Eco printing in July

It's been waaay too long since I posted something!  No real excuses just very busy with non art related things.   Fibre Fling went well for me in April.   I sold all of my painted and dyed fabrics and all of my eco print cards!  I was very pleased.

So I've started experimenting again with eco printing on fabric.  Yesterday I printed on silk scarves using ferrous sulphate solution to dip the leaves.  We have lots of good foliage now so I was excited to try it out.  I learned recently about a few more plants to print.  The following are scarves on the washline.

This one above is a crepe silk scarf printed with sumac leaves, wild raspberry and wild strawberry leaves.  I used an iron blanket on it which explains the negative looking prints.

These two scarves are a little harder to distinguish.  I put some flowers on the end of the left one and they didn't really print at all.  The right one is mostly sumac branches.

This photo is a little clearer.  I have buckthorn leaves, thimbleberry leaves and sumac leaves on this one.  They came out in various brown colours.

In this photo the scarf in the middle I put some coreopsis flowers and buckthorn branches.  So there's more colour in it.  The last piece of fabric on the right was the iron blanket I used on the first scarf above - a piece of cotton which actually printed quite well itself.  I'm pleased with all of these and hope to now incorporate some more colour into them.

I've enrolled myself in an online course with Kathy Hayes at the end of July.  I'm excited to learn some new techniques including stamping with natural dyes.

Thanks for having a look!

Fibre Fling 2019!

Fibre Fling is next weekend, April 5-6.  I recently have had a lot going on including starting a great new job so I've been a little preoccupied.   But now I'm busy getting my items ready for the show.  See below for show details.  It's at Kitchissippi United Church which is at 630 Island Park Drive at the Queensway.  Admission is $5.  I will be there on Saturday afternoon.  I will have my hand dyed and hand printed fabrics for sale and as well as some eco print cards.  The hand dyed fabrics have been dyed using snow and ice as a resist.  The hand printed fabrics were mostly printed at my family cottage using plant materials.   I hope to see you at the show!

Ice Dyeing

Pat Hardie and I are doing a presentation at the OOTB meeting in March on snow and ice dyeing.  Last year she taught me how to do snow dyeing.   I've been doing more ice dyeing this winter because it's something I hadn't done yet.  Here are some photos of the process.

I've put some white cotton fabric in the bottom of the colander.  Then I put ice cubes on top.  I sprinkled Procion MX dye powder on top of the ice cubes.  Here you can see it melting.

And here is the finished fabric after setting and washing out the next day.  The patterns might be a little larger than with snow dyeing but I like it! Ready for use in any project.  Goes to show you it doesn't have to be winter for you to ice dye some fabric.

Piece for Summer Fibrations

I made a piece that will be in the Summer Fibrations show at the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum in Almonte June 22 to July 6, 2019.   It measures 8"W X 6"L and will be in the Soft Green section.    It was difficult to work on such a small scale!  I'm used to making much larger pieces.  The fabric is hand painted and printed.  I did some hand embroidery for the grasses at the bottom.  I attached it to a painted canvas.  Thanks for having a look!

Stittsville Library show

So we hung up the Stittsville  Library display on the weekend and it looks very good!  The theme this year is "Favourite Quote".  The show will be hanging up until December 31st.  Some of the items are for sale and have prices on them.   Below is an overview of the pieces on the walls.

Here's a closer look at one side.

Here's the other side. ( My piece is on the top right hand side).

Here are some photos of the display case:

Thanks for having a look!  If you can, do drop by during the month of December.  It will be up until the 31st.

Piece for Stittsville Library show

I'm organizing the Stittsville library show again this year for Out-of-the-Box.  Our group has a display at the library every year for a month.  We're hanging it up on December 1st.  The show will be there until December 31st.  I've finished my own piece for the show.  The theme was "Favourite Quote".   My quote is "If you truly love nature, you will find beauty everywhere"  by Vincent Van Gogh.  Here's a photo of my finished piece.  It measures 20-1/4 inches by 22 1/2 inches.  The eco print in the centre is one I made in the summer (see two posts ago).  I took a piece of rusted white cotton and eco printed it with sumac branches.  You can see I included wild grapes in the print.  The gold fabric in the borders is cotton that I dyed with onion skins.  Photos of the show hanging up to follow!

Sun printed tote bag

I've been wanting to post something but work and life has gotten in the way:)  Here's a tote bag I made with some of my sun printed fabric.  There's a pocket inside it and the bag is about 12 inches square (30 cm X 30 cm).  I used fusible stabilizer to create stability.  This one will be a gift for someone but I'm thinking of making more.  Thanks for having a look!