Thursday 4 October 2007

BETWEEN TWO JOURNEYS

First of all, I want to show the beauty I found in my letter box as I came back from Paris. It is from Linda. I love the hand-stitchery and the hand-appliqué which are both very fine. When I see that, I see that I still have a lot to learn! Although Linda was in the middle of moving house, she still found the time to do all this work. Thank you again a lot Linda. I will hang this cutie in my sewing room so that I can enjoy it everyday.


In Paris we had a great time. We were even very lucky and got a private guided tour of the Opéra Garnier (merci Catherine!) through the sewing rooms, the stage, the horse stables (!),... pictures to come in a next post.

My last post on sun-printing raised some questions so here are some more details on the process:
I use normal fabric paint, mine is from Marabu (a german mark) but it seems that it works with any fabric paint. CAUTION: it is not a fabric dye!
I put the damp fabric on a plastic sheet and put some stones in the corners so that it does not blow away. Then I mix some paint with some water in a jar so that it is a bit easier to apply. I don´t mix thoroughly
and I mix two colors to get some interesting textures. Then I apply the diluted paint on the damp fabric with a big brush to cover the whole fabric.
The leaves are then pinned on the fabric. It seems one can use cardbord cut-outs too. I sprinkled some coarse sea salt grains on top to get some more structure.
The whole is let in the sun to dry completely.
When the fabric is dry, I remove the leaves and the salt grains and I iron the fabric to set the paint.
It seems that one can do the process a few times on the same fabric to add different shades. This is what I will do on the brown fabric when the sun shines again.
It works best on a very sunny day as the fabric dries quickly.
Once the colour is set the fabric can be washed.

I hope those details answer some questions. I don´t really understand how it works but it did and it was fun!

Tomorrow we are going away for the week-end, driving cows, attending an apple market, and maybe doing some inchies with our friends.

I wish you a very nice week-end too.

6 comments:

Rose Marie said...

So, you are the lucky lady to receive Linda's mini quilt. Enjoy it and it is lovely! Thank you for the extra bit of info. on the sun dyeing.

Mrs. Goodneedle said...

What a lovely surprise to find awaiting you at home, stitched surprises are the very best, aren't they? Enjoy your weekend!

Fiona said...

Lucky you to receive such a pretty quilt - I am eagerly awaiting mine but our postmen are have been on strike and will not start work again until Tuesday so I think I will have a while to wait.

atet said...

That quilt is lovely! I've been seeing the swap quilts and I'm determined I will be part of the next round!

Thanks for the information on the sun printing -- I may have to give this a try!

Libby said...

What a treat to have a private tour in Paris and then to receive such a lovely quilt when you return.

Tracey @ozcountryquiltingmum said...

THat dying sounds fun!
Love the cross of techniques in the stitchery, Tracey