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Thursday, February 23, 2012

Things Are Blooming in the Studio

Yesterday I was back in the studio playing with some of the hand dyed fabric (read 'wipe up rags') I made the day before.  Hanging to dry, they look pretty messy, but there are so many wonderful treasures within that mess!  
I had prepared these backgrounds a while ago, and was planning to create some floral quilts similar to the one I did last year, but when I saw these pieces of fabric I was inspired to use it to make some flowers and leaves. I started with simple, rough circles (randomly cut by hand to avoid that perfectly round look).  
I drew one line as a guide for the stem and then went to the machine to start thread sketching.  I love how the black thread sketching just makes it pop.  I still have to quilt the background and then finish the edges.  This is the first in a small series of four.   
This morning, I finished another page in my 'Letter Loving' journal.  I really like the torn paper edges on this page.  



8 comments:

  1. I totally love your wipe up rags. Those tend to be my favorite treasure after I've done some messy stuff. Love your colorful flower quilt.

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    1. Thanks Terri. I agree. When I first did messy stuff (years ago) I used paper towels. Although they can still be used in some art projects, now that I wipe up with cotton it gives me so many more options.

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  2. Hi Linda!
    Followed you over from Letter Love FB. These are a super idea! Do you add anything to set the inks after you are done?

    Cheers,
    Sharon

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    1. Thanks for dropping by Sharon. I simply heat set the inks once they dry by ironing them with a hot iron (cotton setting). Because they are art quilts and won't be washed, I don't test them. If you are planning to use the fabric in a quilt that will be washed, I would certainly try washing the heat set wipe up cloth to test for colourfastness (is that a word?) before putting them into a quilt.

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  3. Do you have a post about your wipe up rags? Are you just using cotton muslin? I would like to start doing that now that I am using more dyes in Letter Love

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    1. I don't have a post specifically about my wipe up rags, but to answer your question, I use natural fibres because they take colour better than synthetics. Usually I use 100% cotton, but if I have white silk I'll sometimes use that too. You can use muslin, but if it's not true white remember that the colours will be affected (not that that is necessarily a bad thing). Although I have stopped buying printed quilting cotton, I do still have some in my stash and I have also used that which can give you some interesting 'over dying' effects. Have fun with it.

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Linda

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