Batik and Fabric Painting results

And the winners are:

 I prefer to use the TextilDesign Colorstop if I am using fabric paints,Jacquard water based resist if I am using Procion Dyes and the paintstiks for stencilling.

As you can see in the picture above, the colorstop didn't work very well with the dyes but works great with the fabric paint.

I also had some purple/pink mottled fabric that I had dyed a while back and wanted to do some batik on it:  Here is how it started out....

original colour

Added colorstop via a fern stencil and added red and red/black paint

After heat setting paint and washing

And last but not least, here is the flour paste resist with paint over it.

I will wait for a few days to let this "cure" before removing the resist.

(heat setting the paint would bake the resist and make it harder to remove)

Next I think I will have to go back to the discharging, I hear you can do that with the

flour paste as well.

Am really LOVING this low budget technique and  will get me kids to try some in the holidays.

Happy Quilting!

Flour paste resist

Today seemed a good time to get some "play" in before the Christmas school holiday rush and  having to tidy up my sewing room in anticipation of guests.

Lately, I have been experimenting with different types of resists with varying results:

I have been using Colorstop by TextilDesign and Jacquard water based resist. The fabric was then painted  with fabric paints.  The Colorstop was fantastic and as soon as I washed the fabric the original colour came to the surface.  The Jacquard resist however was not visible (after washing) from the front of the fabric and only slightly on the back.  I have done this twice now thinking that maybe I hadn't shaken the Jacquard resist properly the first time but the results were the same.  I will now try both with fabric dyes and if that doesn't work the Jacquard resist will be heading for the bin!

I also decided to try my hand at using a flour resist.  I saw this technique on the Quilting Arts dvd that a friend has lent me and it looked pretty cool.

 Mix equal parts flour and water to make a smooth paste.

 

Stretch fabric on a board and secure with clips.

Add paste to fabric and smooth out with a spatula or knife. 

 Make marks in the paste with the end of a bamboo skewer and let dry.

Once it is dry I will paint it with fabric paints then remove the resist by soaking in warm water.

I will post more when the results are in.....now to study for my Mandarin exam next week!

p.s don't forget to check out the www.quiltinggallery.com for their birthday "blog hop". 

 Lots of great giveaways to be had!

Pincushions galore!

On Tuesday we the end of year Christmas lunch from the ANZA (Australia/NZ) Quilters Group http://www.anzaquilters.blogspot.com here in Singapore.  We all had to make a pincushion as a "Secret Santa" gift.

What a variety of shapes and designs!
p.s The food was great too!

Making Batik fabric

Yesterday I thought I would try making my own batik fabric.  I got a piece of blue fabric that I had previously dyed and stamped on it using water based resists.

On the right is the Jacquard water based resist (flowers) and on the left is  colorstop by textil design.

I found the Jacquard resist didnt keep its edges very nicely although maybe I just put too much on.

Once this dried I sprayed green/blue fabric paints over the design and let it dry. Once dry, I heat set the paint and washed the piece in warm water.

front

This is the front of the piece and the Jacquard resist is nowhere to be seen whereas the colourstop clearly shows the original colour, however.....

back

Turn the piece over and the flowers using the Jacquard resist clearly show up.

Maybe I need to try this again.....any suggestions or advice would be warmly welcome!

Yesterday we had our Christmas lunch from the ANZA Quilters and we had a lovely meal and we all made a pincushion as a "secret santa" gift.

Photos to follow......

I have also been busy watching Quilting Arts/cloth,paper,scissors dvds that a friend has lent me.  Wow!  my head is going to explode with all the new ideas.  The problem is what project to start first?

LOVE LOVE LOVE the dvds!

You know it's going to be a good day when....

You know it's going to be a good day...... when you wake up and its the first day this week that you haven't woken up with a migraine!

You know it's going to be a good day.... when you finally clean out all the "dust bunnies" out of your sewing machine!

You know it's a good day.... when you get time to practice your freemotion quilting!

You know it's going to be a good day..... when all you have on the schedule for the day is going out to lunch!

You know it's going to be a good day.... when all you have on the schedule for tomorrow is having another lunch this time with the ANZA Quilting ladies!

Happy Quilting !

Free Motion Quilting Pledge

I have taken up the Free Motion Quilting Pledge and aim to improve my skills.

This will be similar to a block of the month with a different author teaching a new technique every month.

Click on the link below if you too would like to join this challenge!

http://sewcalgal.blogspot.com/2011/11/take-pledge-registration-for-2012-free.html

Happy Quilting!

Autumn leaves

I have had some autumn leaf fabric for some time and thought that this would make an interesting card.  I added some skeleton leaves as well. 

Note to self:  remove the fusible web from the backing paper before ironing to leaves (between layers of baking paper) so that  the leaves dont rip when removing the backing paper!

Autumn Leaves Fabric Postcard 4 x 6 inches

I had made some christmas tree tags with little asian dolls and had handwritten "Singapore 2011" on it, but I wasn't happy with my handwriting so these one's were done by printing directly onto the fabric .  I made 3 of each colour.  Much better!

I'm hoping these will sell like hot cakes at the school fair in two weeks time!

Tonight my hubby and I are off to the Affordable Art show which is on this weekend at the F1 Pit building (next to the Singapore Flyer)

One of the ladies from the ANZA Quilt group has some of her art quilts/fiber art in there. I'm  so happy to see Quilt/ Fiber art being recognised as art at last!

The last of the postcards....(I think)

Today was ANZA Quilt Group day and I was thrilled when I arrived that one of the ladies was working on a new quilt with some of my  hand dyed fabrics that she bought from me!

 After quilt group was some time to finish off the (hopefully) last of the fabric postcards that will go in the school fair next week

I even made the newspaper fabric myself!

Last Friday I went and checked out the MAAD (Market of artists and designers ) which is held once a month at the Red Dot Gallery here in Singapore.This is a craft market and has a variety of craft items all made by local artists.  Check out their website! http://www.maad.sg/

Also coming up in Singapore is the Affordable Art Fair from 18-20 November at the F1 Pit Building (by the Singapore Flyer).  I even hear a rumour that they will be having art quilts/fiber art there!

From 24 November to 26 December there is also a quilt show held at the Botonical Gardens and I have entered a couple of quilts.

Happy Quilting!

The Birds are back!

Today was a busy day in the sewing room , and all I could think of was "angry birds".

Yes they are back!

this time smaller and ready to hang on the christmas tree:

I also made some more ornament ones and started on some more fabric postcards:

Completed cards

work in progress

These were printed directly onto the fabric using freezer paper ironed to the back of the fabric and fed through my printer.

Happy Quilting!

Zentangles

And I thought I was done making Fabric Postcards!!!!!

Marbling, zentangles and more.......

Its been a week since I last blogged and I have soo much to tell....Firstly, it was my birthday last Friday (28th) and my husband suprised me with a 3 day trip to Phuket, Thailand.  We had a wonderful time!
My children also bought me some books:

Lee Child - The Affair  ( Love Lee Child books!)
Pat Ferguson - Zen Quilting Workbook
Velda Newman - A workshop with Velda Newman adding dimension to your quilts
Susan Brubaker Knapp - Point, Click, Quilt!

I have since read these from cover to cover and my head is now so full of great ideas!

On Wedesday I decided to try my hand at marbling fabric.  I have had a marbling kit for a while and just never started it.
The first attempt was done using water in a dish, adding the paper floating dots, adding the ink and stirring around the dish.
I found the dots were not very easy to use and much of the ink ended up on the bottom of the dish.  Maybe next time I need to add a oily layer to keep the ink on top of the water.

Using the water method

I wasnt overly happy with the result so I used some shaving cream in the dish instead:

Shaving cream method

Here are the results for the shaving cream method:

Using the shaving cream method

These colours are brighter but less marbled.  I suspect that the shaving cream was too thick.
Maybe I will need to try this again some time in the future!

Lastly this week I finally finished a project that I had started months ago.

A friend of mine  (Terence) makes zentangle artist trading cards and he gave me one a while ago.

I have tried to reproduce this with machine embroidery on the  sewing machine and finally it is finished:

Frog Zentangle Quilt

The original ATC with quilt

Quilting Detail

I can't be more thrilled with the quilt and especially the quilting in the background.  After reading Pat Ferguson's book I'm sure there will be more zentangle quilts in the not to distant future!

Happy Quilting!

Cloudy skies

Yesterday was Deepavali here in Singapore and so a public holiday.

The kids all went their separate ways and so I had some time to myself to try my hand at some fabric painting.

I had been wanting to try this for a while but got more than a little distracted by fabric postcards....anyway, ages ago I had bought some cloud fabric and now I am running out.  So I dyed some light blue fabric and thought I would try painting my own clouds......

I think they are a little dark and look more light a storm is brewing!

It's just as well that I have 3 more corners to practice on!

Watch this space!

Today I also had a good clean up in the sewing room....well at least that was the plan until the bookshelf broke.  Now I have books/patterns strewn all over the floor.  I feel a trip to Ikea coming on!

Happy Quilting!

British Club Quilt Challenge Singapore 2011

Today was the long awaited British Club Quilt Challenge 2011.
This is the one time of year that all the quilters from the various quilting groups in Singapore come together and have a quilt challenge/luncheon.

The quilts were absolutely beautiful and really showcased the quilting talent here in Singapore.

There is a slideshow available by clicking on the link below:

British Club Quilt Challenge Singapore 2011

This year I didn't enter a quilt but I did have a stall selling my hand dyed fabrics, fabric postcards and christmas tree tags.  I sold several items and received plenty of positive feedback as well as making plenty of new friends!

Thank you especially to my friend Kim (left) who came and helped me today as well as helping me last week with the display!

Thank you also to all those that organised today's event!

see you again next year!

1 sleep to go!...More Fabric Postcards

There is only 1 more sleep until the British Club Quilt Challenge and I have been busy making the last of the fabric postcards, christmas tree tags and hand dyed fabrics.
Here are some of the Singapore fabric postcards that I have made using photos taken by my friend Kim (with her permission of course!)

I also had some dye and a couple of fat quarters of fabric left over from last weeks dyeing session and so I dyed another couple of pieces of fabric.

Multicoloured Hand-dyes

In total I now have:

137 Fat Quarters of hand dyed fabrics

3 x 1/2 yards of hand dyed fabrics

69 Fabric Postcards

43 Christmas Tree tags

All of this was made in between watching the World Cup Rugby games.

Congratulations to the "All Blacks" of New Zealand for winning the Rugby World Cup 2011!!!!!

5 sleeps to go!!!

Today my friend Kim came over to help me with the displaying of the hand dyed fabric and the fabric postcards that we will be selling at the British Club on Tuesday.  She sorted all the hand-dyed fabrics into complimentary bundles and we tied them with ribbon and priced them.

I had no idea I had so much dyed fabric!

She also sorted out how to display the postcards nicely into the cane baskets that I have borrowed with some nice gold fabric that I had.

I LOVE dyeing fabrics and making the fabric postcards but knowing how to display things for sale seems to have completely escaped me!

If you follow my blog you will know how bad some of  my photos are and it really is a skill that I will need to master if I want to be a successful seller.  Thankfully I have good friends who are patient enough to teach me.  Thanks Kim!

I did manage to make a couple more cards today and todays theme was....

Birthdays!

Happy quilting!

6 sleeps to go!

Yes only 6 sleeps until the British Club Quilt challenge and I have been working really hard to get everything ready for the sales table.  Last count was 60 fabric postcards and 35 christmas tree tags.

Here are three that I made yesterday after the ANZA quilting group:

Today I have been busy dyeing some more fabrics.  Today I dyed 12  fat quarters of clear dark rainbow and 12 fat quarters of light muted rainbow.

Photos to follow tomorrow

Happy Quilting!

7 sleeps to go!

It's hard to believe that the British Club Quilt Challenge is only a week away and I still have so many things to do before I have everything ready!

Today I concentrated on landscape cards and managed to do three.  This was a pretty good effort seeing I also went out to buy foam and reupholstered my sons computer chair!

Moonlight

River Mouth

Winterscape

Till next time!

Happy Quilting!

Hijacked by a snake!!!

I had big plans to achieve great things in the sewing room today ....

and then Gina found a snake in the garden!

A Paradise Tree snake

We called the pest control but by the time they came the snake was long gone.They tell me the paradise tree snake is only midly venomous.  Not that this really makes me feel any better about having a snake in my garden!

Anyway after lunch I did manage to get into the sewing room and make my chinese character christmas tree tags.

I have run out of fabric printer sheets so I thought I would try my hand at printing directly onto the fabric.

I ironed freezer paper to the back of the fabric and cut it to A4 size.  I then glued the top of the freezer paper to a piece of A4 printer paper to help the printer feed it through.  I checked for any loose threads and carefully pushed  the print button.  I was very happy with the results and here are the finished tags.

Thanks to my friend Jan who helped me with the translation.