Clearsnap and Stencil Girl Blog Hop- Hand Dyed Fabric Pillow

I am on a quilting kick right now and although I am primarily a paper craft designer- I am always looking for ways to combine materials and techniques. Today I am playing with these two cool 9x12inch over sized stencils from StencilGirl:

Bubbles

Marrakesh Mix

I thought they would make a very cool hand dyed fabric. But since I am experimenting, I decided to start small and do a patchwork pillow- incorporating my hand dyed fabric into it. I used a resist technique and Izink Pigment, but you can also use any Clearsnap Pigment ink refill, or you can directly ink on the fabric with Colorbox Crafters Ink. Here is how I do the technique:

{first, you will want to spray the BACK of your stencil with repositionable fabric adhesive. Did you know there is a front and back to stencils? Just look closely on one of the corners you will see a manufacturers mark of some sort, thats the top!}

{lay your Stencil on top of a piece of muslin that is cut slightly larger than the stencil. Take some white acrylic paint and brush over the stencil. The white will act as the resist when we dye the fabric}

{I set up my dyes by dropping 3-4 drops into some small plastic containers. I use my melamine cutting board as a work surface, but a cookie sheet would work too}

{get the fabric immersed, and then lay out on the work surface}

{Now the dip in the dye is just to get the fabric wet and to allow the color to bleed. Now take the Izink dropper and drag over the fabric like show}

{now twist it to get the dye all soaked in (i know I should have done the demo with the blue-looks like a bloody mess!}

{Roll Fabric back out, and dab off excess ink from the stencil resist portion}

{Repeat with your other color. Hang out to dry making sure the drip area is over grass or dirt. When dry, press with a steam iron}

Sorry I didn't get more pics- but I go zoo into making this little pillow! Basically I cut the hand dyed fabric into 3- 2.5x9 inch strips, then used some of my on hand scraps for the rest.

{if you want to make your own I followed this free tutorial from DREAM PATCH HERE

{I quilted with a contrasting red to get my dyes fabric to stand out even more}

For the back I used and inexpensive screened cotton fabric- it mimic the resist technique on front

{Its just a little pillowcase pocket opening on the back for each cleaning}

Puffy Loves his new pillow, and I love it for sitting my laptop on when it gets to hot o my lap!

SUPPLIES:

Izink- Tulip

Izink- Tomato

StencilGirl 9x12 Marrakech Mix and Bubbles

white acrylic paint

Muslin

Foam Brush

Extra fabric and Batting

Pre made pillow form

My First Quilt

So I have never really been interested in quilting. Math? Gah... Precision? Eww... And I guess a lot of the old fashioned granny square type quilts were just not my style. That was until I saw this super cute quilt on Craftsy.

It's called a Rag Quilt by Sweetwater and you can find it HERE or on Etsy HERE. Then I started really looking more into quilting and realized it has a lot of similarities to paper crafting. Mixing together papers and fabrics is pretty much the same thing- but you can't snuggle up with a greeting card at the end of the day! Now I am quilting obsessed. I just bought a book Fabulously Fast Quilts by Amy Smart who as an awesome blog; Diary of a Quilter and am excited to start another project out of her book. Another bonus is I have learned SO MUCH MORE about my sewing machine and the different feetr. So far I have used my; walking foot, stitch in the ditch foot, and also figured out what some of the mystery stitches on my machine were! Stitch #39-40 are called Piecing Stitches and if I select those it gives me the perfect 1/4 inch seam allowance using the edge of my foot as the guide- who knew?! Here is my finished quilt, I love it so much.

{I even made my own custom label}

{I cut my own 2.5 inch strips for the backing- didn't want to use all the valuable Moda fabric on the back!}

 I used a Moda April Showers Jelly Roll to make it. Can't wait to get started on my next cozy masterpiece!
-Denise