Botanical Printing

This summer I haven't made a lot because I've been unwell.  But I did get to do some botanical printing on my heat press.  The prints below were done with a wild grape colour blanket.  I'm glad I planted the Japanese maple last year because it shows up well.  The other plants are St. John's wort, rose leaves and coreopsis flowers.

The prints below are a little smaller and are overprinted on backgrounds I didn't like that much from previous printing. More coreopsis and Japanese maple.  Thanks again for having a look.

Munster Library exhibit

 Out-of-the-Box had an exhibit at the Munster Library in April 2023.  This is the piece I made for the show.  It measures 18.5 X 25.5 inches.   It's called New Life.  The theme of the show was Spring Awakening.  I made this with hand painted fabric (sun printed) for the top and hand painted cotton for the bottom.  I added some hand embroidery and machine quilting.  Thanks for having a look!

Fibre Fling 2023

We just had Fibre Fling 2023 at Kitchissippi United Church in April and this year it was in person again.  I had some hand painted fabrics for sale there and I did sell some.  I haven't been posting because I've been unwell for several months.  But I'm slowly getting into making some artwork again.  Here are some of my fabrics on the left three rows.  It was so great to have a live show again!

Fibre Fling 2022

Out of the Box Fibre Artists is having their Fibre Fling show online again this year!  The show last year was very well attended.  I will have some botanical print silk scarves and greeting cards for sale.  Please mark the dates in your calendar and visit us at https://fiber-fling.ca/ between April 23rd and May 8th.  Enjoy the show!

 

 

Wedding Quilt!

When my husband and I got married I asked each guest at our wedding to bring a piece of fabric that represented something to them.  My idea was to make a wedding quilt out of the fabrics to hang on the wall.  I also had the guests sign a large piece of fabric which I would include.   I had set myself a large challenge because I received such a variety of fabrics it was difficult to make them all look good together.  I wanted to include all of them so I ended up including some of them on the back.  Well it has taken me longer than I had hoped because there were so many little decisions to make and because I realized later that  I enjoy the designing part but I don't enjoy quilting the layers together as much.  I also went from quilter to textile artist in the meantime so my style has changed.  But I realized recently that I really wanted to finish it so I pushed through and here it is ready in time for our 25th wedding anniversary in July 2022!  Phew!  I'm actually happy with it.  It measures 46.5 inches square.  Click on each photo to enlarge. 

 This is the back of the quilt:

The signed piece of fabric:

And here is the label I made for it:

Please leave a comment below and thanks for having a look!

Botanical Playdate Results

Here are the results of my eco printing session with Janet Tulloch last week.  These are the wool samples I printed.  I haven't done much printing on wool so I will have to practise.  But I'm pleased with the results.

Here are both of the samples together:

 

Here's a close up of the second one which I quite like:

Here's the cotton sample which I printed with a logwood colour blanket:

 And here's the actual colour blanket.   I used a piece of poly/cotton sheeting for this:

 

I was pleased with how well the prints turned out considering that we were using frozen leaves.  We used maple leaves, cotinus, rose and coreopsis leaves.  Thanks for having a look!

Botanical printing playdate

Yesterday I did some eco printing with Janet Tulloch at my house.  We had such fun learning from each other!  Janet works more with felted wool and I work with cotton and silk.  I also showed her how to use the heat press on paper and a little on fabric.  We used leaves we had frozen last month.  We used a logwood blanket on cotton fabric and with the eco printing on watercolour paper.

 A photo of me rolling my fabric onto the bundle rod:

 

 Here is my layout on a beautiful sample of felted wool that Janet gave me.

 Here are our leaves laid out on cotton fabric strips which were premordanted:

 Janet's paper prints from the heat press using logwood as a colour blanket and avocado:

 I'll post some of the results of yesterday's eco printing session soon!