Tulip Opaque Fabric Markers

So...sometimes I start trying to do one thing (that often turns out far from what I anticipated), yet end up with a secondary finding! 

I am in the process of designing a line of snowflakes that can be integrated into small projects.  I have at least a dozen line drawings done and this week I started working on mockups.  (A drawing isn't any good until something can actually be DONE with it...)

The first step was to print one of the simple items onto fabric. Let the designing begin!

My studio often looks like a creativity bomb went off when a new line of patterns is coming to life, but underneath all the clutter is a fairly organized system of storing my various art supplies.  In one of the bins I found some old fashioned "felt" left over from making a few quiet book pages for my grandchildren.  One blue sheet and another white sheet came out (and at least half a dozen other colors are still abandoned on my cutting table).  Next came a piece of left over cotton batting. 

I actually remembered to take photos while I was making what was supposed to become a simple ornament, but alas the project didn't look anything like it did in my mind.  Actually, that happens quite often.  The more I messed with it, the less I liked it. So...

I decided to try the Tulip Opaque Fabric Markers I had yet to use.  Given the opportunity to choose a more translucent color I nearly always do so, but for some reason I tried out the opaque pen, part of a set purchased a week ago.  Since the project wasn't coming out anything like what had been in my mind, it seemed like time to play.

Initially, even this seemed like a failure.  The outline of the star still didn't look like what was in my mind so it was completed and left to dry.  Actually, I abandoned the project.  Luckily I didn't throw it away...

Several hours later the project was revisited.  It still looked nothing like what the designer-in-my-mind envisioned but for some reason I picked up the star and noticed how stiff it seemed.  Next I absently picked at the edges and points.

The points of the star didn't fray.

And the possibilities began to run through my mind.  A marker that seems to seal the edges of fabric...can you hear my mind turning?

One lesson learned from years in the screenprint and embroidery business is to test something new by...um...torturing it before I get too excited.  In short, as a designer I need to figure out what a product will and won't do before moving along further.   It passed the "wadding it up" test with fabric edges intact, so I ran it under tap water.  It didn't bleed, and still didn't fray!  More tests coming, but this seems very promising.

Hummm...lots of new possibilities!  Now to make the snowflake design work!

"Made Fabric" Wallhanging

 After making the paisley wallhanging from the last post, I was hooked. 

One of those quilters who likes to save bits and pieces of fabric left over from other projects, I have done many projects in the past using those scraps. The more different pieces of fabric in a project, the better I like it. 

So, for this project I dug through my scrap bin and pulled out lots of neutrals, sewed them together here and there, then cut, turned and sewed some more.  I wish I had taken photos before I did the line work but I didn't. Sometime in the near future, I'll put together a tutorial on "made fabric" and give more details.

This project was done in a different order than the last one. The great thing about the Fabridoodle method is that the end is the same, but the steps can be easily rearranged.

Before I painted this piece, I put the "made" fabric on the Gammill and, using several different fill stitches in different areas of the fabric, quilted the heck out of the whole piece.  I used A&E 40 wt. cotton thread, left over cotton batting and scrapy backing; next time I would use a polyester thread and batting because the cotton content wicks the Neocolor II pigment causing a bit of bleed. 

Next I chose a piece of commercially available fabric I liked, then cut a piece of freezer paper about the same size as the quit Sandwich. Using a pencil I laid the shiny side down on the commercial fabric,then traced my chosen motifs on the dull side.

Next, the shiny side of the "pattern" (pencil drawing on freezer paper) was ironed to the "made" fabric using a cotton setting and no steam. 

Using a straight stitch on my domestic sewing machine, I stitched three passes of black embroidery thread on every segment of every motif.  That created the main outline on the project.  The stitch length was shortened to 2.0 so that it would help the freezer paper to tear away.  Some of the stitching was done with the feed dogs up, some I did with the feed dogs down.  My decision depended on which method worked best at the time.  And no, I didn't change the foot on the machine.

After I tore the freezer paper away (or rather all of the large pieces and most of the small bits), I began to choose my colors.  Of note is that, since my stitching is fairly organic, meaning I wasn't concerned if I sewed exactly over the other lines during the three passes, I may be picking small bits out for a very long time.  It may sound crazy but that doesn't bother me. 

I loosely chose the colors I used on the fabric because the translucent nature of the Neocolor II artists crayons means that they won't look exactly the same as the subject fabric, especially using them on the neutral prints.  Again, that doesn't bother me; I love the look of the fabric through the artwork.  It is the see-through nature of this pigment that I like the most. 

Most of the newly outlined motifs were painted using at least two coats, if not three or four, of the Neocolor II, worked carefully into the fabric with a Derwent water brush, dried, then outlined with Faber Castel Pitt markers.   Of note is that I usually start with the lighter color I am using, then shade with the darker.

When the pigments were dry and I was happy with the outcome, I trimmed the edges of the work and used 2" binding to finish the piece.  

I am also planning a tutorial that gives more detail in the near future.  The process is an absolute blast, especially since I can rearrange the steps anytime I choose to!

Neocolor II and Pitt Markers

Fabridoodle wall hanging

My name is Jackie Zimmerer.  I'm wife of nearly 31years to my best friend, Albert, mom to four grown sons, and Grandma Nonnie to six (seven in December) amazing grandchildren. 

For the past ten years I worked in the commercial embroidery and screen print world.  The last eight of those years I co-owned a commercial shop but sold my shares of that very successful enterprise to my business partner in March of this year. 

Re-careering at any age is both a joy and a challenge, however I am too young to retire and knew I still wanted to work with fabric as a media, and artistic pursuits using design software seems to be what I do best so I purchased a Gammill Statler Stitcher (a commercial, computerized longarm quilting machine) and started quilting for the public. 

I prefer tutorials to Television and one day I watched a guest on The Quilt Show (with Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims) show how to use free motion quilting to make quilt motifs extend along the edge of odd cuts of fabric,  visually carrying the motif into the rest of the work.  Since I love to free motion quilt (as well as quilt on the longarm) I had to try it. I took a 6.5" square of a bright Moda print from my stash, added orange 2.5" strips and some nearly white Bamboo fabric and made the top.   Using a Superior verigated thread I quilted the motifs. the fill work was a simple paisley in white polyester embroidery thread.   I wish I had taken a photo of the project with just the quilting.  Nice, fun to do, but no pizzaz!   Alas...

A few days later I watched a Youtube video about Neocolor II artists' crayons.  The process looked interesting but I had qualms about using the water based media on fabric, especially since I had issues with bleeding when using Derwent Inktense Pencils on fabric in the past.  Yet/ the idea of  experimenting with the Neocolor II kept running through my head.

About the same time I attended the Bonham, Texas Quilt Hop and, at the second vendors' booth I walked up to, met an amazing woman, Elizabeth from SavvyQuilters.com.  She had a demonstration set up using Faber Castel Pitt Artists Markers to do the line work on fabric projects with crayolas.  I immediately saw the possibilities, bought several of the pens and when I got home I looked at my already-quilted project and decided in for a penny, in for a pound! 

Neocolor ll and the markers worked. The rest is history!

Coloring the free motion quilting project turned out exceptionally well and I tried another project...then another.  I was hooked, especially since, with the Pitt Markers, I can use different types of artists pigments for the main background and touch up with the translucent artists markers. Next time I will Share how I made this wall hanging.