Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Guess I should let you know how the quilt is coming along...

Things on the Houston-quilt-front are going reasonably well. The pieces have been cut (from the colour scheme above) and laid out on trays all ready for piecing. A day was spent drawing designs for screen-print stencils. Another day was spent cutting out the stencils...
Yesterday was screen printing day. Well, frustratingly little was done during the day, but I managed to storm through it all yesterday evening! Rather pleased with the results too! Lots of images and texture relating to the theme of the quilt...
So today I was going to really get stuck into that piecing. I had no errands to run, no household jobs to interfere, and we started out on a roll, until things went pear-shaped around 9:30am. You probably don't want to know any of the gory details involved, like myself sitting in the armchair snuggling with Daniel and Caleb and copping a face full of something from Caleb, whom we now know has a yucky tummy. The next hour was spent showering, disinfecting and washing. Needless to say, after a few rounds of this, the sewing machine was packed away for the rest of the day, with the hope of better times this evening. I think I'm still on track to get the quilt done on time, but I suppose that depends a bit on how many of us catch the bug!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love your stencil work and the detailing is so clean and neat, What paper do you use? and how many prints can you get out of it till the stencil falls apart? (well mine fall apart)
Natalie P-W

Ruth said...

Hi Natalie,
I used cartridge paper (for drawing) for most of these. I find that how long they last depends on the paint I used. With the red prints I used some old fabric paint I had (relatively runny) and this bled under the paper already on the first print. My other fabric paint use (Texcraft, I think) comes in a standard base and an opaque base. The opaque base is better for the stencils. If its a fairly stable stencil like the green leaves above (i.e. no long skinny sections attached only at one point) I can remove the paper from the screen, let it dry, and reuse it later - the opaque paint makes it stronger than ever before.I think I have done at least 10-15 prints from a cartridge paper stencil. I was just reading about mylar stencils (much more durable), and am curious if this would work on a silk screen. Do you know?

Anonymous said...

thanks,
I haven't used an Mylar stencils yet , but I do have some sheets waiting to be cut up. Most of my paper stencils have been used on silk screens, and seem to get about 6-10 prints out before it starts to crumble, but that could be the quality of paper. THe Mylar should work on a silk screen, wil try it and let you know.
Natalie P-W