Painting, Dyeing and Discharging Fabric

I've been having a good time with fabric.  Mono printing some which I featured in last months post, more shibori printing, dyeing and discharging cottons.  I completed another wall hanging using a mono print I did some time ago.  It's a "keeper" for right now, this one won't be going to any Farmer's Markets or Craft Fairs for awhile.  It's hanging in my living room.  I used some of my dyed fabric as well as rusted and painted cotton.  I stamped a dragonfly on a small piece of cotton to add a little interest. I also used some commercial batiks, love 'em!  I love poppy seed heads, as a matter of fact, I like most seed heads and that time of year is upon us.  I must get out to the garden to see what I can capture with my camera!  Below is a posting of the Poppy Seed Head hanging.  It looks a little warped in the photo, it really doesn't look this way on the wall but this gives you an idea of the piece.

Yesterday it was beautiful outside with little wind.  A very good day for Discharging fabric.  You need good ventilation when working with discharge paste and/or bleach products.  I also wear a mask seen in one of the photos. 

This first picture shows a shot of the paste after I have applied it to the black fabric. It has to dry.

 

The next step is to iron the discharged fabric.  I wear my mask to do this because of the fumes and I don't have my ironing board outside :)

You can see the results after ironing in this picture above.
Here in the picture below are some tools I used to print the fabric.  Just some things from around the house.  A piece of cardboard, a plastic tray something came packaged in and some netting from an onion bag.

The Final Results!

I'm liking this but I'm still not sure what I'll use it in.  I have been screen printing some black on white cotton too so maybe it will be an all black and white wall hanging.  Never know!

My good friend Kathleen invited me to go for a ride over to Keepsake Quilting recently.  It was a beautiful day and although I had some housework to get done, I thought I could get to that another time, maybe tomorrow. ;)  So we had a pleasant ride, stopped at the Moulton Farm for some warm, fresh apple cider doughnuts, delicious!!!  On to Keepsake.  I had to take a couple of pictures of the outside of their beautiful shop.  The flowers were just beautiful!

And of course the inside of the shop is amazing, soooooo much beautiful fabric!  Even though I don't buy much fabric anymore due to my playing with fabric, I still found some batiks to bring home.

Kathleen made a very cute baby quilt for a friend of hers. She bought the fabric squares at the Mancuso Show and  she found just the right solid fabric at Keepsake for the border of the quilt.

 

Remember to play a little every day!

 

Peace,

 

Diane