Fabric Painting (Part One)

Yesterday, a couple quilting friends came over to experiment with fabric paint in my backyard. We had a beautiful sunny day and set up some tables to work on. This was my first time to use fabric paint and although I knew we'd have a good time, I wasn't sure that I would end up with any pieces that would be usable in my quilting. The paints we used were Setacolor from Pebeo. Non of our local quilting shops carried them, so we found some at Colours Calgary. The fabric I used was just a white Kona cotton. I bought 3 meters and prewashed it so there would be nothing to interfere with the fabric paint.
Ironing the washed fabric before painting.
 We set up a few tables in the backyard. One table had all our supplies and each of us had our own tables for working on. This set-up worked great for us. The work tables were covered with either a drop sheet or a disposable plastic table cloth to protect them from spills (and we did spill!)

The supply table
 Because the Setacolors are photosensitive, we collected a variety of supplies that could be placed on top to leave an imprint on the fabric. The dollar store was a great source for these - the stars on the blue fabric below were found there.
Blue skies
 One of the books we used for inspiration was Mickey Lawler's Sky Dyes. I started off following her directions for making skies, but in keeping with my nature of not wanting to follow directions, soon went off just doing what I felt like!
Blues and green

Applying paint to the fabric

Test samples are a good idea
 Here's my friend, Kathleen, with one of her pieces:
Base layer of oranges and reds
Adding willow leaves
Images left when fabric is dry and willow leaves are removed.
These are my samples from the day's fun.
Have you ever dyed or painted fabric? Did you enjoy it? What kind of project did you use the finished fabric in?

--Ann

Comments

  1. 42 things4 August 2011 at 16:28

    very nice! looks like a great project :) are you going to use some in your quilts?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ann Symes4 August 2011 at 16:30

    I hope so - it will take me a bit to figure something out as I'm fairly traditional and not so artsy when I make quilts.

    ReplyDelete
  3. 42 things4 August 2011 at 16:32

    it would definitely take your art to a whole new level to design and paint the fabric that you are planning to use in them :)

    I hear you on the traditional note though... sometimes it's hard to feel like we can improvise on something as great as traditional quilting.

    ReplyDelete
  4. quiltingteacher10 August 2011 at 11:00

    Liz Lapp & I took a fabric dyeing class in Salmon Arm a few years ago. We still have 10 m. of white Kona cotton & dyes & colour set, etc. Must do it again--just so messy for my house !! We finished rinsing outside @ my cabin so no mess to clean up.But I don't think I ever used the dyed fabric & they were done in gradations in 3 colours.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ann Symes10 August 2011 at 13:58

    I did some dyeing before we moved here and I still have most of it left too. We did a 24 piece colour wheel set and it just looks pretty and I hate to cut it up!

    ReplyDelete

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