Linda McLaughlin: Notes from Studio B

Monday, September 5, 2016

Making Progress

So last week I left off with my three pieces of retired print table cover being stenciled and although I really liked the color and transparency of the paintstiks, I wanted more intensity. About eight or nine years ago I had dyed several pieces of silk organza, I dug them out and had the three colors I needed. I think it was meant to be. My organza got a Misty Fuse backing and then I spent a few hours cutting out letters and fusing them down. Now I'm happy! The organza is still transparent enough to show the layers behind it.

The piece with the red lettering has been quilted and is awaiting facings. It was quilted in half inch vertical lines with a variegated yellow, lime and purple thread, again another find in my stash. The other two are getting a bit of hand stitching before I layer and quilt them.

The Weekly Leaf

This weeks leaf was gelli printed.

I'm getting a good size pile of the first print of the leaf shapes, I'm saving them.

Week #36

Here are all 36 weeks.

Daily Stitching updates

Gelli prints

Every few weeks I print a bunch of squares so that I'm always ready to stitch, this is the group I did this week.

#243-249

Then today I got to sew row number 13 on.

Shades of orange #170-176

Also added a row on here, #9 almost half way.

Linked to "Off the Wall Friday"

Monday, August 29, 2016

Now there are three new pieces.

The new start from last week has now become three new starts and I'm still making decisions as I go. The retired print table cover has now been ripped into three good sized pieces (34" x58",25"x48" and 40"x45") and several smaller pieces.

I've stenciled on them with paintstiks.

Started doing some hand stitching with #5 pearl cotton and am changing my mind about it.

The stitching through two layers of cloth and batting will take forever and it's not visible from a distance.

So the new plan, at least for the one with red lettering is to fuse hand dyed silk organza over the letters. I do have some in red, I'm hoping it will be enough.

The largest piece was stenciled with olive green and that shows up better and the smaller piece was stenciled in teal and part of that shows. So stay tuned, I'll see what feels right this week.

The Weekly Leaf
Another SolarFast week, this time with a leaf from my flower garden.

Avocado SolarFast on a light beige hand dye.

Week #35

Daily Stitching updates

Gelli prints #236-242

Shades of Orange #163-169

Linked to "Off the Wall Friday" and "Slow Sunday Stitching"

Monday, August 22, 2016

Starting something new

The SAQA call for entries for the Layered Voices show has been out for quite awhile, in fact entries are due next month. I got this strong feeling that I needed to do some more work on the print table cover that I retired a few months ago. I wrote all over it with black dynaflow paint, anything that came to mind about layers and voices. I found some new fine tip squeeze bottles that work wonderfully.

There's a wire in the cap that keeps the nozzle from clogging. The writing is readable in some areas but not in others.

Then I scraped thickened golden yellow dye all over the piece.

Unfortunately it didn't stay that vibrant because the cloth is a heavyweight muslin that just doesn't come out that bright. The whole piece is 108" x 78" and right now it's a hot mess.

I'll be studying it a bit to see what part or parts I will actually use, I really have no plan I'm just doing whatever feels right at the moment. But there will be both machine and hand stitching involved, maybe more printing. I have no idea right now. I may also end up scrapping the whole thing.

My few days up at McCall were wonderful, I even got to try stand up paddle boarding, it is fun!

The Weekly Leaf
This week I used a leaf shape that I had cut from black paper, notan style. I've been playing with rectangles and leaf shapes. I used the left hand one, photocopied it on to a transparency and used it with SolarFast.