Postcards, books and printing on felt

Completed Apache top

It has been an interesting week. For once I have quite a number of completed, or nearly completed items to share. 

Firstly, a photo of the completed knitted top which I talked about last time. As you can see it has a really interesting closure in that there is a knitted tab which is pushed through a buttonhole in the right front of the waistcoat. This should be handed back tomorrow.

Printing on felt

On Friday I went along to a workshop at Friday Felters. This was with Val Hughes, a very talented textile artist. This was a really interesting session, although I must admit to not liking the block printing medium which I used for my sample. The felt is still sticky today. I shall have another go and print using my usual fabric paints. The blocks shown above were made at the workshop using foam board as a backing with thin foam. As you can see, I cut the foam so that I could use a positive and negative of the same design. I haven't used the second block yet, I found the idea of printing on felt had a lot of possibilities and will definitely be doing it again.

Completed book cover

 You may recall this post, where I showed an earlier stage of working to put this book together. Since March, I have been steadily adding bits and pieces to my book, deciding yesterday that it really now needed to have a cover. So, here it is. I still haven't filled all the pages, but will continue to add bits and pieces during the rest of the year. Tomorrow, it will be travelling along with me to the NWCQ meeting where other members will be showing their altered books. I didn't join in with that topic, preferring to make my own book rather than use a printed book. I really don't know what they will make of my version.
The cover is part of the old sheeting on my small printboard which I replaced earlier. Shocking to think it has languished in my fabric stash for so long before being used. However, it was perfect for this book cover. Just the right size too. It won't be too long before I need to replace the current printboard cover on that same small board......
The cover is stretched over a piece of foamboard which was left over from making some exhibition notices last year. Useful stuff. It is quite sturdy and stops the book becoming too heavy.

A few of the pages

 The next two photos show some printed bits and pieces which may well end up inside the book once they are completely dry.

Some material to be added to the book

 The lettering was printed using a set of children's wooden letters which I have had since my teaching days. Rather nice to be able to use them. The block pattern at the top of the above photo is another of my home made blocks made using foam board, double sided tape and thin foam. Like the earlier blocks, this also has a negative block which I haven't yet used for printing.

A sample to try out the lettering

This scrap of fabric is all that remains of the printboard cover which I used for the book cover. So useful to have a piece like this to use to try out different things.

My postcard - "Wish you were here"

Last week, I went along to a Pinfold meeting where the challenge was to complete a fabric postcard on the topic, "Wish you were here." I decided to revisit the design I used for my Horizons quilt, "Caribbean Memories". The original design was 0.5m wide and 1.5m long (19.75" x 39.5"). You can see it here. This piece still needs to be trimmed. It uses scraps of sheer and satin fabrics with some woven silk over a backing of calico. The detail of the leaves has been free machined with a small amount of paint used for the coconuts. The size of this piece will be 87mm x 139mm (3.5" x 5.5"). I will be taking this to the beading group in the morning since they are considering this as a challenge.

Printed fabric and introducing Humphrey.

Newly printed fabric drying

More fabric drying

These are the fabrics I printed using some of the fabric I showed last time - I have used fabric paints to print these. I wanted to collect together some samples using different types of print media ready for a print workshop I am giving later in the year.

My print board

 I just love the patterns collecting on my large print board. It gets more interesting each time I use it. The small board wasn't required this time since I was working outside. However, that is collecting some interesting patterns too.

Printed dyecatcher which had been used to clean up after another dyeing workshop.

Another printed dyecatcher. Having a paperlike texture, they print really well.

This piece had been printed before being dyed.
I have added the same design over the top using a thermofax.

I really enjoyed the session and managed to print quite a few pieces, The last one shown above is one of my favourites since it is going to be such a useful background for something one day.

Humphrey

I need to introduce Humphrey, a small dog made during a short workshop with Alsager Creative Stitchers. Such fun. Rosemary, who lead the session made a small butterfly for each of us to attach to our little figures. You can see the other creatures here.

That butterfly. So sweet.

Humphrey is barely 2.75inches tall (7.5cm) and the butterfly is just one inch (3cm) wingtip to wingtip.

Rowan Apache

At the meeting I was asked if I could complete this project - the design is called Apache and is by Sarah Hatton for Rowan. The yarn is Summer Tweed. Since the back had been completed and the two fronts only needed a little alteration before completion, it really didn't take long to complete. The top is now finished and ready to be returned. Hopefully, I should be able to hand it over next week.

Dyeing to print

The first of my dyed pieces. I have shown the tied piece and then when I unwrapped each piece, taking the photo before rinsing. Disappointingly all my fabrics became very pale after rinsing them out...... Not sure why.

It is really interesting to see the befores and afters. These will all be used for overprinting. Hopefully I shall be able to spend some time outside later today with my printing boards.

This piece of cotton start life as a muslin for a costume, hence the drawn lines.

This piece was calico and the dye just didn't penetrate as well as I'd hoped. Still, the fabric is interesting.

This was another thin strip of cotton. Rather pretty, I thought.

An interesting piece of shibori.

This probably didn't work so well since it was another piece of that calico.

I was rather pleased with this piece. A strange shape as most of my bits seem to be.....

This looks quite faint even here, but an interesting piece which should print beautifully.
These were all dyed using Procian dyes during a day spent with the MEG group at Brenda's house. I must be feeling braver since I really feel keen to have a day spent trying the dyes for myself here at home. Thanks Brenda, I've only ever tried dyeing as a member of a group before......
Ah well, off to get set up outside and get some printing done. These are going to be samples for a workshop I am leading later this year.