All Dressed Up

This is what our friend in Islington has been up to since she moved.  She is making dressing up clothes for a Museum.

Capability Brown at Croome

I managed to visit Croome today to see the Worcester Branch of the EG exhibition in the Temple Greenhouse and was not disappointed.  There were lots of wild flowers blooming in the grounds and the house looked resplendent now it has lost its scaffolding, although I did miss the 'Sky Cafe' and it's fantastic vistas.

Liz

Shirley

Sue P

Liz

Didn't you all do well ....

A Jolly Outing

SJ and I visited the former Chairman of the Running Stitchers on Thursday this week whilst she is recuperating from a knee operation in Edgbaston for a week or two. Imagine our surprise when we found she had been working on a piece of patchwork started at a workshop with Jennie Raiment earlier in the year.  The fabric used was from her husband's old shirts upcycled and a delight they were too. The next generation will benefit from her handiwork as it is to be used by her grandaughter. What a lovely legacy to pass on.

I think the patchwork pattern is "Joseph's Coat".

What to do with it?

You are always asking "What Can I do with it?" so here are two examples of what one member of the group did with some of their breakdown printed fabric.

These two stab bound books were created from pieces of the fabric we printed in September which had been backed with lightweight paper enabling them to be glued onto the cover boards.  They were given as a present to each of two people and one had nice watercolour paper in it so that it could be used as a sketchbook.

Whilst on the same London trip to deliver the books the same person met up with our former Chairman and they participated in a workshop which resulted in these lovely tealight lanterns.

I am sure you already know, but as a reminder this month's stitch is Pekinese Stitch.

Every Dog has his Day!

At last I got my chance to produce some cloth using the breakdown printing method ...

Washing day and all the pieces are rinsed, washed in synthrapol, rinsed again, spun and hung out to dry.  The large piece in the background is the dropcloth from the table which has some amazing areas on it, however, I think it might get put into soda ash again and re-used to build up on what is already there.

Above is the second screen I printed and towards the end I decided to add some Fire Engine Red to the mix.  A little of the detail below where you can clearly see images made from plastic garden netting, part of a plastic meat tray, a wooden coffee stirrer and good old bubble wrap.

Below is the print from my first screen, which had dribbles of thickened dye paste on it into which I have pressed various items to add more texture.  I think I used turquoise and antique gold on top of the black on the screen.  It is hard to remember as you do get a bit engrossed once you start to print.

Finally, this is a close up of one of the sections of the drop cloth, which arose from a screen that had been dribbled - but not by me.

The colours do become slightly duller once washed, so perhaps I need to add more Procion dye powder when making the thickened dye paste.

Yet more Surprises!!

Today I spent the afternoon doing some more breakdown printing with one of the Running Stitchers and we had fun.  One thing we have found out is that it is better to print onto a finer fabric.

The bonus was that she also brought her washed pieces of fabric over with her so I managed to take some photographs.

This was the piece that had ferns embedded in the dye

Dye added to the screen using the dribble method

Some closer detail to give an idea of the wonderful effects that just happen

I also found a couple of photos I had taken of the flour resist before it was washed off

More breakdown printing

Today I had chance to see one of the pieces of fabric that was produced last week and was very impressed.  There are some beautiful images on it and the colours are surprising too.  I think we basically used black, turquoise, emerald green and golden yellow.  I can't wait to see some more of the results.