I finished the last exercise in Module 2 of the C&G course this weekend. It was further exploring transparency with transfer printing. I ordered the transfer dyes right at the start of the module. I only managed to get the polycotton fabric after Christmas. It had to have a minimum of 65% polyester content and that was surprisingly hard to find. It just really shows what a fabric desert Frankfurt is. There are very few shops left that stock a wide range of fabrics.

Transfer printing is remarkably easy to do. You just paint the dye onto paper. Wait for it to dry. And then iron it onto your fabric. You could get into painting complex designs onto the paper and then just ironing them onto the fabric. The activity in the course called for cutting out shapes from the paper and producing the design as you go along by ironing the shapes onto the fabric one by one.

Here is the piece of fabric I ended up with:

I only ordered the three primary colours of the transfer dye although you can get many more colours. I wanted to see the effect of ironing one colour over another. You do get the secondary colours where they overlap. You can also increase the saturation of the hue by ironing one shape over another in the same colour. This was particularly effective with the yellow, which was not so keen to leave the paper and attach itself to the cloth.

Other things to try in the future would be mixing the dyes before painting them onto the paper. You should be able to produce all the colours on the colour wheel. Definitely worth doing some more experimenting. You can get some nice controlled effects this way. Pity it doesn’t work with 100% cotton. I can’t do transfer printing onto my hand dyed fabrics.

This afternoon after going out to get some exercise I did my next exercise for the C&G course. I try to do at least one exercise each week. Sometimes the inner pigdog (nice German expression “innerer Schweinehund”) meaning one’s own intrinsic laziness takes a bit of overcoming, today being one of those days. But once I get going I usually have fun.

Today’s activity was to experiment with transparent fabrics to produce a pleasing arrangement. I have collected quite a few different fabrics so I had plenty to choose from. I finally found a use for some silver net that I bought too, although I still have a large quantity left over.

The photo is taken before I attempt to tack it into place. In case I have any mishaps. I have to save it for use in module 3 so I’ll have to do my best. This fabric is very slippery though and also gets loaded with static so it’s liable to fly off.

After I finished the cushion at Christmas I needed something else to keep my hands occupied. So I unravelled this pullover and knitted it up again in a different pattern. This is nothing unusual for me. I don’t know why I always seem to choose the wrong designs the first time round. I liked the old pattern and loved the wool but it wasn’t really me.

I decided to knit a shrug. I didn’t realise how easy and fast they are. This was finished a couple of weeks ago but today I was wearing some suitable clothes for the modelling so I got the photographer to take these photos. It is based on the free pattern for a reversible lace rib shrug from elann. My wool was a little thinner than suggested so I had to adjust the number of stitches.

I didn’t have enough wool to knit the swing edge as long as the pattern said, but I think the length is fine for me. The best thing as far as I am concerned was there is no sewing together when you’re finished knitting. That is my least favourite part of knitting. I like the finished effect so I think the wool may stay knitted longer this time round

I finished the needlepoint cushion over Christmas. As I never use a frame to do my needlepoint it was a bit skew-whiff so I had to block it. My wooden frame for silk painting was very useful for that. It isn’t a perfect square but it’s a whole lot better than before I blocked it.

I went to buy some backing fabric in the week I was off work after Christmas but didn’t find any I liked. Then I had the brainwave to use denim and I even had some in so that was put to good use. I only had to buy the cord to finish off the edge and a zip. The kit came with instructions for making up that I followed. The zip is put into the centre. I have always put it into one edge before, but this way is much easier and makes a neater finish too. (I think the photographer made this look more off square than it really is )

The cushion has some gold thread in it too. I’m not too sure about that as it kept shedding gold flakes as I was sewing. I hope it wears ok.

This is a small piece (about A3) based on a primary source. Here the primary source is the bamboo flooring that we put down in the first floor of the house last summer.

At the time we were busy laying it, I thought it would look good as a quilt top. Now I’ve made a small sample to see how it looks in fabric. I had a good selection of green hand-dyed fabric in different values from some previous dyeing. So apart from the very dark green squares, which are some scraps of commercial batik, all the fabric I dyed myself.

The strips are 3/4 inch wide, which is in fact the same width as the parquet. If I was going to make a larger piece I would make them wider I think. As I was sewing the pieces together they started curving. Not sure why as I cut them all accurately and used the 1/4 inch foot for the seams. For the second half I sewed the seams in alternate directions which seemed to help. It’s pretty hard to sew long thin strips together and maintain an accurate width.

I’ve been making a couple of log cabin blocks as examples of strip piecing. Log cabin is, I think, my favourite traditional block. Not because it is a relatively easy block to piece, but because it has seemingly endless possibilities when creating a layout for the blocks. I looked through the various sources I have collected for blocks to come up with two unusual ones. This one I have known about since I started quilting again. I intended to make a small wall hanging using this block but never got around to it. It’s called either “geese in the cabin” or “geese in the corners”. It is based on the courthouse steps variation of the log cabin block. My original idea was to make one half in pinks and one half in lilac/purple with black geese, but I was using up strips of left over fabric for this one. The logs are one inch wide.

The second example comes from a book with a huge number of block designs that I bought a while ago now. The spiral effect is caused by clever placement on the colours in the traditional log cabin block. I felt the strips needed to be narrower on this one. They are 3/4 inch wide.

I did some searching around on the internet too looking for other variations. There are some good sites out there. The International Quilt Study Center is a favourite of mine. I get their quilt of the month email sent to me. Another good find was the Illinois State Museum which has some interesting information on quilts in their collection too.