Adventure Quilter

Now that I’ve started using those new stencils I can show you my results.  I started out by over dyeing some of the duds from my previous dyeing session.  Like this one.  Not horrible, but definitely not exciting either.

I simply over dyed it with the same stencil and roughly the same colors.  As you can see, I went wild with the stencil and layered it over and over in different directions. This was an eye-opening moment for me.  Who says you can just do one print? This quickly became a favorite technique.

Sorta wish I’d covered the edges better.  A flaw I repeated quite often, so something to work on for next time.

Now, what to do with this ugly thing?

This time I just visualized my starting fabric as the background and, again, I over printed with the same stencil in a variety of directions and mostly one color.  This time I realized I didn’t need to keep the density/spacing of the pattern consistent throughout, and I REALLY liked mixing it up.  Bam, another favorite procedure right away!

Next came a variation on the theme.  The original piece was too basic.

And another, with a little more restraint this time.  I actually used blue dye for the circles I added, forgetting that the transparent nature of dye would make them look black.  Oh well.

And one more with teal circles.  I was pleasantly surprised to see how well they showed up in the blue corner I considered useless.  Good to know.

The center stencil, below, is the one I used on the fabric above.  Again, you can see that I moved it all around. The far right stencil was used on the basic yellow-green fabric shown as the 5th image. Fun, right?

Even these modest results were exciting, since I was learning so much, and getting usable fabric.

Ellen Lindner

I have a quilt in mind which will need a variety of black and white, and grey and white fabrics.  So, I spread out some white fabric and started applying thickened dye.

You’ll recognize the patterns of these first two.  They’re done with the same interfacing stencils shown in earlier posts.

The grey one, below left, was done with another interfacing stencil. On the right I used an open grid as a stamp.  Although it was a grid, the lines in one direction printed stronger than those in the other direction.  With GREAT RESTRAINT I took advantage of this and printed almost straight lines in the bottom portion. However, in the top half, I indulged my preference as I overlapped and reoriented the grid while stamping.  Two patterns for one!

At one point, I had so much black dye on my work surface that I used it as a monoprint, (top half below.)  I scratched a few lines in it and then laid the fabric on top.  Voila!

The bottom portion shown above features an overlapping grid stencil when I resisted the TEMPTATION to turn it.

And here’s the full set of fabrics.

These are fast and fun because there’s usually just one application of dye and then you’re done. Nice!

Ellen Lindner

I find that the best fabric prints require about 3 or more processes.  Usually something close to solid for the background, a large scale print, and a small print.  At the end of my previous dyeing session I had several fabrics that still needed one or more additions, so I addressed those early on.

This fabric had only fuchsia petals on a plain white background when I started working on it again. I added turquoise to the background, using one of my homemade stencils. (As you can see, I’m not going for perfection with these. As a matter of fact, I love the imperfection.)

I was happy with the results above, but also wanted to add a very small scale print.  Maybe in black.

I had a little scrap of shelf liner that I thought was the right scale, but I didn’t think I wanted it everywhere. So, I did this.  I scrunched up the fabric so it was small enough to fit under the scrap, added black paint to the shelf liner (with a brayer,) flipped it over and used it to stamp the fabric.

Voila! Once I opened it back up I got this.

Yes!  I like it.  One down.

Now, these two ugly fabrics will also need some attention.

I’ve got ideas for them.  How about you?

Ellen Lindner

In preparation for my next dyeing session, I’ve been making stencils.  Of course, I did some of the typical sort in which you cut through stiff plastic.  Then, I learned about interfacing stencils.  These are used with screen printing, which is something I’m trying to learn more about.

The basic idea is to paint onto interfacing the area you do not want to print.  These were my first two, hand painted with household paint.

Next, I tried painting over freezer paper shapes that had been ironed onto the interfacing.  This worked well.

It takes about 3 layers of acrylic paint, dried between applications.

Next, I tried painting over a glue resist.  I used basic Elmer’s white school glue.

They’re all shown wet above.  After drying and over painting, the glue has to washed out which takes a little while. I’ve now tried the resulting stencils and they’ve all worked well.

There was an issue, though, with the last two.  When I drew on the glue I extended it beyond my drawn line indicating the frame size.  That meant that the stencil print would end sharply and abruptly at the edge of the tape that would hold it in place. Realizing this, I altered the final stencils by filling in the outer design lines, resulting in a more undulating perimeter to these motifs.

Finally, I tried putting shapes onto the interfacing and covering it all with spray paint. You’re supposed to use semi-heavy shapes for this so the interfacing won’t blow away when you hit it with the spray of the paint.  I didn’t have those at hand so I tried other things.  One was these little cardboard shapes, which I lightly glued in place, and later washed out.

Although these spray paint efforts looked successful, I didn’t get good prints from them.

But that wasn’t my biggest issue.  The big problem was that some of my early stencils completely shredded when I tried to remove them from the painted areas. Like this.

I realized pretty quickly that the interfacing was too lightweight.  I did some shopping and switched to Pellon 110, which worked beautifully.  (BTW, when selecting interfacings don’t go by the description.  Feel them, instead.)

I’m now armed with quite a collection of stencils. Here are a few drying out after use.

As I begin to use them in earnest, I’ll be posting my results. Stay tuned!

Ellen Lindner
P.S. Check out the right stencil above.  Can you see how I altered the edge to avoid a straight line?
P.P.S. I generally post isolated photos on Facebook and Instagram more quickly than I write full posts, If you want to follow me there, click on the Facebook icon below, or find me on Instagram by clicking here.
P.P.P.S. I learned about interfacing stencils from an excellent book called “Screen Printing: Layering Textiles with Color,” by Claire Benn and Leslie Morgan.  At $43 this book seems pricey, but it includes and 45 minute DVD and it’s WELL worth it.