Monoprinting

I received this beautiful whole mini quilt from Colene Russel who is my partner in the ALQS. I've forgotten to turn it 90 degrees but the pattern is a bowl of flowers. At the moment its pinned to my display board so I can keep looking at it. I think she's very brave to even attempt wholecloth quilting and its very well done.

I've not blogged for a few days, mainly because I was getting on with some of the wip's but also due to Mum's health, which isn't too good at the moment.


Its the Northern Region EG's Regional Day on Saturday and those of us who attended the courses at Ushaw College were asked to take along the work we'd done to show and tell. So I've been busy trying to get some finishe instead of putting them to one side.

This piece I didn't like much, in fact I wasn't too keen on any of my pieces, I laid the paint on too thick. However once I'd started to stitch into it it grew on me. This started out as dark blue and silver but now with added beading and machine embroidery it looks more purple and airforce blue.

I turned a few pieces into cards, these were mainly small bits I'd been experimenting with. Again I got the monoprint thicker than it should have been. I expect its just inexperience but the leaf shapes stamped out quite well. These were the foam stamps you buy in diy and craft stores. A bit of stitching and a few beads later and hey presto a card for someone.
Monoprinting is easy, fun and cheap. You need acrylic paint (the cheaper the better) a flat surface that is easily cleaned eg glass from a photo frame with the edges covered to prevent cuts or a piece of plastic sheeting. If you are using plastic sheeting its probably best if you pad it out with some newspaper underneath. If you do use newspaper make sure there are no creases underneath the painted area of it'll transfer to the fabric when you print. You'll need a roller to spread the paint, a bottle will do and something to make a mark or pattern in the paint once its been spread out. Use your roller to spread out the paint on your sheeting and draw a pattern/make marks etc. Once you are satisfied with your artwork place your fabric down on top of the paint and smooth it out. You can use your hands or a clean roller, press hard to transfer the paint to your fabric. Wallah you've just monoprinted!!

As for stencilling patterns tape your fabric down onto the plastic sheet, place the stencil over the top, tape that down too. Using a brush, sponge or sponge brush dab the paint onto the stencil. Try not to get it under the stencil or you'll end up with blurged edges. This is what I've done to this last piece of fabric.

I used two stencils here, one grasses and one leaves. I used the edge of a sponge - think I used cheap make-up sponges the type you buy in big packets - to create veins.

I enjoyed doing the printing but ended up with green nails that took quite a lot of time to come clean so beware - use gloves.