Featherweight Singer Sewing machines. They are so cute but alas I don't have one. In order to work up this painted fabric (with dyes) panel, I relied on a photo I took of my fellow quilter, Elma's machine. This was 2 years ago and she likely wondered if I would ever get anything done with it. This image is more precise than a lot of what I paint and I knew I would need to have accurate measurements. For this I graphed the 5X7" photo into a 1 1/2 times sized sketch.

Black is a challenging dye to use. Heat is something that I have been giving considerable consideration in the curing process of the procion fiber reactive dyes. Recentl,y I purchased a heating pad and my plastic wrapped painted pieces sit on it on low for at least 4 hours. Results have been very true colours from the painting to being washed. A HUGE yea! A few more times will confirm this is indeed what created such great results. I'll keep you posted.

Borders of 4 1/2" curved blocks are being considered here in the photo. I auditioned two inner borders to bring out the gold details of the machine. To match the gold I went to a yellow slightly greyed with black and then for a complementary colour I tried a slightly greyed violet in a similiar value (light and dark) as the gold. Both colour considerations took away from the antique look I was striving for. This exercise was valuable though as it got me thinking of future sewing machine paintings that could include coloured sewing notions so that borders can be matched to them. Too much fun!