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.

Cutting Stencils & Masks

I played around cutting some stencils and masks from plastics, to play with on my Gelli plate. I had cut the ferny leaf one a month ago, with an Exacto knife, the others I cut with a scissors. On the new Gelli Arts blog they had a video demo of a botanical print they made on their new 8" round gelatin plate. They had used stencil/masks from Green Pepper Press her "Fronds" sets are much more delicate and flowing then the ones I made, and you can order hers for purchase. I decided to cut some of my own stencil/mask combos. I used two types of template plastic, and exposed X-ray plastic, one of the plastics was very heavy and difficult to cut. I started with poppy pods, as I have always loved the way they look, I have already made one art quilt with pods, using freezer paper masks, and printing. Then I made some wavy, leafy things and grass types and curls.

The spiky holly leaves were the heavy plastic, and all the points got bent, but I was able to smooth it out. The dark plastic is the X-ray film, it is light weight and easy to cut, I used a white marking pencil to draw my designs free hand. If you are careful cutting in one stroke, you can use both the negative and the positive image. I have made masks before, and I put them all on the computer, so I could print out as many as I needed, but with the paper, I still have to cut them out each time. These plastic ones will be more permanent, and won't stick in the paint.

After I had cut an assortment, I got a full sheet of X-ray film to cut long poppy pods, and one long leaf stem. When they are all mixed together and arranged they will be awesome. I can't wait for a play day to try them with the Gelli plate and paints!

Bandon Textile Art Retreat

We had a wonderful three days at the textile retreat in Bandon, Oregon. The quilt shop, Forget Me Knots has built a great facility above their shop, with huge floor to ceiling windows in the sewing area, a full length design wall, and well lit tables. It has a large kitchen and bedrooms to sleep 8. Eight of us went over Monday morning, and played with our individual projects. I started doing gelatin mono printing with acrylic paints, on my Gelli Plate. I made quiet a few pieces of 8 X 10 fabric, using stencils, and other tools. I finally decided to use a set of blue, green and rust prints I was working with, so I made several more, with similar motifs and colors. My mind was in over drive, with ideas to use the fabric bouncing around in my head. I went down stairs to the quilt shop and got 5 fat quarters of coordinating Bali Batiks, to use as a background. I pinned everything to the design wall, and stared at it! I eventually ended up cutting 6" and 4" circles out of my painted fabric, piecing the batiks into a background in large sections, and randomly placing the circles on the background in clusters and alone.

As I rearranged the circles, for contrast and balance, I decided they looked a little bit like flat discs. So I needed to add paint to shade them into spheres. I added a darker edge in blue or rust to the bottom edges, and high lighted the top edge in chartreuse and light blue, I also used metallic copper, and light green. I used my camera to take pictures, as I made design decisions, to get a different perspective. It helped me see the contrast, problem parts and solve problems. I added lighter colors to the center, left a blank spot for the eyes to rest, and changed a few pieces for more contrast with the background. It had gotten dark, so we lost some of the window light and decided to call it a day. The next morning, we had a refreshing walk on the beach, with early morning golden light and a double rainbow over the ocean as a storm rolled in. I got some black cotton batting from the shop, and started machine free motion quilting with matching rayon thread. I followed the paint patterns to create flowing quilting patterns, and used darker threads in the background in a small stipple, to get it to recede. By evening I had quilted the entire wall hanging, with my intricate dense quilting style. I will bind and sleeve, it once I am at home. It was fun to do something from start to finish, no pattern, no preconceived ideas, just jump in and go. I think it worked out just fine, and was a successful effort in creativity.

For more info on the art retreat, visit the Fyber Cafe blog, the link is listed at the right side of my blog.

Gelatin Journal Pages

I decided to work on two of my gelatin printed fabrics, my favorite fern piece that I printed at the "Art in the Garden" and a double hand print from playing with masks.

I free motion machine quilted both fabrics, outlining the print/mask and adding details, like the life lines and fingernails on the hands. The fern background was done in small circles, around the sequin waste printing, and to fill in the background. The hands background was done in a horizontal back and forth, over Angelina fibers to add "reflection to the mirror." The ferns had 3-D details added to it, a thread painted dragonfly in the top right corner, and yoyo mushrooms at the bottom, with pipe cleaners in the stems. A small bright green rubber tree frog was sewn onto the tallest mushroom. A twisted fabric branch with hand dyed cheesecloth moss was set on the right edge, embroidered French knots added more texture to the moss. Moss was spread across the bottom also.

These small 8" x 10" journal pages are fun to do, they quilt and finish quickly, and make great gifts. I love to do them, instead of getting involved with a big project that can take me months to do. I have several large projects that I work on a bit at a time, and when they loose my interest or I have to think on them for a while, I can make a quick journal page.

The Creative Blahs

I've been in a blah mood, not working on much of anything. If I sew, I have been doing pieced blocks for baby quilts, and assembling them into tops. My deadlines are gone, and I need a kick in the butt. I tried to collage some journal pages with torn strips from magazine, and the process was fun, cool, warm and neutral color pallets. But then, what to do with them. I doodled leaves on the green one, and hated it, so I painted over a blend of olive green and white acrylic, some of the doodle showed through which is ok, but now, what is the next layer? So I moved on, I layered some Gelli prints with backing and batting, getting ready to free motion quilt, but they are not inspiring me either. I've been looking through art quilt blogs, trying to get inspired, especially thesketchbookchallenge.blogspot.com and andthenwesetitonfire.blogspot.com
two of my favorite blogs to read. I have lots of projects to work on, my UFOs (unfinished objects) are growing as we speak, but they are not yanking my chain either.

I tried going through some of my photos for inspiration, flipped through piles of fabric, tried to finish a little wall hanging, just blah...... Maybe if I get out my paints, we'll see what happens. I'll let you know how it comes along.

Painting Layers

The "Gelli" prints from the garden tour were not finished, they needed more layers of paint and depth. I took 6 of the pieces of fern prints and added more stamped prints of ferns in a darker green, metallic gold sponged over sequin waste, a clear wash of yellow to get rid of the "off white" muslin, and a dark green fine line hexagon pattern from a silicone hot pad. All of this painting added depth and more detail to the fabric, although one piece got to be a muddy mush of greens. The before and after pictures are quiet different in tone. I hope the photos show this difference. I did not play with the ones in purple yet.

To Finish is Divine!

I finished up a few little journal pages for the garden tour, that I had started with my "Gelli" prints. Just adding a few beads, sewing sleeves down and adding labels, all the little hand sewing chores that needed to be done. The peachy one is called "Moon Wisdom" it is a gelatin print over stamped with a foam flower stamp and gold metallic dots, it needed beads in all the flower centers. The symbol was enlarged on the computer from a rubber stamp, and hand painted onto the fabric. "Purple Apple Wren" was a stencil used on the gelli plate, it was kinda blah, but I liked the blue and lavender, and the clean lines. I added white yoyo flowers with beaded centers, and extra 3-d fused lavender leaves. It still needed something and my husband suggested the white stitching on the bird, I kept adding more stitching, until it had a lot of thread painting on it, for feather detail. I was thinking of adding Angelina fibers to the blue background to spark it up, but the 3-d thread painted dragonfly added just the right touch of sparkle. My sister got it for a fundraiser in Monroe, Washington that she is in charge of. The Beatles Challenge - "Strawberry Fields Forever" got quilted in rayon threads, and bound, so another one finished! yea!

Play Day at Vera's

6 Members of the Fyber Cafe, textile arts group, went to Vera's for a play day. We took several homemade gelatin plates and our acrylic paints. The young girl that I mentor was able to go, 'cause it was spring break, and I love having her along, she is so creative. We played all morning with the paints, masks, and foam stamps on the gelatin plates. Peggy worked in a series of lavender purple and yellow moons, with stamped dragonflies, Pat made a raven print and a red lily on a textured green background. Several people played with wood carved blocks from Indonesia to stamp their fabrics, and a new lady worked with a discharge process, to remove the color from black fabric. She used "Finish" dishwasher liquid for her discharge medium. I made several "Moon" prints also, as it leaves a big area to show through the bottom layer of paint, also a favorite was a bird on a branch stencil that we used as a mask. We had a brown bag lunch, but Vera had made a pineapple/rhubarb pie, oh delish!! After lunch the new lady, Landreth, showed us how to make 3-D flowers and bugs for decorative coffee sleeves. They were beautiful finished up in a cluster. She uses Golden Medium GAC400 as a sealant, as it bonds into the fibers of the fabric and is very stiff and permanent. After that we made a few more prints and cleaned up for the afternoon. We had an awesome time, and tried different techniques, which is a great way to spend a play day! I'm looking forward to see what everyone makes with their fabrics. Next up, a field trip on Friday to the Big Portland Sewing and Quilting Expo! Yeah!!