Busy Busy...

There are only 2 full days of school left, 2 half days, and 1 honors day.  Then summer officially begins for my group.  Therefore, I have used the last few days to paint fabric.  My sweetie pie also made me a screen so I can learn how to screen print.  (Stop laughing)  I saw a video on youtube of a little girl, about 8 years old, screen printing.  If she can do it, surely I can.

I've joined the ATC swap over at Quilting Gallery.  I've been planning what to make for that.  I have to mail them off in about 3 weeks.  When I do I'll post a picture.  This is my first ATC swap.  I've only made 1 ATC before!



Better run the kids are about to be out of school!
Happy Quilting,
Caren

Painting Fun

I love it when I get to jump into my toy box and really just play.  I have recently gotten to do that.  I warn you....lots of pictures follow.

Last week I used a pouch of Dylon Flamingo pink dye on inexpensive muslin.  I tied one up with rubber bands and the other I tied in knots.  Both left interesting marks on the fabric.  I had lots of dye left over, so I put a lid on it and stored it in Sweetie Pie's shop :)  I will find out later if it keeps!

Yesterday, I tried my hand at "Painting" a quilt top.  Now, I am not a trained artist.  I basically muddle my way through and hope everything works out in the end.  I was spurred on by this video by Deb Levy at 3 Creative Studios.  There are 2 wonderful videos, and I highly recommend watching them.  I did.  Then I proceeded to break all the rules and do what I wanted ;)  I used Dye-na-flow paints (because I had them) and too much water.  But it did give me a nice "watery" look, so breaking that rule wasn't too bad.  Although there was no keeping the paint in only the areas I wanted.  It went everywhere.  I used a little Lumiere in the sky to give it a nice twinkle.  I also added a little red to the 2 shades of blue left over to make purple for the sky.

The water was 2 shades of green mixed in with a little of the left over sky paint.  (Why waste good paint).  The water at the beach is a green and not the typical blue.

I also used acrylic craft paint for the sand.  I thinned it with water.  I like the rough appearance it has.

I used unthinned, straight from the bottle setacolor for the surfboard.  I had to use darker paint to cover up the spreading paint from the sky and sea!  The flower was a commerical stamp, which I then colored with my new Sharpie fabric markers which I love!

In the end...I like the way it looks.  It's a little darker than I had planned (too much paint!)  Deb said don't use a lot of paint...I of course didn't listen!  Next time I will try the quilted sandwich painting technique and follow the directions ;)

Happy Quilting

Caren

Painting Fabric

I spent several days this week painting fabric.  I love yellow, so I used that as the base color.  The fabric was white when I started.  The first piece was painted with yellow paint.  I wet the fabric really well, so the color would move through all of the fabric.  It came out a beautiful butter yellow.  Then I took the same yellow paint, unthinned, some orange paint, and Shiva paint sticks.  I used a piece of metallic ribbon with holes and painted more yellow.  I used a stencil brush and just went in circles over the ribbon.  I bounced a sponge up and down in orange for spots.  Then I took an old quilt stencil and my Paint stick.  I used a stencil brush again and created the flowers.  I think it turned out pretty good.

This other piece had the same yellow base coat.  Then I used washable blue gel glue to make swirls.  I let it dry all night.  Then went back with the same yellow and orange, mixed with water, and applied the paint over the whole thing.  I let it dry.  Heat set the color and threw it into the washing machine to get the glue out.  It turned out pretty good.  I have never used Glue Resist before and just wanted to try it.  Now I just need to decide what to use it for!

I really enjoy painting fabric.  It reminds me of kindergarten!  Don't forget about the Friday Night Sew In tonight.
Happy Quilting
Caren