Shadows and Outlines

In my last post I talked about getting ready for thread painting. I'm going to give a couple more bits of information about this in this post.

First - did you notice the dark blue shadows under the rooster? How about the dark blue outlining around parts of the rooster?

The outlining is a technique that Pam used on her Wolf and she wanted us to use it on our images. I think it was absolutely necessary here in the areas where the rooster colors were close in value to the background fabrics. It made those areas stand out where they otherwise would have disappeared. The blue fabric had fusible on the back of it and it was cut in thin sections in the shape of the rooster outline. It was slipped behind the cotton inked fabric before the rooster was fused to the background.

The shadow pieces were added by me to "ground" the rooster. I didn't want it just floating in space. After the shadows and outlines were added, the top, batting, and backing fabric were sandwiched and pin basted.

I think the outlining technique is a good one and well worth remembering for other fiber art pieces.

Thanks for visiting my blog!

Rooster Background

Completed Rooster

The background for the Rooster was made using Cherry Wood fabrics. If you aren't familiar with them, they are made of cotton but have a suede like appearance. They aren't sold locally. I have to buy them at Road to California, or order them on-line.  I took the lead from on the background design from Pam's Wolf piece.

After the background was pieced it was time to get ready to thread paint. The first step is to take a piece of white cotton fabric, trace your design on it and then paint it with Tsukeniko inks. The white background fabric is spritzed with water so that the inks spread out in a watercolor fashion. The idea is just to put the colors you want to thread paint in the places on the design. The colors act as a guide for stitching, and help to fill in an area that isn't completely covered with thread.

After the ink dries you put fusible on the back of the painted fabric, cut out the image and fuse it to your background fabric. You can see this step below:

painted image

 Thanks for visiting my blog!

Rooster - Thread Painting

Thread Painted Rooster

Before heading to Asilomar I prepared my drawing and color plan for the Rooster I was hoping I would be able to make in class. Pam sent out an email indicating that we could make something other than the wolf a few weeks before the class, so I had time to prepare for this.

I had some photos of roosters that I had taken at a Farmer's Market in Arroyo Grande. These are some of the photos:

The middle photo is the one I used for the drawing of the Rooster I wanted to make. I added a bit to the tail and comb, but its mostly from that rooster. Here is my rooster drawing:

drawing

The next step is selecting colors. Pam suggested we use Cherry Wood fabrics. I purchased a packet of those at Road to California, so that was my basis for the colors of the Rooster and background. Below is a photo of my color plan for the rooster that I brought to class:

color plan

So that was my start. I'll show more of the making of this in my next posts. Thanks for visiting my blog!

Thread Painting

This year I had the opportunity to take a class at Asilomar, and I chose a thread painting class with Pam Holland. This is the Wolf that Pam Holland was suggesting that students make in the class:

Pam Holland's Wolf

We had the option to do something of our own, and it seemed that most people in the class opted for another subject to make. I have wanted to make a rooster for a long time, and I thought the thread painting stitches would lend themselves to feathers, so that is what I chose. Here is my finished Rooster that I started in that class and finished later on my own:

Free Range Rooster by Eileen Wintemute

I loved the class, partly for the techniques that I learned, and partly because I found Pam Holland so enjoyable to spend time with. I can see why she has the number of followers that she has! In fact, I am going to the Houston Quilt Festival in a few weeks and have signed up for another class with her while there.

I'm going to show you how I made this in the next few posts. I hope you enjoy learning about Pam's process.

Thanks for visiting my blog!