more transfer experiments

Last night I came home to the new issue of Stitch with the Embroiderer's Guild magazine. I love this publication and they have a great website.

After reading it over, I set up the ironing board and tried one of the techniques in the article on transfering text and images onto fabric. I just put one of my color laser printed copies face down onto fabric and ironed. And ironed and pressed and ironed. I got some ghostly faded images and some pretty good ones.

I realized I need images I can show. I've been using images I got when I donated to Art e-Zine and I don't feel comfortable sharing them unless they're firmly imbedded into a piece of art I make.

So today I printed out multiples of one of my photographs and I plan to try all of my experiments on that, repeating the ones I've already done, and then I can post them to show.

Hearts!

Last night I didn't get to the fusible. PBS was airing a program on the Parthenon that I wanted to watch so I sat and made some hearts using the Clover template. I have two hearts, this one and a large one, a flower and at teeny-tiny circle. I got them at Jo-Ann's, but they vanish quickly.

The templates are quick and fun to use and there's no tedious fussy cutting.

Planning for Valentine's Day (I usually make my sweetie a Valentine), I had on hand a block of fat-eighths in pinks and reds, all washed and pressed and ready to go.

In short order I had four large hearts and four small ones completed. I think I'll use some small ones in a Pink Challenge square. As for the Valentine, I'm still thinking about ideas.

First comes the birthday though (hubby's birthday is Sunday)!

Pink

Here are my first attempts at making 2" pink squares for the Pink Artist doll challenge by Monica Magness.

The pictures were from magazines and I used fusible hem-webbing to capture the image. I wet and rubbed off the paper and then fused the design to gingham. I then used fabric markers and Sharpies and a gold gel pen to color in the images and shade the edges a bit to blend them into the fabric.

The words were clipped from some law texts I'd rescued from the trash heap. The other trims and threads were things I had hanging around.

I backed them with the same prequilted fabric I used for the TIF piece. It provides a nice body to them and isn't too thick.

Last week I printed out two pages of faces for an experiment with a variety of small faces on each page. I coated one page with acrylic gel medium from Golden. I layered several thin coats, letting it dry in between. Then I let it dry for about 24 hours. I soaked it in cool water and rubbed off the paper from the back. The dried gel stretches so you need to be careful to work on a smooth, flat surface and mostly in a gentle circular motion to keep it from stretching too much. When it dried, I could see spots where I'd missed paper bits so I wet it again and rubbed some more.

The images are embedded in the clear gel. I know I can use the medium to glue them onto paper or fabric. I'm not sure how the gel will hold up to stitching. I plan to cut them apart and use them in projects as yet unknown (maybe some more pink squares).

I learned this technique back in the 70s in college. I made a collage from magazine photos, trimming them carefully to avoid overlap (so there was no glue on the back of the paper). I coated my collage with the medium and built up several layers. After removing the paper, I used this as a negative to make a photo-etched plate and then printed my etchings.

The second half of my experiment was to take the second page of images and iron on Wonder-Under, then remove the paper. It wasn't a failure in that I learned what doesn't work. The Wonder-Under was just too light and fell apart when I tried to remove the paper.

I've seen this someplace on the Internet and Bond-a-Web was recommended, which appears to be the same as Wonder-Under. Of course I can't find the site now! I know the technique works from using it with the hem tape and the hem tape was a lot heavier than the Wonder-Under.

I have since learned there's a heavy-duty Wonder-Under that would likely be better. Since I already have the regular, I plan to experiment by layering a few sheets together.

I want to get this to work because I like the aged and worn look the fusible gave to the images. The gel images are exactly like the photos. So I'm off to experiment some more.

January TIF completed

My Take-It-Further page is done and scanned. I'm pleased with the way it came out but happy to have a few days before the new challenge. Looking at it now it doesn't seem like that huge of a project, but it's more than I usually do, quicker than I usually do it and I neglected a lot of other things whilst doing it.

I also learned a lot and experimented a lot and had a whole lot of fun. Here's the piece with all of it's flaps in order. Here is the back. And here is the front with some of the flaps opened.

This lovely little hand embroidered handkerchief was a gift from my husband to me; another antique find.

JLC Studio

Check out this wonderful blog done by the daughter of a friend of mine. I went to take a quick look and got lost for quite a while in the wonderful images. She has a wonderful design sense. http://jlcstudio.blogspot.com/

nearly done with January TIF

First, I want to say that Quilting Arts was totally responsive to my complaints about the lost order, which was really nice. It still hasn't made it to me but I'm sure it will be here soon and all will be well.

Last night I put the pieces for the January Take It Further Challenge. Tonight I'm going to go by a friend's and borrow her sewing machine and sew the backing on. It's all pinned and ready to go.

I quilted the bottom layer with Kreinik Gold Cord. I like the subtle added dimension.

I hemmed or buttonhole stitched around each of the top layer panels. This words panel is on the plastic-coated washable printer fabric. I bound it with leftover fabric from my sister's wedding (bride's maid dresses).

The floral printed quilted fabric is a leftover and will be the backing. I'm not sure what I used it for, but I think I made something for my sister with it. In any case, I think it complements the other colors and was handy.

The last bit I have is something I found on my quick visit to Jo-Ann's Fabrics for the printer fabric. I found these acrylic letters and plan to stitch the admire one onto the back of the back panel. I think I will also include a label of some sort but I haven't thought it out yet.

In the meantime, I've joined the Visions of Pink project by Monica (thanks for your kind words, Monica). I'm a Pink Artist (see the button to the left). My friend Jane and I are going to get together and make a few squares. I had some pink gingham handy and got going already.

I've been cleaning and clearing things out, in particular old magazines, and I found this reference to a photo transfer technique using fusible. And in my cleaning I came across my grandmother's button bag (it's an olive drab twill drawstring bag, I'm sure made from some WWII era surplus garment, with buttons and other sewing bits). In it I found a small roll of 1" wide hem bonding web.

So I cut some faces from the magazines I was trashing and gave it a go. I tore the magazine pages to give a rough edge for easier removal of the backing paper. I used a Teflon press sheet and fused the web to the front of my chosen photo. Once cool, I peeled it off and pressed it face down onto some neutral fabric. Pressed it good and let it cool.

Then I soaked the fabric/photo in water and gently rubbed off the excess paper. I was quite happy the image was there and nicely old looking.

Once the fabric was dry, I added more iron on to the back of the image and pressed it to my pink gingham. Then late last night, I colored my images in with fabric pens, sharpies, and a gold gel pen. The faces don't look much like the original but I really like them. Here are the original images.

We're also doing a lot of clearing out at work and I had pulled a couple of law text books from the garbage last year, with intentions of trying an altered book. I scanned through one for some good words and used a glue stick to tack them into position until I get into the basement boxes and find the pva or textile medium. I've pined a bit of lace onto Mona. I need to make a 2" template before proceeding. It was a fun way to end the day.

I spent a few minutes in Michael's last night and found some charms I plan to use on other pink squares and some pink ribbon.

Cold Weekend

I don't have any pictures today. I've been having a frustrating time and didn't get to the point of scanning anything until quite late last night.

Quiting Arts never sent my order (a first, they're usually pretty good). I ran out to Jo-Ann's late last week and got some of the printer fabric sheets they stock. I got Blumenthal Craft silk habotai which is a lovely fabric, but hard to manage. It will not stay on grain once removed from the backing. But it presses nicely and is sheer enough to work for what I want. It printed beautifully. I actually think this will work better than the organza I'd ordered from Quilting Arts.

I also got a large package of June Tailor Colorfast sheets. I've used June Tailor products before, but this one is just awful. The sheets are more plastic than fabric and while they say sew in, they definitely mean machine sew. It's nearly impossible for hand sewing. The image printed nicely but I hate the feel of the "fabric."

A couple of tips I learned for handling the silk habotai: Press, don't slide the iron. Stick to a silk setting, no hotter or the fabric will stick. Dampen with a spritz of water and it will press beautifully smooth and when damp it will set nice creases. I was trying to press a double fold hem into all four sides of fairly small pieces. I laid the fabric on the board and cut it square. I spritzed it and folded up the first fold. Then I ran into a conundrum.

If I dampened it to set the second fold, then the first would disappear before I could manipulate the second. However, I learned that if I sprayed the cotton ironing board cover, gently laid the silk on it and then pressed my hem, there was enough steam to set the second crease without the first fading away. I also learned to fold from each corner and press to the center. They're still not at square as I would have liked. A possible solution might be to cut cardboard or heatproof plastic to the final hemmed size and press the fabric over the template. Of course, I didn't think of that until well afterward.

I spent most of the weekend with the overlays for my January TIF journal page. I had gathered images over the past several weeks and set them up in documents to fit the pages of the journal. I printed them Friday, let them dry and then pressed them to set. I pressed in the hems and stitched them all by hand (some straight stitch and others buttonhole). I bound the edge of the piece I printed on the June Tailor plastic with red fabric from my sister's wedding. I also stitched the loops that will be sewn in to the side for binding. I backed my PaintStick-stenciled-and-rubbing square with some wool batting and basted around the outside edge and around the border of each "window" with Kreinik cord (I think in the silk-gold mix, Vatican). It's subtle but I really like it. I found a piece of eyelet lace to add to one edge.

I realized I was beginning to feel really pressured by the challenge; I usually work much slowly and this is intense for me. I took a break and felted the last (yea!) of the hats I'd knit for Christmas. We're finally getting together with my brother's family and I needed to get this last one done. I used a Fiber Space pattern for the hats (felted baseball cap) and Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride and Nature Spun together. They felted beautifully and are great fun to do but after making eight of them, I'm done for now.

I felt by hand at the kitchen sink using a huge Pyrex bowl, mini-scrub board, potato masher, vegetable brush, dish soap and boiling water. The perfect task for a near-zero degree day like we had Saturday.

Lillian sent me an article from the New York Times (December 28, 2007) on an embroidery exhibit. Pricked: Extreme Embroidery It's quite interesting and I wish I was in New York to see it. The Chicago Cultural Center is more doable and they have a new embroidery exhibit open that I hope to get to soon. Petronele Gerlikiene: Embroidered Myths and Everyday Stories. It's there until April 6.