Always Learning

The boat didn't take long....and I was pretty excited to get it connected to the bottom.  

It's always better when you can shore up the borders....pun intended. The bottom of the boat IS along a waterline after all.

It's simple things like a good pun and assembling a boat that put a little spring in my step on any given day.

I was compelled to trace and "CREATE" this painting a couple days ago. I dropped in color or water drops to create some texture in the letters.  Not sure I love it...but I do kind of like it.

I have no idea what I'll do with the rest of the page....but an idea will present itself at some point.  There's no rush.

Fusing 101 Lesson #3: Tracing

General fusing note: Most commercial fabrics...and this would include batiks...have chemicals in them making them harder to fuse. Prewashing probably helps with that. For what art I do I generally don't had any trouble....and when I'm working on an art quilt I often top stitch anyway.  But even the commercial fabrics seem to fuse to paper pretty well for me so I've never been too worried.  And they seem to adhere to paper pretty well.  If anything pulls up....the glue can always be reactivated by ironing the piece down again.

Hand dyed fabric is the BEST for fusing because it doesn't have chemicals.

Now onto tracing:

When the release paper is fused on the back of your fabric....you can draw or trace anything you want and cut it out.  You just have to remember that it will be in reverse when you turn it over.  For many things that doesn't matter like leaves and hearts. If you're using a stencil...just can just trace it backwards on the release paper...so it's right side up on the front.  

When we made this banner back in 2015 as a going away present for Dana, at Hancock Church, we traced the letters on release paper while it was on the back of the black fabric making sure to place the letter stencils backwards. We could arrange the stencils however we wanted to get the most out of the fabric.

I made a little JOY today...to show how to do a small project with different fabrics. This little fabric joy is ready to fuse to anything I want.

I traced the stencils backwards on the release paper....and ironed them on the back of the pre-fused fabric.  Anytime you iron fabric onto the release paper (or parchment) you reactivate the glue...but it's not permanent. It can easily be pulled off.  Then all I had to do was cut them out.

Here's another way....when it's hard to trace it in reverse. 

I wanted to overlay a few more flowers on this watercolor piece.  I found some fabric that has both the purples and the corals that I thought would work well.

I traced the flower from my watercolor onto a piece of release paper with a sharpie. (I was going to cut it from the opposite side...so a pencil wasn't dark enough) Then I fused it sharpie side down on the back so it would be oriented the right way from the front.  I hope it makes sense.  And at this point.....I hope you're only reading this if you have interest. 

I did notice that the sharpie transferred a bit to the back of the fabric with the heat...but since this is my cutting line...it didn't seem to matter.  But you only need to tack it well enough to hold for cutting. Using just the tip of your iron you can touch it in a couple key places and possibly avoid any transfer at all.

   

I decided to cut the stem separately and tuck it under the flower. I used my rotary cutter to cut a skinny strip...and fused it on first.

Using a pressing cloth over and under I ironed the flower in place.

I used paper under the piece because I had a few overhanging petals and I didn't want to fuse them to my wool pressing mat.  I wanted the flowers offset a bit so the coral paint would be like a shadow and I wanted plenty of petal to work with. I trimmed it up after.  

There are a few things I would have done differently...but I like it well enough. 

The leaves at the bottom should have been smaller...and I think the long stem on the right and maybe even the flower are a little dark. I think a contrasting lighter stem would have been nice. 

The flower on the lower left is not over a watercolor flower...and I do like that look the best.  Next time I do something like this I'll leave more white space so I can place these random fabric flowers in their own space.  

Always learning.

Last tip for today:

Beware of little scraps and bits of fusible fabric.  If the release paper is off...and you iron over them.....they WILL stick to something!  Been there done that!

I do save small scraps...but not this small.  You never know when you're going to need a center for a flower...or a dot for and i.

Every piece of pre-fused fabric is precious.  

Tomorrow I'll talk about building a motif.