For the past few days the temperatures here have been around 90°F, we don’t have AC but my studio stays cool. Today looks to be finally cooling off a bit.
The coming of fall had me working on another Stir Crazy Member Challenge for Visions Art Museum, which will be published for members the first week in October. VAM offer so much inspiration and because we have had to spend more time in our homes, they have added a great deal to their online menu. I have “attended” wonderful artist’s talks with shows of their work, as well as, Q&A after. The online quilt shows are fun to go through at your own pace. VAM is changing their name to address better what they are about – it will become VMOTA/Visions Museum of Textile Art. I think it is a great museum to support. I’m not paid to create these challenges, and as far as I know none of the other artist are either.
When I make the video public, I’ll share it in an October post, until then here is a sneak peek of the project.
I’m also scheduled to teach at Visions on October 3rd. My first live class in some time (We were planning to hold this class before you-know-what struck). Hopefully enough people will sign-up to make the class happen. Masked and distancing, we’ll be using fabric, fiber, and a little paint to make a set of hummingbird note cards. They were so much fun to design and I love that the makers can make them their own as they construct each of their cards.
Example – fabric & fiber Hummingbird notecard
Our old house kitty, Kona, has finally figured out that she can come and go “outside,” into her little resort. During the daytime it’s attached to my studio and now I can stay in the studio playing/working instead of stopping to take her out onto the kitchen deck FOR HOURS. We’ll see if I actually get more done!
When it get too hot she comes back to her inside hammock. Hashtag – veryspoiledcat
Right now I’m using some of the background fabrics I painted last week and will share more about them next time.
I have been working on background fabrics. While I was making Crackle Vessel I ran into a disaster with the background fabric. I ended up loving that background but the way I made it was the problem, it involved (homemade) texture paste and removing it was a huge mess.
So for now, no more texture paste on fabric. Here are a few new fabric and paper pieces I worked on today. I’ll share more about how they were made in a future post or video.
Here it is wet, it dried much lighter but I think it’s so pretty.
Paper
Fabric print
When I hung this to dry it whipped onto itself wet and so I just rubbed it all over. It still has potential.
Thanks to those who entered the August/September giveaway/sweepstakes.
I’m not going to say who won what – it’ll be a surprise and happy mail. Even if you have before please email your mailing address to me at fiberdesignsbyann@gmail.com.
The winners are:
Karen G
Deborah F
Joyful Q
Cherie M
Chris W
I have a question for those of you who like to enter the giveaways – Would 5 or 6 inch squares of commercial fabric as a giveaway prize interest you? Please let me know in the comments, thanks.
I’ll announce another giveaway later this month. I’ll also share more painted and stitched fabric pieces and ideas.
I’m part of a (primarily) local quilter’s email newsletter started and run by a friend (done out of the goodness of her heart and to keep up her typing/computer skills). There are over 800 people on her list and she allows us to advertise our used quilt/sewing related items, as well as, list newsletters from guilds and individuals, news of our classes, art sales, blog posts, and videos. She hasn’t been able to send out the newsletter for some time. Many of the people who would get my blog post through her aren’t getting them now, so… I’m telling you this because if you are interested in winning a giveaway item/s your odds are a lot better right now, it’s also a good reason to subscribe to my blog, and not miss a notification!
There are five items in the giveaway. Please read and follow all of the instructions below. Note that actual item colors may be different than they appear here and none of these items are washable.
First up (1.) Balance and the Brass Ring (8″ x 10″) is made using hand dyed fabric (fused), painted and burnt lutradur, some free-motion stitching (no-binding edge), rings (which may or may not actually be brass), and a few embroidery stitches.
2. Stamped and Lutradur Leaves (14″ x 14″) started as a painted piece of fabric, then pressed a real leaf in gold paint and then in black, which didn’t work very well, next I stitched and free-motion quilted it. I made the leaves long ago and I kept pulling them out, looking at them, and putting them away again (know how that goes?). They’re made from painted and melted lutradur and are just hand stitched on (knots show on back – what was I thinking!), they could easily be removed if you wanted to bind the piece or add it to another project.
3. Reflections (7.25″ x 10″) Painted pole wrapped and hand painted (copper metallic) wholecloth. This piece was made for a challenge and the company mounted it onto black mat board for display, using a single piece of tape across the top edge, it could be removed from the mat board but it doesn’t have a hanging sleeve so I’m leaving it on the board, (it is labeled).
4. Torrey Pines postcard/mini art quilt. Made on Timtex, it is hand painted sky fabric with free-motion quilting and satin stitch edge. It has a white fabric back.
5. Flower Sampler (approximately 9″ x 10.25″) is just a little piece of painted fabric with flowers made using Neocolor II wax pastels. A few years ago I shared the how-to video, here it is again.
Here is another way I have used Lutradur…
Giveaway Instruction/Rules –
Sweepstakes/giveaway begins August 25, 2021 and ends at 9pm (Pacific Time) September 4, 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. *If there are more prizes than entrants your name may be drawn more than once.
Leave a comment stating which item/s (1 – 5) you would like to win and include your first and last name (or last initial).
On September 4, 2021 I’ll use a random drawer and announce the winner/s on my next blog post. Winner/s will email me (fiberdesignsbyann@gmail.com) their mailing information and I will mail the item/s ASAP. If I don’t hear from the winner within five days of drawing date, I will run another random draw. Good luck!
I hoped to have my roadrunner piece finished but between the designing, cutting, and next drying time, it’s going to take longer than I thought it would.
So, I’m sharing some pieces here, I’ve used different painting techniques on them. I’m sure I have shared some of them in the past but I think they are a nice reminder of what we can do when starting with white fabric. They could be done on printed fabric or painted fabric, again. I may not be completely sure what techniques I used on some but I’m sharing as much as I can remember.
Starting with the sweet one…
Chocolate Sauce and Wrappers. I pulled a thinned pint color, with a cheap brush, onto dry fabric and then wet the fabric and did a wash. The “chocolate sauce” was probably done with an eye dropper and then tilted. I hand painted little white highlights to give more dimension. The wrappers are metallic painted fusible in silver and gold.
Clothespin resist painted not dyed. I remember this being really fun to make!
I used the clothespin resist in this abstract that I then over painted. I remember starting to quilt it and not liking where I was going, so I think I put it away or maybe I cut it up! I probably should have just stretched it on a canvas.
Detail from Fallen…
For Fallen I used real leaves for stamps and a credit card for the lines. I think I used a pointed round paint brush for the dots. This was a fun one to quilt.
Fallen one from my Photograph on Fiber series.
Detail of Above Lake Cuyamaca…
In previous post I shared the how-to quilt and then paint the border. I painted the sky and water and I think the quilting worked well for the ripples in a lake.
Detail Drift and Flow…
Drift and Flow has wool batting. I quilted the heck out of this piece on my domestic sewing machine; the last piece I did before getting my sit-down quilting machine. I’m glad the quilting shows in the photo because the black thread on black fabric is difficult to see in person. The black and gray on the right (above) is pole wrapped (same piece as the larger on the left below), and I was thrilled with the results, particularly in the gray area. It looked like hanging leaves. The square (ish) pieces were made by throwing paint down while thinking of sciencey things. The curvy lines are satin stitched and the gold drips are metallic paint tilted to let run and then the piece was cut into four squares.
Dwell detail… Dwell is a painted wholecloth and my most favorite quilt, ever.
Dwell back, this is the quilting that runs the width of the lower back. Sadly, it doesn’t show on the front.
There are simple embroidered “steps” leading down from the silk.
The background fabric was stretched on a frame and painted. The windmills are made from a handmade stencil, the brick rectangles are purchased hand dyed silk, and the gold frames are painted fusible. The binding fabric was painted especially to continue the colors from the main cloth.
I hope you enjoyed this little quilt show and the these pieces have given you some ideas for techniques you may want to try.
This is the first cardboard resist piece I made, it was made on a painted (light wash) piece of fabric and I used two colors for the design. Read on to find out more and for the How-to video see below.
For this next piece I left some of the backside tip fabric unpainted (no yellow), once dry and pressed I painted orange dots to the centers. I didn’t like that result, they felt too deliberate. The holes were in a tighter placement and I don’t think the overall results were as good, BUT maybe it’s just the colors; I think these colors would have been more striking on a white background.
Below is the only piece (so far) painted on white fabric, the picture doesn’t show how pretty it really is. I forgot to take a photo before I cut some pieces out, that’s the photo-shopped out white areas.
The next piece didn’t go as I had hoped. I started with a piece of rope wrapped fabric in green (more about that in a future post). I used three colors on the green background, which was an okay idea, but again the holes were too close. I’ve concluded that there needs to be more fabric and space between the holes.
black paint at edge
yellow paint on tip
flipped it and painted third color
back dry, not pressed
front dry, not presses.
front pressed, can’t really see the centers.
I did use the the above fabric but it doesn’t look anything like it did after painting. In my previous post I share the crackle/crinkle painted fabric and said I’d try to share an artwork using that technique and this newest paint technique. Here it is… Mixed media collage, raffia, coffee filter, and hand painted fabric. I may talk about the background wall fabric in a future post.
Untitled. Approximately 15.5″ x 11.5″
I learned more… One – I wanted the vase to be shiny so I painted Mod Podge on it, when it dried it was shiny BUT the crackles and crinkles were no longer visible. And two – Dry Mod Podge is really hard to wash out of fabric! I ended up flipping the fabric over and that worked fine, it’s actually darker than it appears in this photo.
After painting a few pieces I have more ideas for using this technique. If you paint fabric using any of these techniques I hope you’ll share your results.
Stay tuned for the next sweepstakes/giveaway announcement.
I mentioned in my previous post that I have been working on new painted fabric techniques. I’m sharing a one here, though for me it’s not new because I accidentally made a piece of this fabric a long time ago. Below is a short video that demonstrates just how easy it is.
A couple things I should say – First, it is best to use darker paint to get the most obvious results. And, unless you have large hands or a large handed helper, this technique is really only for making small size pieces of fabric.
Next week I’ll share another new technique and if time permits, an artwork using the two techniques.
Below is another piece of fabric I made using this crackle/crinkle technique. I used black paint and after I rinsed it, I had a sad feeling that it didn’t work (see left side below). But I should have known better… Just a hot iron and the crackle appears, like magic! In this photo the right side has been press completely flat (except for the little crease on the right edge).
Below, the fabric front is on the left and the back on the right. Any brown color is just from bad lighting; the piece is nice dark charcoal gray. I like the fabric back as much as the front and now I see plaster walls, cave walls, or rocks… Note to self – Must try in brown.
I look forward to sharing more painted fabric pieces and hope you’ll say tuned. Thanks for stopping by.
I have painted pole wrapped fabric, and dyed a wrapped rope, and I’ve never been disappointed with the results, there is always something good that can come from them.
A few things to keep in mind – Traditional pole wrapping, Arashi shibori, is not what I’m doing. I use paints and don’t follow the correct wrapping and stringing process, so I realize my results will not look like the real thing. Paint stays more on top, whereas dye bonds and soaks through the wrapped layers.
I recently used rainbow colors and instead of my usually 4″ ABS pipe, I used three PVC pipes taped together, making a triangle. Here are pictures of the process, the result, and some finished works.
Spring and wet cotton fabric
Starting to wrap
Tie off the string
wet fabric and string compacted/pushed down to the pole.
Using a brush
Using a bottle
Remembered that I have foam pole holders for my larger pole.
Placed paper towel under pole. Placed outside to dry, I rotated it once in awhile.
This makes me think of the lower leaf filled branches of a tree. May have to try that all in greens sometime but turned it looks like fish. It’s like finding images in the clouds!
I usually put fabric under to catch the drips but this time I used several paper towels.
First paper towel caught the most, of course. This will be fun to use in collage.
Drift and Flow
Up Stream Photograph on Fiber series piece
Balance and the Brass Ring has the dyed rope wrapped fabric…
Dye does give a richer, more even, and more beautiful result. Paint is just easier for me.
Have you made any pole wrapped fabric?
Next time I’ll share at least one other painting on fabric techniques. Thanks for stopping by.
I remember telling my son I wanted to use his photographs in my art quilts but I didn’t mean printed on fabric; I meant the actually photograph. I know I’m not alone in wanting to use photographs in combination with fabric and fibers. In today’s post I share a few from other artists and I thank them for granting me permission to share their work here.
If there is a quilt maker in a family there’s a pretty good chance at least one memory quilt has been made that includes special photographs celebrating a person, a day, or an event.
Fellow quiltmaker Ruth O’Neil shared her bookshelf quilt top. It has a photograph printed on fabric of her brother along side her niece’s daughters and books with titles (all but one) from a her niece’s favorite author. The plant near the top has 3 dimensional leaves.
Ruth O’Neil artist
Ruth O’Neil artist
Ruth made the quilt below after a safari trip. I think the pattern and fabrics work really well with the photographs.
Ruth O’Neil artist
Ruth also shared this quilt. Her daughter gifted her fabric printed with these photographs and the blue batik. Ruth and her fur baby obviously are fans of this guy!
Ruth O’Neil artist
Susan Lenz is a prolific artist of unique work. Many of Susan’s pieces include vintage photographs or her own, some she digitally alters before they are printed on paper or fabric. To the printed photos she will add stitches and embellishments… sometimes framing them because Susan is also a professional framer. Susan always posts excellent stories and explanations about her artwork and her travels, if you haven’t already, I suggest checking out her website and blog, where the below images can be seen in greater detail.
Susan Lenz artist
Susan Lenz artist
Susan Lenz artist
Susan Lenz artist (detail of Palmer-Epard Log Cabin), see her blog for full image. Note all the hand stitches in the sky!
Joanna Mack aka The Snarky Quilter takes photographs that often capture textures, shadows, and light. She sometimes uses filters in photoshop software to alter her photos. Always learning as much as she can, Joanna explores and produces projects using a variety of techniques and methods.
I wish I could say that we collaborated but this piece is entirely hers. Joanna won a small, painted fabric landscape in one of my blog post giveaways. She started with a photograph she’d taken of a rusty textured (outdoor fireplace) barrel, altered it in Photoshop, had it printed on fabric, and later cut it into strips.
Joanna’s barrel printed on fabric
Ann’s painted fabric landscape (the grassy fabric is purchased).
She cut the landscape fabric too and stitched it to her barrel pieces and then, as she writes on her blog; “I quilted it to resemble chain link fencing covered with the stems of weeds. The edges are finished with paint and yarn.”
“A Cell With A View.” by Joanna Mack
I appreciate that Joanna has had some of her photographs printed on different types of fabric and shares her thoughts about each one on her blog. To read more about “A Cell With A View” and see her other projects and be inspired, visit her blog.
Petra Heidrich is a textile and mixed media artist in Germany. She embellishes vintage photographs, postcards, and sometimes paper, using thread and floss. Petra’s embroidery layer draws me in, andthen I look past it and notice the photograph. I think the embroidery stitches and photographs play and work very well together.
On her website, Petra writes – “I like to refer to embroidery as “painting with thread.”
Petra Heidrich artist
Petra Heidrich artist
Petra Heidrich artist
I recently rediscovered a box of postcards I’d gotten years ago from my parent’s estate. In the box I found a postcard that just called to be made into a photograph on fiber piece. I contacted the photographer, Bill Banaszewski, to ask for permission. So that he’d have some idea of what I had planned I attached two images from my Photograph on Fiber series. Not only did he give me permission to use his photograph but he also wrote that his wife is a quilter!
In my original Photograph on Fiber series pieces I mounted the photo under/onto plexiglass, I don’t use it anymore, otherwise the process is essentially the same. My landscape is mounted onto a acid-free board for hanging and for this piece I slightly edited a scanned and printed copy of the postcard’s back to use as the label.
Label on backboard.
Bill has been photographing New York’s Finger Lakes for years. To see his photographs and learn more go to Finger Lakes Images.
The photograph, in this piece a postcard, is mounted about 3/4″ (not quite 2 cm) above the art quilt.
“Finger Lakes” Photograph on Fiber, mixed media art quilt by Ann L Scott. Postcard photograph, by Bill Banaszewski.
“Finger Lakes” detail.
I hope the pieces in this post have inspired you as much as they have me.
I’m looking forward to sharing the photograph and fiber/fabric pieces, that other artists have given me permission to share, in an upcoming blog post. For now I’ll give you a little look in to the piece I’m working on for that blog post. I’m not going to show it with the photograph until the piece is finished.
After a good bit of time examining the photograph that will be a part of this piece I decided the direction I’d take my design.
I started by painting a sky using Jacquard Textile Colors (JTC).
After I ripped the fabric I realized it was too small for my frame and so I used pins to stretch it.
I painted a woodsy hillside using JTC and used NeoColor ll wax pastels for the lower half. I pulled off some silk threads from a piece of raw silk fabric to audition where I might add tree trunks. If this had been a collage without stitching I would have glued those silk threads using gel medium. I really liked how they looked.
A rough layout…
I embroidered knots. First I pulled threads from a piece of dupioni silk fabric because I wanted the simmer, shine, and the threads were thicker than the actually silk spools I have. Unfortunately, the knots weren’t looking good so I switched to regular floss. In the end, in the big picture, it isn’t really going to matter.
They hardly resemble a French Knots so I just call them knots.
More painting – this time a plastic edge tapped in JTC and pulled horizontally across the NeoColor area. After that I brushed a blue paint wash over that area to darken it. When it was dry it was still a bit light for what I was going for. At this point I have myself convinced that quilting it will make it right.
Pulled paint using sharp edge over NeoColor ll
I used the same sharp edge, (it was just a piece of plastic advertising that was a bit thinner than a credit card), to make the trunks. I was going to just quilt the trunks but was playing with the paint and couldn’t help myself. I think I will still quilt them or maybe not!
This was taken when it was wet, the lower area dried much lighter.
I always learn something when making any Photograph on Fiber piece, sometimes many things. They’re always a challenge but a fun one. We will see where this one takes me and what I learn.
A Reminder – Next post, June 16, I will announce the winners of the painted fabric.
There’s always a starting point and in quilt making it often begins with a main fabric. When I was working on my Photograph on Fiber series, rather than start with a main fabric and grab other fabrics to coordinate with it, my starting point was an actual photograph. I would decide if I’d be echoing the photo or extending the background out from it. I’d think about fabrics and how I could paint, stitch, and maybe add applique as well.
This is an example of echoing the photo. Title: Leaf
This series is comprised of photographs that have been applied to plexiglass and mounted on spacers 3/4″ above the fabric/fiber background and through a board, then wired for hanging.
Most of the photographs were taken by son who thought I was nuts when I told him I wanted to use his actual photographs (not printed on fabric) in my fiber art. I had to make a tiny prototype for him to “get” it. And then he really got it!
This is an example of extending out from the photograph. Title: Awaiting Occupation (Private collection)
Photograph of the very textural Rex Begonia.
Photograph by C.B. Scott
The commercial fabrics in Rex Begonia are the black border, the black and white swirls background, and dotted fabric which I added paint to.
Rex Begonia
Rex Begonia detail
Many of the pieces were exhibited in a number of venues, including a solo show at VAM in 2013. I was asked over and over about the process and so decided to developed a way to make a Photograph on Fiber piece without the plexiglass; a much more doable project and one that I could teach. The photo is still above the fabric/fiber but, in this much easier process, the piece is placed in a frame, (sort of a shallow shadow box but not as deep), and the photo is mounted but doesn’t touch the glass.
This photo, taken by my cousin, was the starting point for the three (wip) pieces below. Notice that there are actually more options than only echoing and extending, all to showcase the photo.
Original photograph Rose Window
Rose Window 1 wip
Two commercial fabrics and painted cheesecloth leaves make this the easiest and quickest design. the photo is actually about 3/4″ above the red fabric. The detail below shows the finished quilting, which also held the leaves on (they are squished from being in storage).
Rose Window 1 detail
The piece below was a wip when photographed, using fabric where the frame would be. All of the fabrics are commercial, the roses and leaves have been “clever cut” (think fussy cut). Again, very easy, just more time consuming. I stitched the thorns using free motion quilting. I didn’t quilt the rose heads but looking at it now I think they need it.
Rose Window 2 wip
Rose Window 2 detail
The final piece has roses and leaves that are made from eco-felt (sheets), the cut pieces have been burned around the edges. The stems are made from a grape vine wreath (soaked, straightened, dried, and stitched on). Nothing touches the glass. It also has commercial (Stonehenge by Northcott) fabrics that I’ve quilted.
Rose Window 3
The detail photo was taken using my phone and the piece is behind glass, it’s not very good but it shows a bit of the dimension and some of the burnt edges.
Rose Window 3 detail
The Photograph on Fiber series photographs were applied to the plexi by me, using a special double sided film and a hand turn, cold roller laminator. After about nineteen pieces it got to be too stressful for me so I paid a professional company to apply the photographs, which of course, added to the cost/price. From inception to finish each piece involved many, many hours, and though I loved making them, (the plexiglass) Photograph on Fiber series had to come to an end. I’m very pleased that a few pieces are in private collections and some of the remaining pieces are for sale. Most of the pieces may be seen on my website under the Photograph on Fiber tab.
My son still send photos that make me want to keep going and making them definitely pushed me as an artist, but there is no more wall space in my home, and storing them a way seems a crime. Maybe some day I’ll teach the framed version of Photographs on Fiber class live.
Have you used your photographs in your art/memory quilts or mixed media projects? If you have and would be willing, I’d love to share some of your photographs and fiber/fabric art, here on my blog. Just send me an email with a photo/s of the piece/s and a bit about them. If you have a blog or website be sure to include it so I can link to it. Please note the photos used in your art must be yours or used with permission.
