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.

SUN PRINTING

Last week-end, the weather was nice and so I put it to use and did some sun-printing. I had seen the method in a magazine and as I had some paints, I had a go at it.
I used normal fabric paint which I diluted with water. I painted the damp fabrics with it and then pinned some leaves and some flowers on them. I added some coarse sea salt, then let the whole dry in the sun and this is the result:

The paint was fixed with ironing. I especially like the fern impressions!
I think I will use the fabrics to make artist mailing cards.

The 4SSQ Mum, Margaret told me that my swap quilt was on its way. I haven´t received it yet and I am going away till Wednesday so if the sender reads this, she doesn´t have to worry that I don´t post a mail straight away.

We are going to Paris to celebrate my aunt´s 60th Birthday. It will be a lot of fun as she is a very out-going person.

I wish you a nice time too.