A fabric project

Each year the Town and Country Decorative Painters makes a painted quilt to support our annual retreat. The quilt always follows the theme of the retreat. The theme for the 2009 retreat is Painting Safari. Each square of the quilt is to be decorated with the likeness of a jungle critter. I was assigned a parrot. The design on my square is a Macaw. The retreat committee provides the fabric. This year there is a leaf design on the fabric. The square is painted using DecoArt So-Soft fabric paint. The parrot is painted as a vignette. That is, the edge just fades off rather than being a hard, finished edge or including the whole bird.

Another HOOT project

To fill in a little time, I took a class that used fabric paint on a denim tote bag. Nothing much new in this class. It was just a nice little project to keep busy on that particular day.

Christmas Teddy Sweatshirt

With the Thanksgiving holiday, I haven't had a lot of time to paint or to do much of anything else. Here is one of my latest pieces. This little teddy bear is painted on a sweatshirt using DecoArt So-Soft fabric paints. He is adapted from a design in an old book by Trudy Beard. Sweatshirt fabric is soft and absorbent. When painting on fabric, always remember to put something under the fabric or inside an item like a garment or a bag so that the paint does not go through to the other side. You can use a piece of cardboard, several pieces of disposable palette paper, card stock. Just make sure the barrier is at least as large as the design and that it is not going to shift while you are painting. This design was painted using a deerfoot stippler and the result is a soft-edged painting that is very appropriate for a fuzzy teddy bear.

A Painted Quilt Square

Another project from my studio--a painted quilt square. This design is painted on a piece of white cotton. The theme of the quilt is the state flowers and birds of the 13 original colonies. Since I grew up in Delaware, I volunteered to do the Delaware square. Each person who participated in the quilt project was given the fabric square and the design for her quilt block from an old embroidery book that included the birds and flowers of all 50 states. In this way, the designs were consistent, even though the painting on each one may be a different style. Each one has a banner, along with a design that includes the bird and the flower for that state.

The Delaware state bird is the Blue Hen Chicken. It was originally bred for cock fighting, which, of course, is illegal today. I don't know if this breed of chicken is widely grown today. If it is, it probably ends up on the dinner table. It is not a flashy bird. Its feathers are grey with some white markings. The only real color on this bird is the red of its wattle and comb. The Blue Hen is the mascot of the University of Delaware. although the University of Delaware Fighting Blue Hen is actually blue. The state flower is the Peach Blossom.

So here is the quilt square. It is painted with DecoArt SoSoft fabric paint.

A Make-It-Take-It

A little more of my Retreat report. While watching over the Make-It-Take-It table, I was able to take one of the project classes during a slow time. One of the teachers specializes in painting on fabrics. Her MITI was butterflies on an insulated canvas lunch bag. The paint is DecoArt So-Soft iridescent colors with permanent black ink outlining.

Quilt Block

If you have never tried painting on fabric. It is fun and with today's fabric paints, you can get wonderful results. Here is a quilt block painted on muslin. It is painted with DecoArt SoSoft fabric paints. These paints do not require any sort of heat setting and can be layered to achieve shading and highlighting for pretty detailed work. It dries in about 24 hours. Once dry, it is washable. I have used this paint on sweatshirts and have washed them many, many time with no loss of the painted design.

This block is part of a quilt painted by members of the Town and Country Decorative Painters and will be given away at the annual retreat in two weeks. It is a fund raiser to support the retreat.