Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Stamping and so on

Lots of stuff to show today - and even more if you want to see it all in depth because you're some sort of mad-dyeing addict... This first piece above is for my stamping swap with my dyeing group - we are swapping 8 fat eighths, done anyway you like as long as the piece used a stamping technique. Because it's a dyeing group rather than a surface embellishment group I have used thickened dyes rather then paints or similar. I had a lot of fun with this - I did this differently than I usually do, in that I did it as one large piece rather than individual pieces. And I decided that I would resist the tempation to get all my stamps out and use them, but rather try out a few things I've had on The List. So I started with bubble wrap to add a textured background, then did a large leaf in two colours, then added some potato stamps (nothing too intricately carved, just rough and ready) and finally finished up with a scrub-brush. I've got photos of the whole process step-by-step in my flickr album for anyone who is one of those dye-addicts I mentioned above...



I also did some stamping for another swap, this time with my surface embellishment group (actually I did these first, but whatever). The idea behind this swap was to use stamps made from styrofoam trays, like pizza bases or meat trays. I "carved" the designs with a fairly pointy chopstick. Because this was a surface embellishment group, I used a variety of paints and dyes - did a couple with thickened dyes, but actually, these worked better with other things - I like the MetaMica paint best, I think. More details on those in the flickr album, as well.

I also worked for a while on my little quilt for the Miniature Booty Swap, but I can't show any progress on that, as it's all secret :) Then I decided to put that aside while I knocked up a quick bag for a friend's birthday. (This is front and back view showing).



The baby quilt below wasn't strictly speaking something I worked on today - I finished the quilting ages ago, but hadn't got around to binding it yet - sewed the binding down last night at my quilting group. I now have two baby quilts in stock, which is a good thing, as I have two pregnant friends. One of the teachers at school, who had two of my kids in nursery is having a baby in the summer so I think I need to get another one ready - and then, of course, I need more for my stockpile - it never ends!



And finally. Last but not least, and all that. A brown postcard from Chris and the piece which I am going to send on for my latest complex cloth round robin. I usually pick a piece which didn't really come out to be as exciting as it should have done. This is a parfait type piece which was just a bit washed out. Hopefully, having three other people add some sort of treatment to it will improve it a bit!

7 comments:

Vicki W said...

Your stamped fabrics are awesome!!

sewkalico said...

Another busy day! Liked the stamped fabrics particularily.

Anonymous said...

What a beautiful explosion of colour Kate; a feast for the eyes very yummy.

Unknown said...

Whew! And you bug me about being an overachiever???? I'm trying to catch my breath from just reading! Beautiful fabrics and thanks for the flikr stuff too.(yes, I'm one of those!)
Kelly

artisbliss said...

We must both be in a dyeing state of mind lately.

I LOVE the baby quilt.

Julie said...

Phew! Just caught up on 10 days of postings! Lots of inspiring work as usual Kate. I especially like the styrofoam printing here and your turquoise JQ lower down. Thanks you for posting the process for the printing in Flickr.

Anonymous said...

So much goodness today, Love it all.