Primitive Hearts - The Process

I've never done a heart quilt, but I had a plan for a "Love" quilt. The plan is to somehow convey the meaning of love through symbols and text on a quilt. I started it on my husband's birthday. I was thinking about how wonderful it is to have him in my life and I was feeling very much in the mindset for starting my love quilt.

I began with another Setacolor painting on Elmers Glue Resist. I like the primitive look that comes with this technique. The primary colors are very bold.

After I was happy with my basic design and colors, I made a heart stamp. Yes, I made a stamp specially for this quilt.
























This stamp took me about five minutes to make. Remember, we are going for a primitive look here, so quick and dirty is appropriate.

I planned the size of the stamp according to the size wood block I had on hand. I traced my wood block on the corner of the rubber sheet so I would be sure to make it the right size. Then, I carved my design on the plumbers rubber gasket material using a speedball cutter. I cut it out with scissors and attached it using double sided water resistant carpet tape.

Then, I got busy stamping. I used Jacquard Lumiere paints for stamping - Pearl Blue, True Gold, and Metallic Gold













































The next step was adding the screen printing. I spent a lot of time online researching the text I wanted for my screens. I wanted a revised 1 Corinthians 13 excerpt. I also wanted the Greek words for Love and I was able to print those out in Greek. Then I added some text from the Japanese version of the Wikipedia entry on Love. I did my first screen printing in white because those resist lines are going to be white when they are washed out. Because of the glue resist, my fabric did not lay flat and some of the screen printing is fuzzy. I think that is OK because it is supposed to look primitive, and I will go back later with another layer of screen printing - probably in navy blue - after the resist lines have been washed out.


Now I am going to just put this piece aside for a while to let the paint cure. I don't want to wash it out until I am certain the paint is fully set. In a week or two, I will iron it really well to set the paint. Then I will soak it in warm water to soften the glue gel before washing it in the washing machine. I let it soak a good while - about 30 minutes. I have never had trouble getting the resist out.