July Postcards

These three postcards were put together for a "Just Lace" exchange. The one reminds me of a wedding cake. The cards with flowers on them may have stretched the theme, since I only used the knit lace for a backdrop.

















Another recent swap was a Jungle theme. I had purchased some animal fabric, only to realize that most of the scenes represented the African plains. This leopard seemed to be the only true jungle animal. I didn't want to cover him up, so I added yarn "vines." Then the idea hit me to introduce the parrot as an actor in a Jungle film, and to tell the unfortunate tale of his imminent demise. He thought he saw a puddy-tat... Aawwwck!
The bright orchid card started as a cut-out from some lovely fabric. I used "thread-painting" techniques to cover each section with a similar colored thread. This was made for a dear woman who sent me a postcard with embroidered cheeky golden marmosets.

Fabric-Fun In The Sun

In the 1960's as a child I was poking around in a basement laundry room cupboard, when I found some photo paper on which I placed objects, then exposed it to light. The background darkened and the objects' images stayed light.

More recently I sent for a package of photo-sensitive fabric which acts the same way as the photo paper. From these squares of apparently plain white fabric, cyanotype prints can be made. The resulting white on blue prints are quite saturated in color. My experiments with part of a lace tablecloth did not work, but grasses and a plastic food tub cover made a "Moonlight" scene, while Queen Anne's Lace umbels gave a pleasing effect. I think Dharma Trading Company still carries this pre-treated fabric. They have a very tempting catalog!!!

Fabric-Painting Playday

Hi, I'm back. Summer got REALLY busy with berries to pick and preserve, and it's only half over. Several years ago about this time, a fellow quilter invited our guild members to gather in her farm fields for a fabric-painting playday. Under a tent we painted white cotton fabric with sun-sensitive paints, then placed items to resist the sun's rays and exposed our piece of fabric to sunlight. That was alright, but most fun was seeing the instant results when we floated bright colored paints on the surface of thickened ("sized") water in a large metal tank. By swwirling the paints with a comb we created shapes like the marbelized linings inside old book covers. Here are some of my experiments, which of course I haven't been able to cut up and/or use yet: Sorry this is so spread out... I haven't learned how to make these pictures line up where I want them to! And when I try to delete some blank space, the pictures disappear on me. Oh well...