Flowers Hold Special Memories - on Hand Painted Textile

Hand dye painted fabric

What a fun panel this was to work on. I have painted several blocks on one panel before but never just with only one colour of flower. Also, the addition of the text was new for me. Sometimes you need a challenge in order to do things differently and that is just what happened with this project last week.

 

One of my quilt group members was planning on commissioning me to paint a series of pink flowers, so in preparation for meeting to discuss it, I made this up as a sample. It worked so well having something to look at while we were talking specifics about what she wanted that I feel confident to go ahead.

 

The technique I am using is painting on cotton with thickened fibre reactive dyes. Below I first lightly sketched the images in pencil onto soda soaked and dried cotton fabric. Then I outlined the images in a thin black line of the thickened dye. After curing it, I added the colour, again using the thickened dye and applying it by paint brush. After curing, the panel was washed out using a Synthropol like detergent and rinsed until the water ran clear. I like to iron the piece dry for the best pressing results. 

Painting with dyes on soda soaked cotton 

Hint: Do not iron the soda soaked fabric before applying the dye as the fabric easily scorches. Note the somewhat wrinkled appearance of the fabric in the above photo. I stretch it and tape with masking tape to create a fairly smooth surface.

8 1/2" square
by Eileen Gidman

Painted block all ready for quilting, sewing or framing. Glads remind me of my cousin's husband who used to grow them in a field for cut flowers. I think fondly of those days.

8 1/2" square
by Eileen Gidman

In a recent bouquet I got, the lily certainly took center stage. Beautiful aren't they.

8 1/2" square
by Eileen Gidman

These cosmos remind me of my mother's garden. Do different types of flowers hold different memories for you?