Well although I didn't get all that I wanted done last week, I think I'm finally back on track. My power cord to my sewing machine has been found (lost for a week - gasp!), my sewing hole put back in order after being disrupted by my foray into painting, and the weather has cooled down to perfect temps. So I guess I no longer have any reason not to get after the bathing beauties this week.
As you can see I managed to get the sky sewn together once I found the power cord to my machine - long story - don't ask! I also managed to paint the water fabric I needed - in one try this time! I used setacolors' cobalt blue, emerald green, a touch of black, more than a touch of white and ultra marine. At the end I sprinkled course sea salt on to give it a bit of a ripple effect and I pulled pleats in it to give the allusion of horizontal lines. I was VERY happy that it all came out nicely but with the rainy days we've been having it took 2 days to dry.
One thing that I did learn was that I need to make sure I don't dilute my white down so much. By the time it all dried the white had blended in with the blues and the greens. The lighter effect was nice but I still wanted to get little spots of white so that it looked like the water had caps on top of the waves.
Today I'm going to spend the morning getting the rest of the background together - which will be the beach and blanket the girls are sitting on. The more I thought about the more I think I'll play with my commercial fabric stash to get the girls done. I haven't used commercial prints in a long while and it might hurry this project along!
Now its time for the Find of the Week!
You wouldn't believe what I found in my husband's workshop. This really nice heavy duty 4 ft long metal ruler. I was like - WOW - do I know a sewing hole that needddsss that! Its amazing what a good 4 feet can do for your quilting let me tell you. I used it this week to cut up the sky fabric but it would work really nice when you are squaring up your quilts too! Anyways, of course I wanted my own and bought it at Lowe's for a mere 8 bucks. (You can find it in the power tool section - along the wall) My husband just cracked up laughing when he saw me bring my own in the house and I handed him back his old one!
See more great Design walls at Judy's Patchworks!
Love the painted fabric! I'm starting to experiment with painting and dying fabrics and having a blast with it. I'm going to do some research into the setacolors. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteI love the pieced painted fabric -- gorgeous. Have you tried salting? Just a thought...
ReplyDeleteThanks Karen! Yes - there is quite a bit of coarse salt on it - it gave it a more ripple effect - still I didn't use the big big salt - this is what I call my middle salt (grin)
ReplyDeleteBeautiful painted fabric and piecing! My husband is a contractor and has quite a few of those....so I borrow one occasionally!
ReplyDeleteI really like your sky. Are you going to cut up the water, too? I did a sky once with little squares. Thanks for sharing your process.
ReplyDeleteThanks! I'm not cutting up the water since so much of it will eventually be covered by the beauties. I love to do pieced backgrounds too - if you look over my work it seems a lot of the stuff I design has a complex background!
ReplyDeleteI have wanted to dabble in painting fabrics but have just never bit the bullet. I bought some paints to dye some laces and have only used it once. I think I really want to piece and quilt and leave the painting and dying to everyone else. lol
ReplyDeleteI need to look at that ruler on my next trip to Lowes!
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