Cinderellee, Cinderelleee Dress Form - Journal Page

When I adorn the paper mache dress form with my one of a kind fiber arts, I hope that thoughts of fanciful little birds will offer their inspiration.

Paper Mache Full Dress Form

Childhood memories lead to images flitting through my head from fancy filled Disney films. Since I'm always exploring different ways to display my fiber arts works, the concept of a new paper mache dress form began it's first stage of actualization in my journal.

The idea starts to take shape. The figure is approximately 36" tall. I can't wait for the front of the figure to dry so that I can start to paper mache the back side. All of this was constructed from the Saturday newspaper.

TAFA: The Textile and Fiber Art List: Linda Friedman - Linda's Art Quilts

TAFA: The Textile and Fiber Art List: Linda Friedman - Linda's Art Quilts

Oceanic Flow

Snippets from fabric remnants, decorative yarns, Angelina fibers, thread clippings from previous projects and roving were stitched between a top and bottom layer of water soluble stabilizer to create the work. The photos show it atop a piece of silver lame; however, I believe this piece will shine if mounted between two pieces of glass because one can see through it, almost like looking into a fish tank.

TAFA - the Textile and Fiber Arts list

I highly recommend that anyone interested in textile and fiber arts visit TAFA - the Textile and Fiber Arts list at http://www.tafalist.com/. The art of its participating members is absolutely astounding.

Linda's Art Quilts is now on Facebook and Twitter

Check out my new page, Linda's Art Quilts on Facebook and visit me at Linda's Art Quilts on Twitter.

Dancing to the Stars - Screen Print

A friend presented me with a negative print of a photograph she took of a sculptural work against a clear sky. From that print, I made a silhouette on an embroidery hoop frame that was stretched with sheer curtain fabric. I then masked the design with very old, thick latex fence paint and double checked that no pinholes of light showed through the masking.

After the mask was thoroughly dry, I printed the screen with opaque silver silk screen ink. I then cut a star shape from a scrap of clear vinyl and stenciled multiple stars with gold fabric paint above each screened image.

The fabric at hand allowed space for printing six 13" x 13" repeat images.

Since these prints will ultimately be incorporated into a quilted work, I documented the image in a journal entry.

Collar on Dress/Bust Form

I found this collar pattern in an old book that a friend shared with me. In a moment filled with 1950s memories of little lace and eyelet collars worn over sweaters, I had to make it. This time, there will be no lace and eyelet. The "look" was updated with an upholstery fabric remnant. The weight of the fabric and the size of the curve make this collar lay beautifully on the shoulders. The next one I make may be either fabric painted and/or thread painted and then free motion quilted. Another friend suggested that this collar would be fun to wear atop a plain T-shirt. Now that's what I call updating a look.

Paper Mache Bust Dress Form

In anticipation of our next North County Artists in Action open studios event, I've been researching full and bust dress forms to display my wearable quilt art and original jewelry designs. I was able to pick up a bust form at a local charity shop for a reasonable price, but began thinking that these forms might be a bit too standardized for the display of art work, especially if there were several of them in one venue. Since I have a stash of newspaper to cover work surfaces when I paint, I grabbed several sheets and scrunched them into forms that approximated a bust form. I held the paper together with masking tape and this allowed me to further refine the shape. Once a fairly reasonable form developed, I mixed up some flour, water and white glue, tore strips of newspaper and set about covering the form. Once the form was dried, I applied a coat of gesso. While the form was drying and "setting up", I went to the garage to look for materials that could be made into a stand and base. I cut an old broom handle to a size that might work, found a scrap of pine, drilled a hole through through the center of the pine scrap, drilled a pilot hole into the broom handle and then inserted a 3" brass screw. I carved and sanded the pole's end to a point so that it could be inserted through the paper mache and internal wadded up sheets of newspaper that were inside of the form. A little more paper mache strips were added around the hole where the pole was inserted and this was later touched up with more gesso. I haven't decided yet what the final finish will be, but I may leave it white and merely coat it with non yellowing, matte polyurethane.

Judy Coates Perez and Quilting Cruise

Look what I found on:

Quiltposium, http://www.quiltposium.com/?page_id=3!

Judy Coates Perez and Frieda Anderson will be conducting an 8 day quilting cruise to the Mexican Rivera. The cruise has a two page spread on pages 192 and 193.

Mia Bloom Designs

I just found the blog for Mia Bloom Designs. This artist's work is delicious. Check out her art quilts at:
http://miabloomdesigns.blogspot.com

Finished Grandma's Attic Art Quilt

This small art quilt was great fun to make. Because the upholstery fabric scraps reminded me of the furniture in my grandmother's living room, it took me on a memory voyage to her attic. In that magical place were all sorts of wonderful things that made for a magical childhood experience. A wooden box held many pieces of costume jewelry that she no longer wore but were like gems to a little girl. Summer days spent playing in the attic while birds sang in the trees at the wondow were straight from a storybook.

Every time an opportunity presents itself to search through my collection of beads and cast off jewelry my imagination and memories are stimulated. Picking out the ones that reflected the feeling in Grandma's attic brought her back for a few precious minutes on this beautiful Southern California morning.

My passion for recycling, repurposing and upcycling is reflected in this quilt. Someone gave me a stack of upholstery samples. The batting was taken from an old wool blanket that was made in Australia, and the upholstery scraps on the front of the quilt were the trimmings from a project with a friend.
Upholstery samples are free!! and often very beautiful.

From Snippets to Treasures

A couple of weeks ago I spent a day with a friend sewing curtains/drapes from fabric remnants that she had picked up at an upholstery shop ages ago. At the end of our stitching marathon there was a pile of left over snippets that would have been destined for the trash had I not taken them with me.

This shows only a small part of the pile.When I got home, I stuffed them all into a large glass vase that was sitting on the counter until I could figure where I would finally store them. Ever since I brought them home, their colors and texture have teased me to do something with them. This morning I lay a few atop small block of dark, dark navy blue velvet, took the unit to the sewing machine and free motion stitched the snippets to the velvet. As I was sewing, it dawned on me why I was drawn so strongly to the fabrics. They reminded me of upholstery in my grandmother's house. There are still snippets left, so a few more small blocks may emerge. This one is just begging to be embellished with beads and other ephemera.
I also used some of the strips of irregular shaped pieces to cover a small lamp shade that didn't do justice to it's fanciful little base.

While sewing the snippets to the velvet, I had to push aside left over pieces of an old felted sweater that I had cut to make teddy bears. Ah ha! There was just enough to make another miniature dress form. The cashmere sweater material is fun to work with because it is very moldable. It was so easy to manipulate that it was able to be formed into an action pose.

Before leaving the studio to go outside to tend to the tomato plants, I finished 8 more stitched post cards. This is merely an example. Each post card is different.

Stitched Post Cards

Making post cards has been great fun. Card stock is easy to stitch through. One must merely take care not to have stitches too close together. If the stitches are too close, the stitching line will perforate the paper to such a degree that the image will pop out and a hole will be left in the paper. A card stock "postcard" printed from a template was stitched to the reverse of each card and they are ready for mailing.

Now, it is back to working on my flying cranes quilt. Enough of this playing with paper.

More Stitched Post Cards

A busy day has not provided time to be immersed into a quilting project, but I couldn't keep my hands off of the sewing machine, so I stitched a couple of 4"x6" post cards.

Also experimented with incorporating a few images from my brochure into a post card.

Jewelry Dress Form

I couldn't put the dress form idea to sleep last night so took a scrap of fabric, traced the pattern from the screen print project onto the fabric and turned it into a jewelry dress form. The original fabric fell somewhere between eggshell and beige. The form looked just fine as it was, but when I painted the stand, I had to try out Generation Green Shimmer Opaque Gel Medium Sapphire* to see if it painted nicely on fabric. Ah ha! It did. It stiffened the fabric a bit and that is just fine for this project. The lace necklace and waist detailing was made on the sewing machine. I merely stitched circles and odd shapes on the stabilizer, rinsed out the stabilizer, and stitched these lacy pieces onto the form.



* Generation Green Gel Mediums may be ordered on-line through keelingskrafts.com. If you ever order anything through Keelings Krafts, you will be delighted. Barb and Doug Keeling are great to work with.

Printing with an Embroidery Hooped Silk Screen

The embroidery hoop screen is now ready for printing.

For full instructions on how to create an embroidery hoop silk screening frame, applying a design to the screen, and masking a screen with house paint, refer to previous posts on May 26, 27, and 29, 2010.

Preprinting note: Prewash fabric that will be used for the printing. This will remove any sizing that the fabric has when it comes from the manufacturer. Do not use fabric softener. Iron the fabric smooth so that the printed images will appear crisp.

MATERIALS:

Embroidery hooped silk screen.
Padded board or other padded surface
Silk screen ink or fabric paint
Squeege
Straight pins
Plastic spoon
Paper towels

1) Example of embroidery hoop that has been masked with latex indoor-outdoor house paint. (See previous section on how to mask a screen with house paint.)

2) Assemble screen printing materials. The items include: disposable tray on which to rest items that will accumulate ink in the printing process, plastic spoon to dispense paint onto the screen, squeege type spreading tools, and paper towels.

3) The screen printing ink used in this project is Speedball Opaque Screen Printing Ink. Other brands are acceptable to use, as is fabric paint.

4) Lay a padded board on a flat working surface. (The board shown here has been used many times and definitely shows it.)

5) Lay fabric that will receive the screen printing over the padded board. Pin straight pins around the entire work surface. It is important to stretch the fabric until it is taut. This prevents any wrinkling of the fabric when it is screen printed.

6) Place the embroidery hooped screen on the fabric.

7) Scoop a generous amount of screen printing ink from the jar. Apply the ink above the image to be screened and at other points on the screen to assure full ink coverage.

8) Lay the ink screening tool above the ink on a 45 degree angle and press down.

9) Press firmly while pulling the applicator down over the image to be printed. Check to assure that all areas have been covered. A second pull of the applicator over the image may be needed. With each pull, press firmly on the applicator. Do not move the screen or the image will blur.

10) DEALING WITH A MISTAKE: Since the frame extends substantially beyond the image example, printing the images closer together than the edge of the frame makes an overlap onto the previously printed image. If the ink from the first image is not dry, it will be picked up on the back side of the screen. It is essential to wipe off any ink on the reverse side of the screen before proceeding to the next pulled screening. In this case, I forgot one time to check the back of the screen for picked up ink. A slight ark shaped smudge appeared on the fabric. The illustration demonstrates how this error was added as a repeat design element.

11) Let the first printing dry. Then remove the pins that hold the fabric taught against the padded board. Reposition the fabric for another set of prints. Repeat Step 5 and pin the fabric onto the padded board.

12) Determine placement of the next printings by laying the original drawing on the area where the print will appear. Then position the screen over the drawing. Remove the paper and the screen will be ready to be inked and screened. This needs to be done because the masking of the screen is opaque, does not allow the previously printed images to be seen, and, therefore, the risk of overlapped images is great.


13) Final screen printed fabric.

14) Scrape ink that has accumulated on the screening tool back into the ink jar.

15) Heat set the images by placing a pressing cloth over the images and ironing with hot iron for 1 to 2 minutes.

The screen printing is now complete and ready to be incorporated into a project.