Saturday, June 27, 2015

Intuitive Hand Stitching on Hand Painted Fabric

Free Form Hand Stitching

Have you hand embroidered in the past? This past week I have had to slow down and spend time just sitting so I tried adding some free form hand stitching to my dye painted textile cards. On Pinterest, I have been noticing a looser style of stitchery which is often added to vintage fabrics. Here are my first attempts at this more intuitive style of hand stitching. If you are going to try it, I should warn you it's quite addicting!
 
The looseness of this sponge painted flower seems to disguise my stitches on the flower itself. Do you like the two coloured border? 
 
A pillow slip I stitched, likely in the '80s, with cross stitch embroidery using a stamped pattern.

Free form cross stitch in the border. Yes I know all the Xs aren't even, like in the above sample, but somehow I like the look.

I cut up a larger panel to that didn't have a strong enough image to be sellable into 3 textile card sizes. Can you see this is a hanging basket in front of a window? I only ask as my husband didn't really care for this one.
Creating distance in scenery.
My Textile Cards are now available in a new location at the Faeries Landing on the east side of Kootenay Lake, BC. This is Cherie, the owner who has wonderfully put this Art Market and Bistro together. Stop in to see the  Faeries Landing Art Market and Bistro as you cross the lake from Kootenay Bay.

Driving through Creston, BC? Be sure to stop at Creston Card and Stationery where you will find lots of art supplies, local artist's cards including my own, and now fabric too!

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Does Ironing Set the Dyes?

 
Hand (dye) painted fabric with thread sketched details
After hearing from a fellow quilter last week about the way she sets her dyes, I decided to do some experimenting. To set the Procion fibre reactive dyes that I use, I have always 'batched' the (soda soaked) fabric I paint on, between sheets of plastic for at least overnight at 70 degrees or more. Another dyer told me that before learning about batching, she would air dry her fabrics and then iron them. So... I am since I am always looking for the best way to keep the colours strong on my dye painted fabrics, I tested the method.
 
As you can see below, I painted 6 rectangles. They just happened to be on pink cloth but that has no significance to the experiment. After batching all of them overnight between plastic, I took two and rinsed them in cold water and then washed them in Dharma Tradings, Professional Textile Detergent. They were then rinsed twice in cold water.  The other 4 were air dried, and then ironed with a hot iron. They were then were washed as before. The colour results were all the same.
 
I tried the drying and ironing technique on other pieces too and results were the same as with just the batching. Therefore I have come to the conclusion that batching alone with a temperature of 70 degrees or more has the best results for setting the dyes. Click here for information from Dharma Trading on the subject.
 
Do you have another way for setting the fibre reactive dyes?


Six hand painted textile pieces ready for 'batching', placing between plastic sheeting for overnight at 70 degrees.

Not much dye rinsing out of the fabric after batching.

Washing the dyed fabric. The fabric was then rinsed twice in cold water, dried and pressed.

The experiment. Drying the dyed fabric in the sun. I ironed the left side of all the panels before rinsing. The colour was the same in those that were ironed and those that were not.

The results of 4 days of painting.

My Personal Favorite.
 I think that is because it was so unexpected that it turned out. I was near the end of my day when I painted it with dyes that were left over from the day.
 
I am planning to organize a tutorial page so readers can easily access information on painting with dyes. More to follow. I love to hear from you in the comments or by email egidman@kootenay.com