Creating Everyday Art
It's been awhile since I redid all my kitchen towels and potholders and they're beginning to look a little ratty. And a little scorched in places! Time for a facelift, so I began with potholders. These are inspired by crazy quilt blocks, without all the extra embellishments since they'll be washed a lot. And perhaps scorched again ...
Materials:
*scraps of fabric
*small amount of backing fabric
*insulbrite insulating fabric
*about a yard of double fold extra wide bias tape for each potholder (or make your own with this tutorial)
*embroidery floss
1. Decide how big you want your potholders to be. I wanted a round shape on the smaller side and used a salad plate for a template. Measure the dimensions of your template and cut 4 pieces of backing fabric.
2. Cut your first shape and place it in the center of your block. I used a square, but any shape will do.
3. Sew around the edges, very close to the edge.
4. You're going to want to cover all the edges of your first piece. I laid this long blue piece on top of the first square (right sides together), sewed it on about 1/4 inch in from the edge, folded it up to hide the seam, and ironed it flat.
5. Repeat with the next side.
6. And the third side.
7. And finally, the last side. I forgot to take a picture of this piece folded back and ironed, but by now you probably get the idea!
8. Add additional pieces to cover up all of the background fabric and to add new interesting shapes.
9. Trace around your template.
10. And cut out.
11. Use 6 strands of embroidery floss to cover the seams. There are lots of good sites on the internet that have good instructions on many embroidery stitches - one of my favorites is Sharon B's Dictionary of Stitches.
12. Place the embroidered circle on one of the pieces of insulbrite and place this on top of a backing piece.
13. Pin and cut out.
14. Pin on bias tape, right sides together, and connecting the ends (see this past post for instructions). Sew on.
15. Turn bias tape to the back, pin, and hand sew in place.
16. Tada! New potholders! Now I have to do something about those sad looking dish towels ...
Happy Creating! Deborah
This week we're going to transfer a simple design to a silk scarf, outline the design with gutta, fill in the shapes, and learn how to fill in the background. You can use my sheep design, draw your own, or use one you find. Coloring pages and stained glass designs work real well - just Google what you want and you'll most likely come up with tons! (Example - "cat coloring page") This is the fourth in a silk painting series - see Lesson One for basic information and Lessons Two and Three to catch up on the skills we've been learning.
Materials:
*silk scarf - washed and ironed
*clear and black water based gutta
*Seta Silk Paint - I used yellow, green, red, turquoise, gray, chestnut, caramel, and black
*rubbing or isopropyl alcohol
*a few cotton swabs
*simple design - my sheep design is here
1. Print off your design. You want something with simple lines with no lines close to each other.
2. Lay your scarf over the first design. I wanted my sheep to look like they were tumbling around the meadow, so I just randomly placed them around the scarf.
Using a soft pencil, lightly trace the lines. You can either hold the scarf in place with tape or place something heavy (like a filled water bottle) at the top of the space you're working on.
3. Stretch the scarf onto a frame.
4. Go over all the sheep outlines and inner curls with black gutta. When I opened a new tube of black gutta to outline this, I discovered the applicator tube now has a hole already in it (it probably happened a long time ago - I haven't silk painted in awhile). Check and see if yours does and if so, don't cut the tip off. You'll only get a wider applicator hole and for this project, fine lines are best.
While you're going over the lines, pay careful attention to connecting each line together so that when you paint, the paint will not pass the gutta lines. Don't worry about the curls inside connecting.
Use clear gutta to put in the eyes and nostrils.
5. We're going to divide our backgrounds up into smaller, more manageable sections. You'll soon discover why! I put each sheep on a little hill and added a couple tufts of grass, using clear gutta.
6. Continue doing this until all sheep are on hills and all hill lines connect to each other or the edge of the scarf. Let everything completely dry.
7. If you accidentally drip clear gutta somewhere you don't want it to be, wipe off and sponge the area with a wet cloth. If you accidentally drip black gutta, work it into your design! It's there for good.
8. When your gutta is dry, hold your frame up to a bright light and look for tiny gaps in the lines and any lines that are somewhat transparent. The little teeniest break in the gutta will allow paint to leak out, so go over any lines you're not sure of.
When your gutta fixes are completely dry, you're ready to paint. Before starting, pour a little alcohol into a cup, grab a couple of cotton swabs, and put it in an easy to reach place. If you missed any tiny gaps in your gutta and a color starts leaking out, you can immediately swab a little alcohol around the leak and it should stop it.
9. First paint all the ears, faces, and legs with black. I like to squeeze a little of each color into its own plastic cup. I used a medium watercolor brush and first painted around the edges with gray. I then added caramel to the middle and scrubbed the edges a bit to blend them. Lastly, I added a tiny bit of chestnut to the caramel and scrubbed it around. Be gentle with the scrubbing - water based gutta can be scrubbed off. Work quickly to avoid color lines!
You might be tempted to first wash the entire sheep with water so the colors might blend together more easily - especially if you're used to watercolors or have used silk dyes before. Don't! The water will loosen the gutta and you'll have major leaks!
10. Let the sheep dry and then move onto the background. Backgrounds have to be filled in very quickly - the front edge of your paint will dry fast and leave a color line. So the goal is to keep working that front edge while filling in the space. We divided our space so we'll have a little breathing time!
Mix up four or five different greens. I used green, turquoise, and yellow in my colors. You can tone down any greens that are too bright by adding a drop or two of red.
Grab your largest brush and begin with your smallest section. Start at the thinnest edge or at a corner and work fast. Swipe your brush in the corner, reload with paint and swipe it across the leading edge. Repeat until the section is filled. You might get some color lines until you get the hang of this - don't worry, grass has lines in it! And even if you're really speedy, you'll likely get color variations. That's one of the downsides of using silk paints and water based gutta - but if you build that into your design, they work great. If we were using dyes and regular gutta, we'd be wetting down the silk first to give us longer to keep that front edge of color from drying, but if we did that now we'd get major breaks in the gutta and big time leaks.
11. Continue with each section until finished.
12. If you do get a small leak of green into a sheep, there's a fix.
Put a small amount of one of the darker colors on your brush and cover the green. Rinse your brush, but leave some water in it. Lightly scrub the edges to blend the colors - I found it helpful to also "paint" the sheep with a little plain water.
13. Let dry and iron to heat set the paint. Wait a day or two before washing.
Next week, we'll paint a scarf using some silk painting special effects.
Happy Creating! Deborah
Lately, my net surfing has led me to some interesting and inspiring pieces of vintage embroidery. Here are some that especially caught my eye.
When looking at this dress, it's hard to remember that it is hand embroidered and smocked. In this day of machine worked fabric, it takes a bit for this to sink in! This is for sale on DressingVintage - which says it was bought in 1929 for the owner's honeymoon. I love this!
Can you imagine the hours of work that went into this French linen skirt from the 1790's? It would have been worn under a jacket. You can see more details on the Vintage Textiles website.
I've had a love/hate relationship with French knots since I first learned embroidery as a teenager! I loved the way they looked, but the knots always eventually fell apart. Usually sooner than later. I'm currently in a good relationship with them and can definitely see this wisteria pattern in my future. This 1920's cushion is for sale on Etsy here.
I've always had a fascination for Victorian era crazy quilts. This one from the late 1800's has a gorgeous fan design! I've been thinking about starting a Christmas themed crazy quilt - it'd be fun to work in a snowflake background with this type of design. This quilt and several others can be seen at the University of Wisconsin's Design Gallery site.
Happy Creating! Deborah
I used to keep a bowl of candy conversation hearts on the table for the few weeks leading up to Valentine's Day, but with the food changes I've had in the past couple years, that's a tradition I've let go. Instead, this year I have some embroidered felt hearts!
These are great for practicing embroidery stitches you're learning or expanding your embroidery repertoire. There are quite a few internet sites that are good sources for learning new stitches. One of my favorites is Sharon B's Dictionary of Stitches. I also like to carry a book of embroidery stitches when I don't have access to the internet. There are quite a few - I have the DK Stitch Sampler by Lucinda Ganderton.
Materials:
*felt
*embroidery thread
*fiber fill
*pattern found here
1. Cut two hearts from each of the colors you want to use. Embroider phrases from candy conversation hearts and designs.
2. Pin together, add a border stitch that sews the two hearts together, adding fiberfill before closing. Here are the four hearts I've made so far and the stitches I used.
Bullion knot roses, stem stitch for the words, lazy daisy leaves, cross stitch, and a running stitch to attach the two hearts.
Lazy daisy petals and leaves, French knots, stem stitch letters, and a running stitch to attach the two hearts.
Lazy daisy clover petals and leaves, stem stitch words, wings, and legs/antennae, satin stitch bee, running stitch in the wings, and cable chain to sew the two hearts together.
Lazy daisy petals and leaves, French knots, and blanket stitch to sew the two hearts together.
I sat little c down with a tapestry needle, embroidery thread (doubled and knotted so it wouldn't keep coming off the needle), and a felt heart for her first sewing lesson - not bad for a newly turned two-year-old!
Happy Creating! Deborah
