Peony and Lily Painted on Fabric

Hand painted 'Peony' on textile
by Eileen Gidman

 

Working with Someone Else's Vision: Creating something for someone else, usually isn't not too hard when you are giving a gift, however when you are doing commissioned work the process becomes a little more involved I find. Some artists avoid commissioned work but I find I like the challenge of it. Every time I learn something from it as I am often engaged to create something I wouldn't think of on my own. Such was the case with a recent commission of flowers to be painted onto textile.

 

The purchaser, an accomplished quilter asked for two fabric pieces with specific flowers on them that were meaningful for her. She provided me with her own photographs as noted below. She asked for the background to be a mottled medium green and a 14 X 15" size.

 

Then my work begins:

1. New dyes and soda ash solutions are mixed
2. Mercerized cotton fabric is soda ash soaked and air dried 
3. The composition of the images are considered and adjusted as need. I felt the peony sketch required the full peony to be showing, so that was added in
4. The images are sketched on the fabric using a black thickened dye that I applied using a squeeze bottle with a very fine metal nib on it. (I purchase them at the Dharma Trading Co). The fabric is then placed in plastic overnight at a warm temperature. Temperature is a big consideration when setting the dyes.
5. The colours are mixed and painted on. I generally start with the darkest colours first. This is where one of my challenges came. I had never before worked such fine detail as would be required for the peony petals. Painting with thickened dyes requires that the dyes have to be a bit thick in order to not have the dye just bleed everywhere and because of that thickening, it does not brush easily into small areas. What to do??? Well I was very careful with the mixing of the thickener into the dye. Not too thick and not too thin and I used a very small brush.
6. Unlike the photo where the flower and leaves were lighter than the background, I knew I would have to adjust things in order to have the background a mottled medium green as requested. For there to be contrast, the leaves were painted with some very dark coloured dyes. Darks are the most difficult to achieve when painting with thickened dyes and you must put your colours much darker than they will be in the final product. I have learnt that the dark green must look black when you apply it. The darks of the lily were also a challenge to consider. The photo didn't show much change in the dark burgundy colour but I wanted give the impression of the lily petals bending over so I varied the colour slightly to show highlights.
7. Painting the fine dots as the petal turned to white on the lily was fun, being sure to make the pattern irregular. Can you see there is a fine white line on the edge of the petals where they overlap each other? More fine brush work was required there.
8. It was a big session of painting both pieces at the same time but this was done to ensure the colours in the two pieces were cohesive.
9. Before covering them in plastic, I let the pieces air dry just a little as the darks were especially saturated having had two or three layers applied. I didn't want the colours to run into each other when covered. However moisture is needed to complete the process of the dye molecules adhering to the fabric so timing was everything.
10. After 24 hours, well actually 22 hours in this case, I quickly rinsed each piece under the cold water tap. Both fabric pieces were placed separately in it's own bucket of cold water to allow any un adhered dye molecules to rinse out overnight.
11. The next day the pieces were washed in hot water with a textile detergent and rinsed until the water was clear.
12. As the pieces were not large, I pressed them until they were dry. This is an anxious part of the process for me as I am never sure until this point if I will be happy with the set of the dyes.
13. I know the night after I painted these pieces, I dreamt of the darks all washing out. Fortunately they did not and the resulting colours were just as I planned.

 I couldn't be more pleased with the results on the petals of the peony.  The detail showed and the darks of the leaves are just what I wanted.

Hand painted lily on textile.
by Eileen Gidman

 The depth of colour on the lily makes me so happy. The customer's words were "They are beautiful. I love them" That response makes a commissioned piece all worthwhile. 

I am so looking forward to seeing what the customer (quilter) does with these pieces which are to become gifts for Christmas.

It looks like I have some time in my schedule in November, so email me at egidman@kootenay.com if you would like me to create something for you.

I am busy preparing for a very special Sept. Check back for more information about where I will be painting for a month!

Quilt Show from my Winter Group

Here is a few quilts from the Quilt Show I was in this winter. We have some excellent quilters in our group. I am much a beginner and I am thankful members are so willing to share there knowledge with me.

Three of my mini quilts with fruit hand painted pieces.
'Carol and Sue' raw edge applique and free motion thread sketching.

 A sketch I did of Carol in the studio. The farm scene was added after.

 This is the sketch that inspired the textile art piece 'Carol and Sue' which is shown in the photo above and below.

Two 'Barn Series' mini quilts of mine.

Original Design by C. C.

Don't you love the pieced sashing by J. W.

P. B's quilt. When you look at this quilt awhile, you see circles even though there are no curved pieces in it.

Wall Hangings

One of my hand painted panels made into a wall hanging by C. K.

 

S. A. bought these quilt blocks at a yard sale, added the sashing and had it hand quilted.

I can see why this viewer was attracted to A. J.'s black, white and red quilt, can you?

Made with 'Crown Royal' bags by C. K. Did you know that you can actually buy this bag from the company?

Quilt's for Charity



Creston Quilt Show

Creston Valley Quilters' Guild Show

What a successful quilt show this was on Friday and Saturday. This post will mostly be photos as I am rather spent from all the organizing that goes around getting to a show. Thank you Creston, Nelson, Moyie, Cranbrook, Kimberley, Idaho, Kootenay Lake residents for all the support you give me by visiting my booth and by buying my hand (dye) painted fabrics.

Stephanie Longpre (right) drawing the winning name for my free draw of a mug rug with hand painted fabric, textile card, artisan button card and package of hand painted fabrics. Stephanie was the event organizer and she did a fantastic job. One of her plans is to be an event planner for weddings. She will be great at it I am sure. Thank you Stephanie for your hard work organizing the show.

My booth of hand (dye) painted fabrics, textile cards, artisan button cards, mug rugs, and artisan pillows.

A few hand painted fat quarters. Win Dinn's mandala colouring book which can be ordered online here: http://windinnart.blogspot.ca/p/color-me-up.html

 Some of the Entries in the Quilt Show

 

This photo is especially for my friend Patty who also loves to use striped material.

This complicated colour combination delighted me.

The Quilt Group Challenge

Samples from the Quilt Group Challenge

Vendor's at a show develop a special connection and I met some lovely people this weekend. Here is one of the other Vendor's booths. Keith and Carol Kepke's sell precision wood crafted items for quilters. See you at the Canmore Show.



I love calendar pictures. One person did all these!

Wow what a wonderful organization that donates quilts for children. Take a look at that total.

Self portraits

The winner of viewer's choice. Such talent!

Creston Valley Quilters Guild Show

If you are anywhere near Creston, BC, there is a Quilt Show on Friday and Saturday, April 17 & 18 that you won't want to miss. Cut-throat Challenge, I'm looking forward to finding out what that is. There will be a 'Vendor Mall' where I will be having a free draw and also be showcasing my new line of greeting cards with glass handmade buttons. Hope to see you there.

What's involved in being a vendor? Well there is lots of preparation beyond making the items for sale. Here is a peak at a few things being done this week.

Measuring and pricing new hand painted fabrics.

 

Getting my spouse to find the items need for the display booth. Not easy since the move.

Packaging and labeling. Oh yes, and of course you always run out of labels so there is stopping to run upstairs from the studio to print more labels.

Designing display stands. These are really cute as they are from my antique treadle machine.

 

Boxing the items ready to be transported to the Rec Center.

Organizing items for ease of the customers.

 

Pressing and hanging the hand painted panels. For the show's two days there is a very special market price for the original paintings on fabric.

 

My new greeting card line with my drawn designs and artisan buttons.

  

Frameable textile cards will be available at a special market price. Customers find they make a great gift and card in one.





A selection of mug rugs will be available for sale or pick a hand painted piece of fabric and have me design a mini quilt/mugrug for you. They are great gifts for mailing.

 

Be sure to sign up for my newsletter and enter the free draw for a selection of artisan made items.

Quilt Group: 'Paint Chip Challenge 2015'

This mini-quilt/mugrug is off to a new home. Enjoy!

Nothing like a quilt show to bring like minded people together. I enjoyed connecting with other quilters interested in art quilting at the show, seeing old friends and going for lunch with a friend I don't get to see much. She has an amazing quilting project in the planning stage. It will be based on a painting she saw. In order to base her textile piece on the painting, she contacted the artist's for permission to do so. I understand the artist was thrilled.

All the 2015 Quilt Group Challenge entries were displayed together at our quilt show today. Here are photos of many of them.

 

Evergreen Block for Eileen

 

There will be more photos to share from the show but this is all for today's post. Our group has an interesting challenge for 2016 that will result in great individuality in the quilted pieces. Each member drew a number out of a bowl to correspond with a page in a magazine. That page was given to us and we are to base our quilted challenge project on the image or on some the words on that page. My image is mostly whites and silvers with some great words such as shimmering, platinum etc. Hmmm?