Week 17 - Monoprints and Manipulated Fabric Panel

This week we were using acrylic paint on fabric to create different effects. We started by stippling some calico with a dry brush using 2 colours - blue and yellow in my case, resulting in lots of green and looking like a flowery meadow!

Then we moved on to using a diffuser and thin paint to give an effect like airbrushing, holding a piece of ripped paper in front of the fabric to act as a mask so that some parts stayed white.

Then we moved on to a way of making monoprints on glass. We put blobs of paint on a sheet of glass. Some of the paint was special acrylic interference paint that produces a shimmery effect when printed.

We then put another sheet of glass in top and pressed hard and twisted the glass to get the paint to mix at the edges.

When the sheets of glass are prised apart, you get feathery patterns in the paint. We places pieces of fabric on, pressed lightly and printed off the image.

These are some of the prints I made from 2 different attempts. As with all these things, it is the choice of colours that is most important for a pleasing result.

The paint dries quite quickly but it can be easily scrubbed off the glass to do further prints.

I then chose one of my prints to quilt. I made a sandwich with the printed fabric, cotton wadding and calico. Then I sewed round the edge of the feathery edges using free-machining to produce the quilted effect. It took a long time to do all the 'fingers' of paint but the final piece is very appealing.

Next we had to choose another print and try out a quilting technique called Trapunto. Here you have the printed fabric and a backing fabric and outline your shapes. I chose a more 'blobby' print and outlined the islands of colour using free-machining again.

Then you stuff selected blobs from the back with wadding.

This shows part of the back of it. You cut a slit with sharp scissors, poke the wadding in with a bodkin and then sew the slit back up with herringbone stitch. I don't know if I have over-stuffed mine as the final piece is now quite wrinkled.

Another learning point is not to use this kind of furnishing fabric as a backing fabric again as it seemed very hard to sew using free-machining - the needle seemed to get caught in the jacquard pattern.

I have been working on my manipulated calico sampler this week too. Once I had decided what size to go for (about 32cm square) and laid out the pieces I had already made I didn't have that much more to do. I have still got to mount it onto card, which is why the corners are still hanging out. The end result is going to be quite impressive.
The techniques used are (clockwise from top left):

• Furrowing (see post from Week 13)
• Pleating
• Stuffed pyramid
• Fabric strips folded alternately like a paper jack-in-a-box spring
• Frayed edge strips gathered and sewn in rows
• Selvedge strip gathered to form a rose
• Random tucks sewn horizontally and vertically
• Stuffed sausage shape decorated with a strip of gathered frayed fabric
• Frayed strip gathered to form a rose
• Circle gathered round a piece of card and topped with another one and a frayed gathered strip
• Various circles gathered and stuffed, the large one quilted through in places
• Thin strips pulled through a square of Binca fabric (in centre of sausage circle)
• Thick wool wrapped in calico
• Strips of folded fabric woven
• Raw edge circles gathered and pulled up, large one round card and small one stuffed
• Fabric gathered by hand in both directions, ruched up and sewn down round the edge only
• Fabric gathered round chick peas
• 2 circles gathered up round card, one with snipped edge and one with turned edge
• Various fabric 'nipples' made by sewing a running stitch in a spiral and pulling up
• Evenly spaced tucks pressed and then sewn across at right-angles in alternate directions

Today is it my daughter's 16th birthday so I wanted to make her a special card. I chose co-ordinating papers and decorated them in various ways, dragging the edges across a black ink pad to give a vintage look. I was very pleased to find a sheet of paper featuring a rabbit that looks similar to hers, except for the colour!

I also made a Valentine's Day card for my husband using a square of red heart plastic bag behind a silver Angelina fibre heart, topped off with a red heart cut from a Quality Street wrapper! The hearts are suspended across the window on very thin wire wrapped round tiny red brads. It looked really good for not much effort and lots of recycling!