Missed the correct day but still posting.

 Yesterday was 12/2/21. I just have to put that one up.

It was a momentous day for us here in Melbourne, we are back in hard lockdown - but only for 5 days, hopefully.

Not wanting to have to wear a mask while doing my allowed walk outside, I have done a little bit more sewing. I am still playing around with the postcards. The people who get today's effort will be privileged. I will not do this one again! 

It involved tedious cutting, tedious sewing that required lots of stopping and starting while I went around the fiddly edges. I used a variegated cotton that didn't like being twisted when I changed directions. Lots of rethreading required. Thank goodness I had my machine serviced lately and the needle threader was fixed. It has been broken for almost a year, I had it booked in last March but then lockdown happened and shops were shut, the workshop I was intending to attend was cancelled, etc. Luckily I got inspired a few weeks ago and had it done. 

The colours on this piece of sample fabric didn't come out as bright/dark as the previous one, so it is not as successful. But it was challenging and I hope the recipients like them.  

I used some bag stiffener on the back for these two. I hope I can write the address on it, when I get to that point of the process. 

Playing around again

 I have no big ideas going at the moment. 

I am in a group that is going to do postcards to send to each member. I don't have much of a theme going so decided to just try some ideas.

I used the Liquid Radiance paints to colour some samples of drape fabric. I have no idea where I got the book of fabric samples but it has turned out to be useful at the moment. 

I used the white fabrics this time and washed them before use. Then I only used the three primary colours and let them run into each other and make multiple colours. 

One piece of fabric was much darker on one side than the other. 

                                     

This made me think of the Notan positive and negative idea that I tried previously. 

I didn't want to do trees this time, the colours didn't seem to suggest trees to me. I have a book of Japanese Optical Illusions and Geometric designs, so I traced one and then cut out the fabric using that. I put one lot of cutouts onto a piece of the same fabric, other side up though, to give the contrast in brightness. 

I used the base fabric I had cut the shapes out of to place onto yet another piece. 

I sewed them up using variegated fabric. I couldn't actually decide on what colour would work best, the variegated was there, to hand. Decision made. 

If I have to make an artist statement, perhaps I can say something about the shapes reminding me of the ever-present images of the covid virus! But that wasn't really the inspiration, I just like the shape. 

Fabric Paint that works like dye

 It being 2/10/20, I had to post today!

And I have something of interest - to me, anyway.

As part of the Blackwork course I am doing, we were asked to play with some colouring of the fabric. I know that dyes for plant-based fabrics usually mean you have to mordant the fabric and, honestly, I just couldn't be bothered. 

But then I saw an article in Embellish magazine, about using paint on fabric (except I didn't realise that it was paint at first, it looked like silk painting with dyes). 

The article was interesting. The person who wrote it has done several articles in this magazine over the last few years and I have read them with mild interest. But this one happened to co-incide with the need to colour my linen (or linen-cotton in some cases). 

I contacted her and bought some of her fabric paints: Liquid Radiance. It also happened that she was running a free workshop on Zoom that I could 'attend'. So I did! 

The paints have worked well on the linen and I have had a small play with using coloured (variegated) threads and black threads. I have, once again, only used what I had seeing we still can't go to the shops - they aren't open yet! 

I only used red, yellow and blue. They travel and mix well. They can be put on dry fabric or dampened. Some fabrics didn't work very well dry, especially if they had not been prewashed. The fabric sometimes resisted the water soaking in. 

This piece was so small I had to attach it to some calico to put it in the hoop. 

The paint makes the fabric a tiny bit stiffer, which isn't a bad thing, I think it is less likely to fray. 

Some of the darker patches were a little bit harder to see for the embroidery but, overall, it was successful. 

I have done some samples, now to see if I can come up with a design. 

I did also play with some Shiva Oil sticks but haven't tried to sew on that fabric yet. The colours are nice and strong and I have heat set and washed it, which did get rid of some of the residue. 

Not having any idea of what I was wanting to achieve, I just rubbed on some colour and now need to play with some sewing. If it shows up, the colour is rather strong.