Having a play...

I think it's partly a reaction to finishing a big quilt, but I've found myself mucking about with small bits of fabric recently, trying a few new ideas and styles in small items.  It helps that I've had my own screen-printed fabrics to play with, plus my new year fabric binge, that has been waiting patiently for my attention!

Here's what I've been up to:

A few zippy's:

This one uses a fussy cut clock from Melody Millers Ruby Star Shining range - which I love.  Mum loved it too, so she bought it! (am I mean to "sell" things to my own Mum?!)  I had a play with adding a few teeny bits of leather, a little tab, and as a zipper pull.

Then, I got brave and cut into one of my screen-printed designs.  This zippy uses a panel that I printed on calico, a little Echo and a piece of suede, which I've stitched over in a random design.

 Spurred on, I cut into another yellow panel and a red leather scrap and attempted to make an iPad holder.  I say "attempted" because in my desire to make it a snug fit, I forgot about the fact that zipper tabs at the ends would shorten the zip length and therefore make it impossible for me to get an iPad in it - doh!

And finally, I made Felix a little skirt, using a charity shop sourced M&S vest top which I've recycled and appliqued with, yes you've guessed it, another of my screen-printed scraps!

I am planning to do a tutorial for a similar style of skirt for Sarah's "Sew: Get started" series of simple sewing tutorials on 22nd March, so if you have a little person who would look cute in one of these, then look out for that!
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Better than Pronta-print!

On Tuesday, I was lucky enough to spend a day with Sue Harrison,  a local textile printing artist.  As you may already know, getting an insight into printing my own fabrics was on my new year resolution list, so you can imagine how excited I was about this!

It was a great day, with Sue allowing Josephine (my "classmate") and I to play in her studio.  We started off with simple mono-printing on paper first, to get the feel of it.  This involves painting a canvas sheet with your chosen colour and then laying paper on top.  Various techniques were then used to create a design..

We tried drawing directly into the paint with a stick or pencil (shown above) and drawing and impressing stamps and other items on the back of the paper, which then picked up the paint from underneath.

(the print take from the canvas above)

We tried cutting paper shapes to block out areas, before pressing paper on top to create a print.

We then tried adding a second colour, using the first technique, and cutting more advanced patterns from paper.  All of this was experimental and we could have played for hours with different colours and techniques.

Satisfied with the progress, we moved onto screen printing, and I used simple cut-out paper shapes to create this design. 

The difference with screen printing is that the result is a much more crisp matt image, and also that the paper template adheres to the screen, allowing you to run off quite a few prints before it starts to disintegrate.  I was amazed at how professional the resulting print was, even though I'd only spent 10 minutes cutting the shapes. I grabbed my calico and furnishing fabrics to create a few copies to take home with me.  Sue explained that we could mix the techniques to create interesting finishes, with the rougher looking mono-print over-printed with a striking screen print.  Here it is in the process:

(mono-print in black completed and paper shapes laid on top in preparation for screen printing)

(screen-printed over the top with more mono-printing highlights then added in green - remind you of 1950s wall paper?!)

More playing...and a delicious lunch, and then we had an hour or so to work on any ideas we'd had.  Josephine had chosen a hilarious moustache theme and printed a set of six napkins, along with this comedy hankie for her daughter!

And I chose text, because I thought I'd be able to cut it up and use it in my patchwork...  I spent 20 minutes cutting various letters and numbers carefully out of two layers of newsprint paper with a craft knife, and then we used the first sheet to print in black...and the second sheet to print in red.

(one of four different panels I printed in this way)

 I was so chuffed with the results, especially because I'd opted to print the text on a soft oatmeal linen that will be really usable.   The dyes are fixed using a hot iron, so will be washable and usable in quilts, cushions, bags etc

And finally, since the screen was set up up, I even printed the letters over the work I'd done earlier in the day, just to see how it looked.

which kind of reminded us of political posters,

Even from this short day, I am so excited by the potential and could see how I could add to simple designs with machine embroidery or applique, so I owe huge thanks to Sue for opening up her home to let us play for a day!

Now, is there room in my sewing room for a screen and a few tubs of dye?!!

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