Fushcia or Fuchsia?

Sometimes the work just works.  I sit down with a purpose and it all flows and every step I get more and more excited when I see what is emerging.  Wednesday was one of those days, I wish they'd happen more often!

There are two special ladies in my life who have a birthday on September 11.  One of them is my Mother in Law (who I am blessed to like and get on with) and the other is my quilting buddy, friend, colleague, mentor and motivator, Sue.  

I know Sue likes Fushcias (but the spell check says Fuchsias - hmmmm), so that's what I set out with in mind.

When I learnt I'd sold another of my RED challenge quilts, I splurged on a Gelli printing plate - you can see it peeking out from underneath the two layers.  I used this to print my background fabric over a freezer paper resist.  Then I ironed the same resist to my organza top layer that I had already printed the day before whilst procrastinating experimenting.

Above you can see the organza layer after stamping with a few stamps and using paint sticks around the flower resist.

I used a hand-carved stamp on the bottom layer as well then layered them up with batting, basted them and began quilting.  I tried to get the warmest, reddest area of the quilt around the flower shape to bring it forward and emphasise it, with cooler green and blue more to the edges.

Here it is with most of the quilting complete.  I decided not to fill the background completely as I didn't want to lose the translucency of the organza.  I used a few coloured pencils to add a little colour here and there and to push some areas back and highlight others.

Detail shots.

I finished it with a satin stitch using a variagated 28 wt (I think - it was heavier but the gauge had worn off to spool) Valdani thread.  

Happy Birthday, Sue!!

The final tweet

Quick update:  The tweety quilt I've been making for a friend is finished.  I won't show the whole thing until it reaches it's destination, but I think this bird is my favourite!

I've been and come back from the Quilt and Craft Fair in Hamilton.  Saw my quilts hanging in the Aotearoa Quilter's annual exhibition - no prizes for me but I sold another of my RED challenge quilts.

I'm now organising to head off to Australia in about a week.  My Dad turns 70 and the family is gathering.  And before I go I have one more quilt to finish.  The top is done, the back is not, wish me luck for a finish!

AMP Scholarship

So you know I want to study Art next year and I'm travelling down the road of applying at the moment.  Well, to help me get there, I've applied for an AMP Scholarship.  They are pretty amazing scholarships and I'd be extremely lucky to get one, but you don't get if you don't ask, right?

One of the scholarships is a people's choice award, which means voting.  You know what's coming next now don't you?!

Please click on this link and vote for me.  You might have to search for me.  My full name is Charlotte Scott.  I realise that it's hooked up through Facebook and you might have to register to vote - if you don't want to do that I understand.

But if you feel the urge, please do.  And share it with your friends and family and all your quilting buddies.  Go on - wouldn't it be neat for a quilter to be nationally recognised like that?

Experimenting with coloured pencil on fabric

This weekend has been busy in an unexciting way.  Friday afternoon found me attacking heads with scissors and clippers to deal with an invasion of the goddam nits aka headlice.

I hate the little buggers with a passion.  So now my son now sports a number 3 shave and my girl has a cute chin length bob and I'm exhausted from all the washing - head washing, bed linen washing, head washing again and then all the clothes and soft toys lying round just to make sure.

Fabric medium applied to top two samples.

In between the washings I managed to get some quilting done on the tweets quilt and then a little experimenting with coloured pencils and wax pastels on fabric.  

We were discussing using coloured pencils and fabric mediums at one of our stitching groups lately and how well it would stand up to washing.  Well, I decided to give it a go.  Suz - this is for you!

The first photo above is the pencils - prismacolor pencils and staedtler aquarell (water soluble) - and the caran d'ache neocolor wax pastels (water soluble) applied to the fabric and then liquid fabric medium (Jo Sonya's) painted over the top of the prismacolor and the neocolor.  

(Quick note: fabric medium is stuff you can add to normal acrylic paints to make them fabric paints.)

I forgot to take a pic before I'd put the medium on the first two.  In the next pic you can see the difference when the fabric medium goes on and liquifies the water soluble pencil - it blends beautifully.

Fabric medium applied to all three samples.

I then heat set it with an iron on the reverse side - following the fabric medium's instructions.  Once it was set, I bunged it in the washing machine in a mesh bag and washed it on a regular cycle with some other clothes.

After heat setting and then machine washing and line drying.

Close up of the Caran d'ache Neocolor wax pastels after washing.

None of the colours washed out at all.  Both the pencils are fairly soft and have held up well to the washing.  The pastel colour is thick and rich but as you can see in the closeup, it kind of turned plasticky and sat on the surface, so where there was a crease in the washing process, it's begun to peel and flake.

Nice to have this sample.  I'll tuck it away for future reference and I think I'll stick with using coloured pencil on fabric if I want to use a method like this.