Wednesday 20 February 2013

Blue Flag Iris

Blue Flag Iris
by Ilene Atkins
Here's another piece I started ages ago. This one is my own photo, printed onto silk. I had printed a number of photos, and tried both cotton and silk. I found the cotton did not give me the vibrant colours I saw in my photos, so moved to silk. Thankfully, these colours turned out much brighter.  Think of those brilliantly dyed silks you see in the fabric stores, compared to the cottons. I think the silk has the ability to absorb more dye than the cotton, hence the better results in my printing experiments.
Blue Flag Iris, detail
by Ilene Atkins

I also tried several different kinds of stabilizer behind the printed fabric, and am still looking for that ideal one. I'll let you know when I find it. I then proceeded to thread-painting. I always think I'll just lay down a few outline stitches, to let the photo speak for itself, and next thing I know, the whole thing is covered is stitching! It became very distorted with all that stitching, and I didn't know what to do with it from there. So it languished in a box for a long time.

Then recently I came across Ann Fahl's book, Colouring with Thread, which I wrote about here. She describes the process of blocking a piece to get it flat and square. I was also afraid to get it wet, lest that leave water stains in the silk.  I decided it was do or die, so I dunked it and stretched it out. Amazing results. It was ready for backing and binding, so here it is. In many ways I am pleased with the results, but it has some issues I would like to work on in future pieces. 

I am linking this up with The Needle and Thread Network, here.

10 comments:

  1. You did a beautiful job on this!! I love it...I wish I had that in me...but I have to just enjoy looking at yours...thanks

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  2. It's so exciting to figure out how to solve a quilty problem. I always feel like a genius even if it wasn't my idea :D So exciting, and what a great piece.

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  3. Marjorie and Sam,
    Thank you for such positive comments. It's great to get this feedback.

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  4. Oh stabilizer - such an issue. You know, that's how I ended up going from art quilts to embroidery on canvas. I just ditched the batting and replace it with heavy stabilizer. Puckering makes me want to cry. I'm glad the damp stetching worked! That's an old fashioned way to flatten out traditional embroidery & whitework. I wonder if there is a sticky tear away soluble heavy stabilizer that works great and then goes away. : ) You could also hoop as you go if you are threadpainting the top only. If it's a quilt sandwich already, then some quilt artists put a second backing to cover up all the stitch mess behind the quilt.

    anyhhoo- I should also say NICE WORK! ; )
    Thanks for linking up.
    ~Monika

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  5. Kitchener Quilter22 February 2013 at 07:03

    Monika,
    Hooping yes. Batting no. Stabilizer yes. Fusing no. Seperate batting and backing after thread painting yes. Still distortion! I will try different stabilizers though. This really was first attempt. Pumped to do more. Thanks for your comment.

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  6. Another lovely piece! You didn't say what stabilizer you used, but you could try water-soluble -- "Solvy" or perhaps a water-soluble fabric such as (I think) Aqua-solve (see Jan Beany and Jean Littlejohn's work with it)...

    And what type of silk do you use? I gather from the photo that it's not 'slippery', like dupioni...

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    1. Margaret, I used a heavy non-woven stabilizer, like they use for embroidery machines. And 8mm Habotai silk, from G&S Dye in Toronto, over at gsdye.com. By the way, they have an excellent solution for printing onto fabrics that I use, and all the other stuff you'd need for colouring fabric.

      Yes, in general silk is slippery to work with, but when it is placed carefully into the hoop, with the stabilizer behind, it becomes easy to manage. I use an 8" hoop, and move it around as I need to.

      I hadn't thought of using a water-soluable for this, but I will consider it. I used some for a scarf I made, and it's pretty amazing stuff. Thank you for your comments.

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  7. So great that you managed to get your wonderful project to behave the way you wanted it. Where do you get your silk, Dharma Trading?

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  8. Astonishing - love irises to begin with, and your stitched ones are vibrating with beauty! Thanks for the close-up photo! It's nice to get to study the details too.

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  9. This is a very timely article for me. I am about to print photos on fabric to add to my Italian quilt. Thanks for the great tips.
    Mary

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