Blues

I am still 'Chasing Backgrounds', as it were, for my Journal quilts. 2 of each colour are about a fruit and 2 of each colour are about a technique which may or may not translate to large as a background for a scene (or dragon!).

I have been following some of the posts by Cynthia St. Charles where she has created backgrounds with a blend of fabrics and then stamped or screened motifs over it using the various patterns and textile paint colours to make the background even more interesting. Then she sometimes prints larger images, like flowers, onto the piece or goes straight to quilting to bring out the background before taking it further. You can see one of her pieces 'Last Light' on the home page of her blog.

So, here are some steps I have begun to take for a blue piece. Cut and arrange a variety of blues left from cutting out samples for dyeing the colour wheel.

Then, like Cynthia, I have zigzagged them roughly down to keep them in place.

That is as far as I got.

Remember I was going to save tidying under the sewing machine desk til next week? well the printing inks were under there. SO, now it is tidy.

Very positive vibes in here since everything is accessible and not in a jumble to wade through first. Class stuff has all been put back and samples restricted to one large plastic folder.

Edit: Today (Fri) I had a little time before going off to the Indigo workshop. So, I had a go with the stamping. I used a mixture of Jacquard and Pebeo textile paints. Not too happy with the transparency of the yellow. I think Pebeo, though it says transparent, is actually not as transparent as Jacquard. It's been a while since I used them.

If it will work....If I chose the right shapes for what I had in mind...if I can figure what to do next...will have to wait til next week. But maybe coming back from the workshop I will be 'in the zone' and will be able to see it with fresh eyes to know how to proceed.

I am linking it to Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Friday.