Tuesday 15 January 2008

More Thread Play

Back last September a new e-zine came along, http://www.fibreandstitch.com/ , and for some reason I decided that I would treat myself to a subscription - don't ask me why as we all know I am still struggling along a bit!! Part of the deal with the sub is that you get automatic membership of a very lively Yahoo Group. Now, there are some really talented gals running the zine ( not to mention some of the Groupies !!) and whilst most of the content is way over my head, there have been one or two articles that that made me think - Hmm - I could try that !

One article in particular that took my fancy was 'The Magic of Transfer Paints' by Margaret Roberts. So.....having aquired a starter kit of transfer dyes, I have been having a play !! I really had no idea of what was going to happen when I started slapping paint all over bits of computer printing paper, but - WOW!! What wonderful results !

Now the proud owner of my first 'home dyed' fabric (not counting the play I have had with rust dying and shaving cream, but we have all done that haven't we ?) I didn't quite know what to do with it. I was going to try the Flexi Bag pattern on the freebies site of F&S (go have a look !), but hadn't made a big enough 'nice' piece of fabric, so I decided to practise some FME on it instead.




I am very pleased with the way the colours came out in real life, they are a bit dark in the pic, and the instructions on how to print the daisies by using 'masking' shapes were so easy to follow, but so effective too !! My dragonfly is my first try at using water soluble stabiliser and again I am reasonably pleased with the end result, still room to improve I know, but....!! The little unfinished piece is 6 x 6 (honestly it is square !!) and I am certain I will be trying both these techniques out again before too long and I am determined to have a go at that Flexi Bag, but before then I will have to get some additional dye colours . In the meantime back to the rotary cutter, as I have decided on a new quilt and I need 640 rectagles 2" x 3 1/2" !!!!

2 comments:

Nellie's Needles said...

What fun! It definitely looks like a bright summer day.

Digitalgran said...

Well done Ann. I love what you have done with that and I'm so glad you are enjoying transfer painting. I have been using some of my fabrics to make pages for swaps the last few days too. do you need some help with your fabric cutting? Bring them over!