Prayer Flags

I had the luxury of not having Thanksgiving company, so no hurry to get dinner done. The house was clean and we were going to eat late, so I was able to play most of the morning. I told my husband not to bother me much, I was going to have my hands covered in paint and could not jump to help him every minute. And he listened, he gave me some uninterrupted time in my sewing room.

When my sister was here, she had seen my resist dyed fabric and commented that they would make great prayer flags, hint, hint, wink. So that thought was in my head, I dragged out my box of Gelli Plate printed fabric instead. I had tons of fabric I had printed, but did not know what to do with it, all 8 x 10 inches. Just perfect for prayer flags.

So I cut 14 pennant style flags, if I make one I might as well make 2. Then I cut a few more, and a few more, and so on. I might as well use all the fabric that I'd printed, I'm not going to use it for anything else. This is when my OCD manifests itself. The fabric was pretty, but needed some help. Several months ago I had made a bunch of "word" stamps with precut alphabet foam shapes, again the perfect combination, I love it when a plan comes together! I spent Thanksgiving morning stamping words onto all the flags, soul song, dream magic, fly, hope, laugh, try play, trust, be love, all sorts of combinations, onto 50 flags. Yes 50, I think big, by now I was thinking Christmas presents.

It is SO MUCH FUN being creative, I was in the "Zone." I threw the turkey in the oven about noon, and kept right on going. My husband had an old movie marathon going on TV, and I kept him supplied with beer.

Now the flags needed more, some of the dark prints needed lightening up, some of the blah ones, needed accents. More is better when you are talking paint layers, depth, complexity, and metallic gold, silver and copper. I embellished them Thursday afternoon, and all Friday morning. I'm on a roll! My husband knew I was feeling good, and knew I needed some time to myself, his constant care had been hard on me.

I decided that I wanted to have 7 on a string instead of 5, so I began with a drawer full of binding scraps, sewing them all end to end, and ironing them into a double fold bias binding. I stitched the edges closed and inserted the flags in the same step, so it went pretty quickly. They ended up about 8 feet long, with a 12" tie on either end. I left the edges of the flags unfinished, they are made to flap and fray in the wind. Although with all the paint on them, I doubt they will fray much. At this point my energy was lagging, but I knew I had to finish them all, or the last ones would end up in a pile on my sewing table for "someday" to come
Here are some detail photos, I used a lot of sequin waste with white paint to lighten, and a few botanical stencils to add more interest, there are still some not so pretty, but that's ok, and it is hard to pick my favorite.

I hung them on my living room drapes to take pics, but I am too far away to see any detail, so won't post all of them, but I had so much fun, having most of two days to play with paint and create. It was a very relaxing holiday. Oh, by the way we did get turkey, stuffing, potatoes and gravy, with home made dinner rolls. Just the basics, 'cause hubby doesn't like yams or cranberries, if you can't cover it in gravy, he doesn't care for it. I hope everyone's time with family was wonderful, my niece all ready posted on Facebook her 3 mile walk, show off!

I am linking this to Nina-Marie's "Off the Wall Friday" to see what other wonderful textile artists have done, click on the badge in the right hand column.