HOME ALONE

I've had this quilt on my lounge floor for 2 weeks... Ed is fishing, maddie has gone on camp... I still can't work out the borders.....Very strange, I'm home alone Yet have little time for sewing.... The farm is keeping me busy. I've had a sick dog to care for. Keeping him isolated from the other 5 dogs has been fun. He thought being locked in the chook yard was strange.....he always gets yelled at for going there. My relay for life team, had an auction dinner which raised $16,000.00 on sat....more money for cancer research. this weekend we will walk for 21 hours to celebrate life and to recognize those lost and to identify with the journey that cancer is...

Maddie will be home from camp today & My fisherman will be home soon . Life will settle back to regular meals and routine.......perhaps...... then I will get the borders done....

GELATINE PRINTING PLATES

Morning here is some info on making the gelatine printing plate. If you Fill your tray or container with 2 cm (3/4 inch) of water...tip that back to a measure jug. Add 2 tablespoons of Gelatine to each cup of water. follow gelatine pack instructions for mixing. Once you have the mix in the tray drag a torn strip of paper across the surface to remove any air bubbles and let it set in the fridge. If you're vegetarian and would like to use a non animal based product Agar agar is made from sea weed and will set at room temp ( will not set in vinegar or rhubarb -oxalic acid) I think this would be great for kids too, you could use scraps of paper. You could negative and positive images. the world of printing awaits......x

Printing Gelatine

I had a question about the printing, Gelatine is used in cooking to make Jelly and to set cheesecakes, it is a setting agent. You dissolve the powder which you can buy at the supermarket, in hot water and pour it into a flat shallow tray. when it is set you can turn it out on to a work area ....then the fun starts. You can paint on to it, or drip, slosh, flick your fabric paint or dye on to the gelatine. then you lay your fabric or paper on it and lift to reveal your print. From then on it is just trial and error to see what you can make. You can mask areas with objects and use a spray bottle to apply paint then print. Or drag objects through the paint to make patterns. Quite a cheap way to do mono prints...best part is you can wash them gently with cold water and reuse....if it gets damaged you can dissolve in the microwave and start again. If you would like more details I can email them, I have some references. have fun cheers sharon

A MONTH ON....

Well it's February, I laughed when I read my last post....India was so right...I think I need to resolve to not make a new years resolution....Breath and move on

I have been trying some gelatin printing. I've used all sorts of scraps of fabric.

Basiclly I've been using fabric paint on a block of Gelatin to create patterns and colours.

I dried them and set them with a hot iron and then began stitching by machine and hand

I layered lolly wraps from christmas, under organza and stitched some more.

I'm very happy with the colours. It has certainly been an interesting process

and I hope Pauline will like her Birthday Card when she gets it.