Working on New Smaller Pieces and I've added a Studios page to my site--Come on in and have a look around! :)

     I had fun with this piece using one of my favorite techniques, reverse applique (fancy way of saying cutting away the top layer to reveal a layer underneath), in this case a dark navy piece of hand dyed fabric.  The top fabric was sun printed last summer with these paints.  I have the primaries in the transparent paints, and they can be mixed together to achieve other colors.  Sun printing is a fun activity to do with little ones too.  You simply dilute the paint--2 parts water to 1 part paint, apply it to the fabric on a surface that you can carry out to the sun or leave out in the sun.  Lay objects or cut outs of objects, in this case I used various leaves and a couple of pretty branches, on top of your fabric and leave it in the sun for one hour (if it's windy, you can use pins to pin down the leaves or objects, I tried feathers that day also and they did great!).  An impression of the objects that you laid on top of the fabric will turn white-ish after the sun has done its magic, and you will see amazing details in it (if you look really closely in the top left side of the outlined Japanese Maple Leaf, you can see the imprint of some Japanese Painted Fern leaves that I used (ferns make me all goose bumpy, I LOVE their texture!)  You let the fabric dry completely, then iron it on high to heat set it.  After heat setting you can throw it in the washer and wash it, then dry it and you'll have super soft fabric to work with.  The fabric I used in "Breakthrough" went through two rounds of sun-printing, to give it a more layered look.  I then sewed a Japanese Maple Leaf shape onto the fabric, outlined with thread some of the other leaves that sun-printed, cut away areas to reveal the navy underneath, added the three copper painted fusible squares and then machine quilted in two different patterns with two different colors of thread.  It is placed in a black gallery style frame, and is ready for hanging.

Don't forget to check out the new Studios page on my site, it's nestled under the Home Page.  I'd love to hear what you think about it!

Breakthrough 10"x10"

Detail of Breakthrough