Thermofax Screen Printed Butterflies for Fusing

I used a Thermofax screen converted from my own photographs of butterflies (I printed both Monarch and Swallowtail butterflies), on some marbled cotton broadcloth. I attached Mistyfuse to the back, then carefully cut the butterflies out. I plan to use some of these for Mail Art, but the others will be put away for future projects.


Here is the photograph I took last year of a Swallowtail butterfly in my garden. This is the picture I used to create the Thermofax screen. I thought you'd enjoy seeing the photo I started with.

Mail Art Project - Week Thirty Five

More bear paw blocks! Well, these will fit with last week's Mail Art to make a full block:

Today's quote:

"If you wait to do everything until you're sure its right, you'll probably never do much of anything." -Win Borden-

Extra cards are going out this week to Suzanne in South Ozone Park, New York,
Leslie in Great Falls, MT
and Jan in Wakefield, NE

Today is my birthday!

Thermofax Screen Printed Butterflies

Even though this marbled fabric is flawed, it provides a perfectly interesting background for these butterfly prints.
When this is dry, I will attach fusible web to the back and cut them out so they are ready to use.

Thermofax Screen Printing on Marbled Fabric

Several years ago, I did a session of fabric marbling in my studio. I had mixed results. I ended up with a lot of white lines where the fabric folded as I was laying it onto the vat. Sorting through my collection, I was looking for a way to use the fabric in some Mail Art postcards.


I had this Thermofax screen of a Monarch butterfly that I wanted to use, so I got busy..

As you can see, I tape the edges of my Thermofax screens with duct tape. This keeps them from rolling up, but they also remain flexible.

I am happy with this first one! Now to do more!

Stitching Satin for Mail Art

After finishing the hand work, I will layer it with batting and machine quilt it. Then, I will cut it into 4 x 6" Mail Art postcards.

Satin Strips for Mail Art

I have inherited my mother-in-law's satin collection and I try to use it whenever I can. These strips were leftover from another project and I thought they might be interesting as Mail Art postcards. I stitched the strips together and then decided to do some hand embroidery along the strips.

I pulled some colors from my embroidery thread box. I am looking forward to the stitchin'!

Auto Gasket for Printing

Three weeks ago, I sent out Mail Art Postcards that had been printed using an Auto Gasket.
A blog reader asked to see it, and it took a bit for me to locate it and get it photographed.
But here it is at last! Thanks for your patience, Judy!

Sedona - Travel Log Tuesday

Sedona, Arizona is one of our favorite places. We really enjoy the drama of the red rocks. These pictures are from a hike we took in January 2009. We've not been back to Sedona since then, but these pictures make me realize we need to try to go again soon!

Mail Art Project - Week Thirty Four

These small bear paw blocks were buried in the bottom of a drawer.
Hand dyed and commercial cotton. Machine pieced.

Today's quote:

"Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending."
-Maria Robinson-

Extra postcards are going out this week to Marjolijn in The Netherlands, and Joan in Springfield, Ohio.

Black and White and Red All Over Stitched

I decided to do a black satin stitch on the edges of each black and white strip, varying the widths.

Not very compelling as a wall hanging, but I think it will dice up into 4 x 6" postcards quite nicely.

Black and White and Red All Over

Here is something else I pulled out of my UFO drawer. I am sure this was something I played with 6 or 7 years ago. I thought this one might also make a decent batch of postcards, so I contemplated how to quilt it. . . . I love the vivid red with patches of blue on the hand dyed background. Commercial black and white printed fabrics were fused in place.

Stitching Over Colored Pencil Sketch

I sat down to do some quick free motion quilting on this mediocre drawing done on muslin with colored pencils. I thought it might make some interesting Mail Art postcards.

I think it will be more interesting cut into 4 x 6 sized portions.

Colored Pencil Drawing on Fabric

I've been sifting through drawers of old projects and I came across this experimental fabric sketch. I drew the flowers using colored pencils. Then, I applied gel medium to make it permanent. Then, apparently I put it away in a drawer. Today I decided it could probably be quilted to make some Mail Art.

Hardwood Installation Complete!

Well, we have finished installing the hardwood flooring in our home's upper level. We have installed around 1500 square feet of flooring and it only took us 4 months! We were doing a lot of other fix ups also, as we went along. Anyway, the bedrooms and hallway were a bit more challenging because there are odd angles in our home and the flooring was installed parallel with the walls in the living room, family room, and hallway, but we just kept going in the same direction as the hallway turned the corner which meant all the bedroom flooring and half the hallway flooring is installed at a diagonal across the room.

Jasper Lake, Beartooth Mountains - Travel Log Tuesday

These pictures are from August 2009, when Joe and I backpacked to Jasper Lake in the hopes of catching some big cutthroat trout. We caught a few.

This is a wonderful trip. It is just 7 1/2 miles in from the Island Lake trailhead. It isn't too steep until the last stretch between Albino and Jasper Lakes. It is stunning with Lonesome Mountain as a backdrop.

Mail Art Project - Week Thirty Three

Hand dyed and commercially printed cotton fabrics, fancy machine stitching, free motion quilting.

Quote:

"And in the end, its not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years."
-Abraham Lincoln-

Finger Painted Fabric

I've been working on a process for creating the look of finger painting on fabric - actually messing around with the concept for nearly two years. Off and on. I recently pulled my finger painted fabrics from the drawer and played around with them again. This "landscape" was created using a gelatin plate. I used my fingers as well as brushes to create the texture with the paint. This print has languished in a drawer, but when I pulled it out - I had a flash of inspiration - I envisioned cattle grazing on a hillside.

So, I screen printed cattle grazing all over it. I made these Thermofax screens from some photographs I took of cows on the ranch.
I call this one "Big Sky Bovines"

Travel Log - Quinault Reservation

Our family owns a small acreage on the Pacific Coast within the Quinault Indian Reservation.
This is a wild and primitive place and we LOVE to visit, but it is a very long drive from Seattle, and there is no longer a cabin to stay in - it was reclaimed by the ocean long ago.
We have camped there many times, but it is usually a pretty wet camp! This is the rainforest!

We love our beach walks along the eroded coastline. We rarely see another human there, but we have seen bears! It is a very magical place!

Fossils #8

I think I showed this piece in progress a while back.
It is now fully embellished with polymer clay hand molded fossils I made.

Hand painted, screen printed fabrics, pieced, machine quilted. The polymer clay fossils are stitched in place with pearl cotton.

Lasting Lilies

One of my favorite cut flowers is the lily. It looks wonderful for so long! I have had this vase going for over 3 weeks! I have removed and added flowers only once.

En Toto Petroglyphs - Pryor Mountains

Thanks for bearing with me while I post one last group of Petroglyphs from Petroglyph Canyon in the Pryor Mountains. This panel is quite well known. It is printed on the cover of a BLM Publication.

En Toto pecked petroglyphs are found in only about two dozen sites, mainly in Montana and Wyoming. These were probably created between 1000 AD and 1000 BC.

This panel is located right across the canyon from the one I showed above. This looks like it might have been some sort of shelter to me (below). There are six human figures on the exterior wall. One of the interesting things about this group is two of the figures are female (most petroglyphs are male - in case you haven't noticed the exaggerated phalluses! ) Petroglyphs frequently have exaggerated genitalia and the females here have vaginas deeply pecked.

The figures are not as easy to see, since they are not pecked into rock having desert varnish (dark covering) that makes most of the glyphs so obvious.

Stitch Posies - My Process

I am going to walk you through my process for the latest Mail Art Postcard.
I started with a strip of hand dyed cotton - not quite a fat quarter. I keep a drawer filled with all my fused fabrics and pulled some green, which I cut into rough diamonds and fused these randomly across the blue hand dye.

Next, I added some purple hand dyed circles - I tried to place them in close proximity to the green diamonds.

Next, I cut some smaller circles from orange and yellow hand dyed fabric. These were fused in place in the center of the purple ones.

Next, I layered my fused piece with batting and did some free motion quilting with a heavy black cotton thread.

I have to credit Jeanelle McCall with the spark that inspired the style of this particular postcard.

Her article "Spring in Full Bloom" in the April / May 2011 issue of Quilting Arts, shows a technique/ style I adapted for last week's Mail Art.

I cut them into 4 x 6" pieces, and these were attached to 4 x 6" tagboard using a glue stick.
Then, when the glue dried, I did a zig zag around the edges so they would stay together in the mail!

I had a lot of extra cards this week and some are going out to family members who are celebrating birthdays this month.