printing...

Well, I'm so excited to be taking part in Leslie's handprinted: a fabric swap

I've had a really great day printing.  I'll admit I was full of apprehension in the last week or so about how I was going to go about printing on fabric and questioning whether my design is too simple.  My stamp was finished last week end and mounted on a good solid block of wood.

During the week I wondered into the newly located amitie and found some plain linen to use as my basecloth.  This is the fabric paint I purchased which I've not used before, apparently you just iron it to heat set it.

I tried to dab paint on with a little fabric bundle but that wasn't working for me (and no I don't have a rubber roller).  What I found to be ok was just painting with a brush directly onto my stamp, probably not the most conventional method but it worked for me.

and here you go, my repeating pattern.

The row of printing on the right in the pic below is the reverse side, I don't mind it - a little subtle.

The fabric has been heat set and cut into fat quarters, I'll be posting them out this week.

linen bag

I flicked through this mag I bought a while ago.

saw this bag.

 made sense of the instructions (I can't read japanese).

and here it is, a little different with a leather handle, a little frayed strip near the bottom and overall it's little smaller than the pattern instructions.

linen I bought earlier in the year from clegs - it was just enough.

I dream of having a new camera, I sometimes feel like throwing the one I have at the wall - but that wouldn't be clever would it?  one day...

rainbow dolls quilt for bells

Would you like a hot air balloon or a rainbow on a dolls quilt?  That's the question I had for bells yesterday, needless to say she chose a rainbow.

I asked her if she wanted "this rainbow is for Ella" stamped across, she said "no that wouldn't be fair, put it's for our family, I want it to be for all of us".  Where does little girl sweetness come from?  It warms my heart.

This little draw string bag was purchased from a japanese shop, a short drive from where I work, everything is $2.80.  I can see this little bag in linen - it's on the to do list.

No posts in almost 2 months, then 2 in 1 day - what can I say, I found a moment...

I used my japanese pattern book

This japanese pattern book found it's way into my home quite a while ago and I finally gave something a go last weekend.  Pattern G.

 

I didn't want to spend big bucks on fancy fabric as my track record with garments it's quite poor, so I found some $5.00 a metre cotton and here is the result.  It may look a little crinkled, that's because I've actually worn it a couple of times and I prefer it this way (as opposed to ironing it).

Is it because I bought cheap fabric, I didn't hold great expectations and I approached it with a care free attitude that it all went well? If I had purchased fancy fabric would it have been a complete flop? Either way I'm very happy with the finished article.