"Hexagons in Retreat"

Every year my PTA group - Professional Textile Artsist formally known as Piecers, Talkers, Appliquers attend a retreat for 3 days....It is the most wonderful time for talking, eating, drinking champagne and Yes...most certainly - sewing! With all we have on the agenda, it wouldn't seem likely that we could get much sewing done...but we do. This year, I tried something a bit more ambitious.

Working with Accu Quilt and a hexagon die cut, I was able to make many hexagons the perfect size. Since I'm not a good piecer, using a cutting machine assured me greater accuracy.

I made a little dent in my project at retreat and finally finished it up at home...I really liked using this color palette and found working with all the different fabrics the most fun...very different from the way I usually work.

I pieced together several fabrics for a backing...

Some of the fabrics were quite pale and I thought they might need some interest which I created through printing. I used the same color paint as the medium value fabric and a silkscreen with words to create more visual texture. I also wanted to highlight some groupings of hexagons so I did some color switching to make them more obvious.

 
I had a mix of fabrics including some silk noil which provides such a fun nubby texture. I used the silkscreens of my grandmother's recipe book written in her hand making it more personal.

I also highlighted some of the hexagons by stitching 1/4" in from the seam using a glitzy thread - featured here - Sliver by Sulky.

And it's done - I'm still working on a name. My daughter says it reminds her of some underwater theme...actually with the browns and blues, she suggested some kind of old ship wreck...interesting thought.....for now Hexagons in Retreat will have to do.

Eco Printing with Fiber Junkies

To continue our wonderful day with Fiber Junkies....as if printing and silk screening weren't enough, our gracious hostess Val set up the workings for eco printing. ...a technique she learned in a workshop in Vermont. 

I've seen many ways to do eco printing, but basically you are using plants and other organic materials and transferring them to cloth and paper. In this case, just water and white vinegar were used. You can see some of Vals beautiful pieces above...mostly Eucalyptus leaves on Khadi paper.

Val's husband Skip set this up for us - a turkey fryer with a steam basket insert (to the left) and a propane gas tank for heating up the water solution. The pot is filled (almost to the top) with water and "enough" vinegar added at the start. I estimated the "enough" to be around1 - 1 to 1 1/2 cups. It's not an exact measurement.You are providing an acidic environment for the transfer to work. Keep the lid on and bring to a rapid boil.

The packs will be placed in this steam basket which in turn will be set down inside of the pot.

In the meantime, cut or rip your paper (can be any color) into the size of the wood blocks they'll be layered between...The papers here are @ 5" x 7". You can use larger papers that fold in half ...better for holding the leaves inside.

Val also had an Indigo pot for us to dip papers in...

Thin pieces of wood  (Cedar Shake shingles) were used to make a paper sandwich. The wood is placed on top and bottom of paper pack. Layer as follows;...wood, paper, leaves, paper, leaves...etc. The top is covered with wood and the bundle is held tightly together with clamps

as you see here. Val had Eucalyptus leaves for us...as they work very well. I brought some Maple leaves which also seemed to work. Val also used some rusted gears (first picture) which are so interesting. Whatever you use should be flat and thin.

After the bundles are secured, place them in the steamer. About half to 3/4 of the way up, slip long screws through the holes...I couldn't imagine why, but it's to keep the bundle from drifting to the top...what a clever idea. The mixture is boiled for @ 1 hour and then removed - CAREFULLY...

Kate taking a quick break here....time to "smell the roses"...or in this case, the Eucalyptus.

And the unveiling...after a short cooling down period...This is exciting.

The colored papers came out beautiful...

and the white papers took on some of the yellow paper's color.

The transfers were beautiful...this is Vals. She used a bigger sheet of paper and folded it in half trapping the leaves inside and creating a mirror image.

In any case, the papers will pick up the images from the organic matter on both sides; if the paper is a hand made paper - usually thicker, you'll get wonderful imagery on back and front.

This was my first attempt and I'm quite pleased...I have to work a little more on imagery placement but all in all, I'm happy with the results and want to try more.

In this one, you can see the vague outline of a Maple leaf (right) so I'm happy to have other leaf options...

This was the most fun day...we all went home happy campers with more treasures to add to our stash.

Fiber Junkies - Printing and other Good Stuff

Come rain or shine, nothing stops the Fiber Junkies....For the last 2 meetings, we've been wanting to do deconstructive screen printing but it's best to have a sunny day so the screens dry quickly. Forecast - rain expected...so we came prepared to do other things. Val who is our wonderful hostess...gets a little nervous when she sees ALL the stuff we bring ! How long do we plan to stay !

We get an early start...coffee, goodies and then playtime...but before that, show and tell. There's always so much to take in...such a creative group! Val showed us some beautiful eco prints she had done on paper...

Mary had her latest, wonderful wall hanging made with some very special batik fabric her son brought her from one of his trips.

Kates latest books created with fabric Kate had made.

We all brought back our fabric pieces from the last meeting...this is one of Denny's...

who is without a doubt....

The "Queen" of layering imagery...She does have a wonderful eye for doing this...all of these are from Denny...

and this one...

and in her spare time, a quilt made from leftover blocks. She placed colored circles throughout the quilt to break up some of the stronger black and white sections.

Gen with her beautiful alcohol ink cards....

And now on to our playing...As luck would have it, the sun did come out but we were prepared for anything. Denny brought her sponge rollers which were so much fun last time.

She also prepared lots of screens for printing..

I loved the roller brushes..

but had the most fun with stencils and thickened dyes...It was a "3 for 1" deal. The stencil was laid down on the fabric, then a blank silk screen on top of that to keep the stencil stable. Thickened dyed was applied with a squeegee.

And the fabric....Don't love it....but then...

A second piece was laid down on the silkscreen which picked up some of the dyes in the process....Using my hands and gently pressing the fabric into the screen, produced......

This....really liked it...

and the third print....the stencil with the excess dye was laid on top (face down) of fabric...

and pressed gently to get this...Really like this!

There always seems to be a favorite "thing" at each meeting and this time it was Denny's tree. It was a little fragile and had to be used underneath a blank silk screen.

The dye was applied to the stencil and then laid face down on the fabric. Next came the blank silk screen to protect the stencil....A squeegee was gently pulled over the top

and the results...

Kate did some deconstructive printing...her colors!

and Denny who uses a lot of masks as a resist...

and Vals beautiful work...a great day and more to come on Eco printing.