together. Here are pictures of cotton fabrics that are painted with fabric paints, mostly Jaquards paints. Boxes of many different paints have been sitting idle for years, and I tried to use up a few.                                                                              

 Dyne-a-flow is a very liquid paint that spreads  very easily on the fabric.  Any fabric paint can be used, you just have to water it down so that it is quite thin, and easier to apply with a foam brush or regular brush.                                                                                                                                                         

Some places the paints will mix on the fabric, especially if the fabric is damp or wet before the paints are applied.

Some of the grid pattern that shows up are a result of the fabric drying on my back porch table, creating small puddles in the design on the table. Not intentional, but I am happy with the little extra effect.

Very often I need something special for a background on a appliques quilt, and this technique can make a very special addition to a scenery quilt, and you don't need to spend a lot of time on it

But most of all I had fun doing this, and for a few days I painted several yards of white Kona cotton fabric with paints from my stash. I was hoping that my stash would get smaller after this, but of course ended up buying more paints. Now the stash is bigger than it ever was. 

Many other "fabrics" are nice for this paint as well, certain interfacings works great and take the paint just like fabric. So a few found things in my studio got the paint treatment this summer, and are a nice addition to my stash of dyed and painted fabric waiting for a project.
 

Easy Arch

 This has been an unusual year to say the least. All of us has had changes in scheduling and activities. Dealing with the ongoing pandemic has been a challenge in many ways, and we all hope it will come to an end soon. Staying healthy is our main focus right now, and with suddenly having all that extra time available has been a little hard to handle at times. Usually I will complain about not having time to explore some directions with my quiltmaking, and then I find myself with all this time,  weeks of time in my studio. What to do with that has been more challenging than finding fabric and get to work. Knowing that I do better with some structure, I set goals for every week, working an something I want to explore, finding information about a technique I had been interested in, and working through the ins and outs of it, till I feel I know everything I can. I will share some of this in a few post in the next weeks and months. Lots of different fabric/surface treatment have been tested, leaving me with stacks of dyed , painted and otherwise manipulated fabrics, which I hopefully will use in new projects in the near future.

Early  spring I worked for several weeks on one of my favorite piecing technique, the Easy Arch block.  This has always been my to-go-to block when I feel very uninspired. Just choosing some bright and colorful fabrics will improve the mood! Making the stylized leaves is my favorite variation of this block, and adding some curved piecing, it was a small fun piece. I like it so much I think I will use the rest of the blocks to make a bigger piece or a table runner. Because it is so fast I sewed six blocks in each colorway, so many extras to play with. Black background could be nice too.

It has been years since I took the time and made a bed quilt for our bed.  Again the Easy Arch block is perfect for larger quilts. When you put four together, you can have a "diamond" shaped or a 'circular" shaped center. Adding sashings and cornerstones breaks up the blocks and gives them somewhat of a traditional look. It also adds a little to the size. The brown variation I made for my sister, and the purple variation I made for me. I am not a very "purple" person, but this will change the look in the bedroom, and I am in the mood for a change right now.                                                                                            

I will buy all kinds of 5" charm packs when I go to shows. Especially batiks, so after collecting many different one, I finally made a full size bed quilt for a grandson. I was left with several black/white and neutral colored batiks. this is the basic block using those colors, and with a red and black setting. Fun and easy to make.

Next on my list was doing something for the youngest grandsons, twins. Of course they will have to get full size quilts too for their 3rd. birthday too. First time ever that I am ahead of schedule with two finished tops, similar but different. Different sizes of the basic Easy Arch block, set together with filler strips. These will be machine quilted as I am sure they will be washed many times.

Just another picture of my own new bed quilt. I am very happy to have this one done.

I plan to share a few more projects coming up, just trying to stay busy!

Please stay safe!