Screen Printing Play Date

Beth and I got together a couple of weeks back and  played with our silk screens.  I tried printing with thickened dye paste using torn newspaper as a mask.  On the first one I layered different colors using torn newspaper as a mask in each layer.  I was hoping for a variety of colors as they overlapped in different layers.  I started with light and moved to dark.  Here is the result with some detail shots.

This last detail shot show a resist by dried soda ash.  I had forgotten the material in a bucket of soda ash.  The soda ash dried leaving crystals.  I decided to print over the crystals to see what would happen.  Interesting resist, don't you think?

The second experiment started out like the first with torn newspaper acting as a mask.  For this one I started dark and then randomly scraped light dye paste using a credit card.  Well, actually it was an expired insurance card.  Beth was a little  nervous that I was using the current card.  Here are the results along with detail shots.

As you might be able to tell, I did put a rubber drawer liner under the fabric before I scraped the blue and orange to cause some texture.

I have to say I hate both of these pieces. Not that I would call them failures...yet.  I think they just need several more layers of something to have the interest I like in my surface design experiments.

Christmas Stars

I have been really slow at getting components made for my quilt but it is not because I am laying in bed eating bon bons.  Lately I have been making Christmas Stars.  They were used for ward members to choose a child to sponsor for Christmas.  The member gets to keep the star for their Christmas tree.  The stars are not nearly as embellished as Beth's felt decorations but I had a lot to  make.  Here are a couple of the stars.  Ignore the background--it is my thread bits covered design wall.

A few more

A few more pink and green components for my Flying F quilt.  I think it is time to start assembling my components to see what fits, what will go in a different quilt, and what is still needed.

Third Inspiration

First, one more piece for my quilt. Sorry to say that is all the stitching I have gotten done  lately.  I do like it but it is not much progress.

Second, I wanted to thank some friends who have helped to make the Dino Hats for the Maine Children's Home for Little Wanderers.  My good friend Beth offered to make 10 hats and she even mailed them to me when she was done!




Here is a picture of Shirlene, our Relief Society President as she made her first hat.  She has taken hat pieces home to make more.






























And here are our two Sister Missionaries as they cut out hat pieces.  Ah, I remember the days when I was that young.




Last, and really the primary reason I am writing this post, is a third inspiration for my next quilt.  I found it on Marion's Art. 

Isn't it wonderful?  It is called Manhattan Sunset by  Barbel Lehrke.  Really that is all I know about it except that Marion took a picture of it at an art show.  I tried finding out more about Barbel but haven't been successful.  If you know more about her work, please share with me.  Anyway, I chose it because it uses components and a motif to create a focal point.  That is my goal for my new quilt.

So, lets talk about the quilt for a minute.

1.  Orange and blue is one of my favorite color combination.  It is almost always exciting.

2.  I love the light blue in the middle and lower left.  I have often been told you need something at that bottom left so your eye doesn't just slide off the art piece.  That light blue does it for me.  I  look at it and then look around the rest of the piece to see if that light shade is anywhere else in the piece. And it is but in small enough quantities that I didn't notice them at first.  That subtle motif in the left corner also helps to stop the eye.  So very clever!

3.  And check out the motif.  Not only does it vary in color and prominence, it also varies in its shape.  Those motifs are similar but not identical.  So far in my  piece I have stuck to the identical shape while varying the size and ratios.  I think I am gonna be a bit bolder now in my double F variations.

4.  I really love the very dark used in the quilt.  I wish I could get a better picture but I think it looks like black rather than a darker blue, don't you?

5.  I can recognize the surface design of the mottled red and blue dyed areas but I am unsure of the more complex red and black areas.  Pieced?  Commercial Fabric?  Surface technique of some type?  Can't tell for sure but I love them. They are a nice contrast to the neighboring open spaces.

6.  And the focal point?  I think it is those crazy very orange components surrounded by the dark complex areas surrounded by the more open areas.

Yep.  I like this quilt.