Monday, May 24, 2010

water colours & stitches

I have been trying out colouring fabric with water colour pencils.  This is part of a challenge on the 3 creative studios forum.  I have used calico for this challenge as I have heaps of it and it doesn't matter if I mess up.

First I drew a design, just working free hand with the pencils.


After colouring it in I sprayed it liberally with water and silver sheen, dried it over the heating vent and then ironed it.
The design remained intact although it was somewhat softened by the water. 


As usual I am making this up as I go along: I thought some quilting would be good.  Using pellon as batting backed the piece with another piece of calico.  So far I have just hand stitched around the flowers and leaves with coordinating  single threads.  So far it is working out really well.

This will be another needlebook for my monthly challenge.

2 comments:

Jensters said...

This is looking wonderful Dian....keep it going.

Linda said...

Your piece is so pretty Dian. I can't wait to see how you 'finish' it. Strangely, I found my colours intensified with the addition of the water, which I 'brushed' on and then immediately dried with the hair dryer. I really like this month's technique, and have some things done with shiva sticks too. Good luck with this, so pretty.