Driving on Fumes

I've been working feverishly on my black and white piece for the SHCG exhibition this September.  I have a busy next few months and I knew I had to get going on this now.  The fabric my friend Mary gave me has worked so beautifully, all the value ranges in black and white.  I'm finding the lightest one is the one I use most.  The whites you see are all tone on tones. 

 This one particular pointillist fabric (the lightest one) has become something of a valued commodity. I've been hoarding bits and pieces.

 This is something I don't usually do, I'm a "thrower-outer" and a "cleaner-upper" but every thread of this fabric is like gold to me. You can see the tiniest bits and pieces I'm saving and savoring! I feel as though I'm "driving on fumes" trying to make use of every little bit of fabric.

 I realized after much hair pulling that I wasn't going to have enough of the lightest fabric, the one I needed most. What to do?  I had an India ink pen supposedly good for making silk screens as the ink will burn out the image on a Thermofax so I decided to give it a try.  I made a series of tiny very tiny dots with this pen.

 And SUCCESS, I have a screen I can hopefully duplicate or come close to the fabric I need which is a white background and very tiny randomly placed dots.

 The tiny little scrap below on the right is my favorite fabric lying on top of the one I duplicated. It works pretty good and hopefully from a distance, no one will ever be the wiser!

 My piece is near completion as far as putting the fabrics down. I still have to quilt and frame it so there's still some work to be done but it feels good to get this far. I'm using a canvas - 24 x 30 that's been pre-stretched as a base.

 So looks like another full day in the studio finishing this.
Have a great weekend, I'm so chomping at the bit to be outside in this pretty weather