I want to thank you for reading my blog, I truly have appreciated your support and comments. I have always felt very fortunate to be able to spend my days making art, recently though I haven’t had blocks of time to really make the art that is most fulfilling to me. So I have to make some changes.
I’ve decided to suspend posting on my blog for now. My website will still be up, but I will be posting my art on Instagram and on my YouTube channel (tap the bell on YouTube to get notifications). I’m also working to get my Etsy shop open in hopes of finding new homes for some of my art.
If we aren’t already connected on Instagram and/or your own blog, please let me know so I can follow you and see what quilting and art you’ve been up to. I’m not on Facebook.
Below is my short video showing how I painted the background photo paper print painted fabric for the fish piece. I’m still thinking about how I will finish it, I’ll post to IG when it is finished. The fabric on photo printer paper technique was fun, and as long as I have the paper I will continue to explore ways to use it.
Take good care and make something that makes you happy every chance you get!
After I figured this out I noticed that other people online have used photograph printer paper in place of Yupo paper for watercolor and ink. I didn’t look to see if anyone was doing exactly what I am, which is to use acrylic paint (textile and regular) and print/paint fabric from it. When done well, I ended up with not only a piece of fabric but a piece of paper that could be used in other projects too.
I made several pieces that didn’t make it into my new videos (below). The camera was on for some of them but I’m not sure if I’ll ever edit and publish them. Anyway, it was a lot of fun and I could have painted fabric and paper for hours, just to see what would happen if…
Here are a few of the pieces.
The paint spreads on the fabric, depending on how heavily and thick it is applied to the paper.
I love the paper piece (below) from this flower piece more than the fabric. It could be stitched on, added to collage, or framed just as it is. There’s a lot that could be done with the fabric too… I think I’ll probably hand embroider on it.
I used different tools to get different outcomes. For the flower piece I used a tiny metal tip on the paint bottle and painted/printed the green. Then I used a dot tool and added first the violet color to the paper and printed/painted the fabric a second time. Then lifted it and added orange to the paper and laid the fabric on the paper for the last time.
This is the photo paper after the fabric had been lifted off.
These are just more exploring with different tools and layering. I used the tiny tip again, a mist bottle, a cheap bristle brush, an eyedropper, just poured from a little container, and of course, my fingers! I still need to heat set, maybe rinse, and press them.
I have two new videos, one shows how I painted the fabric using this technique, the other I showed in my previous post. Not my best videos but they do go through the How-to of it.
Asked how I applied the Three Hearts art quilt to the canvas, here is my answer…
I left an area in the center of the canvas unpainted (it was an already gesso primed canvas) and I applied artist gel medium over the entire canvas front and added some to the quilt back, then with the quilt face down on the table, lined the two up and I added some weight for awhile. When it was set but not completely dry I removed the weights and flipped it face up to dry completely. I hope that is clear. Next time I use that method I’ll try to take some photos.
I finished editing the video for the new way I painted fabric (that I mention in my last post), but decided I had to make the second part (applying the fish to the fabric and quilting) a separate video, so hopefully next week I’ll share at least the first if not both. Here is the piece quilted, it’s small and I have an idea for finishing it that’s not binding or facing it, but we’ll see.
Giveaway Winner of the five little hearts is Gayle C. Congratulations! Please email your mailing info to me at fiberdesignsbyann@gmail.com and I’ll send the hearts ASAP.
If you have any interest in assemblage and mixed media art or just want to enjoy something a bit different from fabric and quilt making, I recommend Ina’s Art Room on YouTube. She makes wonderful works of art, usually using surprising elements (sometimes fabric). Ina also invites subscribers and visitors to participate in her 4 Core Challenges. I’ve participated in the past and it’s fun! Ina posts her videos on Fridays.
Ina’s January 2022 #4core challenge was to use a book as the substrate and include texture, metal, and give the piece a “winter vibe.” After the deadline she posts a video showing everyone’s finished projects. The January challenge video should be posted on her channel in early February.
I decided to participate again and here is my piece; a candle backdrop featuring a fabric landscape.
I have made the inside of the book the new “front.” The votive is covered in fabric coils and has a flameless tealight.
The cover is now the “back.”
I bought the used book at the local library. The original hardcover was red and had some globs of glue under the paper part of the cover… so I scraped and tried to cover it with snowflakes. I tried a few different things to add texture to the snowflakes but in the end just painted them with a pearl white acrylic paint.
Here are few photos of the process.
First painted gesso over the red book cover and then acrylic.
Added splatters for flying snow.
I had the painted sky fabric in my stash, the white/gray fabrics are commercial, and the foreground snow is thin white batting. The fence is cut-up (used) craft sticks (tongue depressor size) that I painted, and the wire is just coated wire. I added a few little frays of silk fabric for the grass. The “snow” on the fence and wire is sawdust (for texture) mixed with gesso and some acrylic paint.
It was fun to quickly stitch up a very simple, little fabric landscape for this project.
Auditioning before the fabrics were fuse and quilted.
The fluffy border is a beautiful soft yarn and I think it worked perfectly!
The things I love about Ina’s challenges – She encourages artists to really make it their own, she offers loads of ideas, and there’s no pressure (though there is a finish-by date). I enjoyed every minute of making this project… well, all but the waiting time for materials to dry!
Winner! Thank you to those of you who entered the appliqued miniature landscape top sweepstakes/giveaway. Congratulations to the winner – Deborah F (Please email your mailing information to me at fiberdesignsbyann@gmail.com).
2022 – Many unfinished pieces have been weighing on me for far too long, so I’m going to work on actually finishing as many pieces as I can this year. I hope you’ll come by to see what I’ve done, maybe get more ideas and be inspired. There will probably be a few giveaways along the way.
I learned a lot while painting these fabrics so there are plenty of things I may do differently even though I really like the results. A couple of the techniques I will absolutely make again, probably for use behind embroidery work.
Here again are the painted fabrics in the giveaway and the video is below.
And here are the 6.5 inch squares (96 of them), also in the giveaway.
I hope you’ll share this post with anyone you know who may be interested in a chance to win either of these fabric bundles.
Reminder – The giveaway/sweepstakes ends on December 27, 2021, and I’ll post the two winner’s names on this blog December 29th, so if you’ve entered, please check to see if you are a fabric winner.
I’m so happy that I have been able to share my artwork, thank you for supporting me and commenting. I’ve learned a lot from many of you too.
I received two surprises not too long ago, one was an email from the kind person who purchased one of my painted and stitched panel. Below is the project she made with it; prefect for this season. Thank you Lynda! I love seeing how others incorporate my art into theirs.
The other surprise was happy mail from Karen G, who sent me a large piece of her own eco dyed fabric. The background is more a taupe color than shown in the photo but the photo does show the wonderful texture she achieved. Thank you, Karen. I just don’t know how I’ll ever be able to cut into it! If you have a question for Lynda or Karen leave a comment and hopefully they will see it.
A couple days ago I painted fabric using some different objects and techniques, and though I did film the processes I haven’t had time to edit the video. I hope you can get an idea what the fabrics look like from this photo. The smallest piece is approximately 18″ x 12″ and the largest 19 1/2″ x 15″. The darker blue is 28″ x 8 1/2″.
I will be giving the newly painted fabric and 6 1/2″ squares of commercial fabrics away to two separate winners later this month. The winner’s names will be posted in the December 29 blog post. I hope to share the painted fabric video next blog post (but I’ll be getting my booster soon, so we will see).
The commercial squares will be six pieces of a rainbow of colors along with some black and whites. Here is a sampling… Pinks, reds, and greens.
Sweepstakes/giveaway begins Dec.15, 2021 and ends at 9pm (Pacific Time), Dec. 27, 2021.
To enter: You must live in the US only (no international entries). One entry per person. NOTE: (If applicable) If your name is drawn as the first winner it will be removed for the second drawing.
Leave a comment that you would like to win the painted fabric either/or the fabric squares and include your first and last name (or last initial).
After December 27th I’ll use a random drawer and announce the winners on my next blog post.
Winner/s will email me their mailing information and I will mail the fabric packages ASAP. If I don’t hear from the winner within five days of drawing date, I will run another random draw. Good luck!
“That’s interesting” is sometimes the comment my Mister gives when looking at my art. He has been incredibly supportive through all these years of my art making, but sometimes when he doesn’t “get it,” or care for the art piece, he knows how to be diplomatic.
I found it very interesting that because the subject of my House Cat piece is familiar (our cat modeled), everyone here decided to chime in as to what I could or should do to make it better. They had valid observations and suggestions but got a big “NO, it’s done” from me.
And here’s why – After I finished quilting and thread painting a bit more, I decided not to bind it but to face it, primarily because the piece is odd shaped. But after I trimmed it I noticed one of the eyes was fraying… one of the eyes I tried to free-motion outline to get the fabric to stay down only to cause a lot of thread build up.
I never could cover the raw edge, so out came the seam ripper, scissors, lint roller, and hours later both eyes were removed.
Looking at this I want to say “Poor thing!”
That’s the lint roller sheet with just some of the removed thread.
Now with the thread removed there was quite the perforated eye shape in the fabric, both the front and back. I figured the only thing I could do was hand embroider the eyes. I would have liked to have added more embroidery but between the floss and quilt sandwich I couldn’t get the needle through any longer. I thought about painting more reflection in the eyes, but – NO, I’m done!
New embroidered eyes.
But of course I had to add more thread painting and whiskers.
And whiskers.
Initially I made whiskers by burning felt and stretching it and painting gesso on them, but in the end I used my cat’s found whiskers and eyebrows (I’d been saving). I’m still waiting for a couple more eyebrows. I haven’t decided yet, if that is clever or gross!
I love those clips!
I’ve been looking at it too long and see all that could be better but it has been a fun project; from painting the fabrics to making the pattern, and stitching it…and as always I learned a lot. When I have the hanging dowel ready I’ll share a photo of the finished piece.
REMINDER – I have a giveaway going on; if you are interesting in entering but haven’t yet, please check out last weeks blog post for details. Be sure to tell me you want to be entered (in the comments of that post), so I’ll know you want to be entered.
This little piece has been on my design wall unfinished for a while. It was a cut of a larger piece of hand painted fabric that I free motion quilted just for fun. I can’t even remember if I filmed while I was quilting it. I couldn’t figure out how to finish it, to fix it until a few days ago.
I’m happy to say I fixed it and you can see what I did here…
The November giveaway, sweepstakes item is this little leaf decorated box. It’s hard pressed paper and only the top is decorated. I used painted (mop-up) fabric leaves, a couple papers, burned matches, grave vine, and gold paint spatters. It measures 6 1/2″ x 4″ x 2 5/8″ tall. It could be used as is or it could be painted, papered, or embellished in a multitude of other ways. But there’s more… I’ll be putting a little something extra inside the box.
If you are interested in a chance to win the leaf box with surprise inside just follow the rules below. The winner’s name will be announced on my December 1, 2021 blog post.
Sweepstakes/giveaway begins November 10, 2021 and ends at 9pm (Pacific Time) November 28, 2021.
To enter: You must live in the US only (no international entries). One entry per person. Leave a comment that you would like to win the leaf box with surprise, and include your first and last name (or last initial).
I’ll use a random drawer and announce the winner on my Dec 1 blog post. Winner will email me their mailing information and I will mail the leaf box with surprise ASAP. If I don’t hear from the winner within five days of drawing date, I will run another random draw. Good luck!
It’s interesting to me how time can seem to go by slowly and other times so quickly.
I was exciting to be trying some new things (for me anyway) on the gel print plate. I made one print and for some reason decided to clean my plate; nothing would work, I mean nothing! So after hours of trying I grabbed my sewing machine oil (I didn’t have baby oil), and first trying a wipe but later switched to a dish cloth, I was able to get it pretty much clean. I sure hope it still works when I try more.
Here is the print – Jacquard Textile Color on cheesecloth. For it being a quickie, I’m happy with it.
So time got away from me and I couldn’t print anymore, for now.
I’ll share a few more of my older quilts, apologies for some of the photo quality.
Simple Miniature Snowscape before it was quilted. I altered the water fabric with paint
Hand appliqued and quilted, with hand painted sky. On the design wall, bad photo.
When I look at that landscape now I wonder how the water could look like that when it was hand quilted. Maybe it just looks worse in the photo. If my hand quilting wasn’t up to my standards, I would un-quilt, I did it a lot.
Rose for a challenge, it had to include one of the purple fabrics (I think the one next to the darkest). I beached and over painted the petal edges. I really like the background.
Hand appliqued and quilted.
Made early on in my sky and water painting exploration.
Hand appliqued and quilted. That was great poppy fabric. Hand painted sky.
Remember watercolor quilts, I made a few. Machine pieced, hand quilted.
I feel fortunate that I starting making quilts long ago, I think really the best years. From traditional to modern and everything in-between I have had the best time exploring, learning, and finding more ways to play with fabric. I hope you enjoyed this little quilt show and if you have any questions please leave a comment, thanks.
I’ll be announcing another giveaway/sweepstakes soon, so I hope you’ll check back again. Stay Safe and quilt away!
First, in case you didn’t catch it, I had the date wrong for the Oct hummingbird notecard set giveaway. It will be announced next post, Oct. 27, rather than the 25th. I’ll still close entry on the 23rd.
In an early post about printing fabric on brown paper bags I shared a painted and embroidered pumpkin done on one of the background fabrics. Here is the demonstration video. It was a fun project, maybe it’s just this time of year, but I really enjoyed sitting and stitching by hand. Do you do hand needlework and if you do, is there a time of day, month, and/or year you are most in the mood for it?
After embroidering one big leaf I wasn’t happy with it so I ripped it out. I finished everything and left the leaves in an outline. It wasn’t working for me, so I had to decide outline, or embroider, or paint them. After a little consultation with my artist daughter, we decided painted leaves would go best with the painted pumpkins. I think we were right!
