Review: "Painting for Quilting" Workshop with Mary Gamester

Hello Dear Friends,

A few weeks ago I took part in a Workshop "Printing for Quilting" at my Handicraft Group. Our group consisted of ten members with one visitor who in all honesty was was the most industrious amongst us (and by visitor, I don't mean our tutor!)!!

We were instructed by Mary Gamester, on how to load our paintbrushes with paint to cover the blocks we were using for printing, and how to use sponges ..... dipped in paint ..... for different background effects.

After a fun introduction, and guidance from Mary who brought along lots of samples of her printed work, to give us inspiration, and a large collection of Indian printing blocks, and paints for us to use, we all set to, to see what we could do!

I have to confess I didn't make a note of the manufacturer of the paints we used, but they were fabric paints.

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I used some fabric which I had previously dyed in a tie dying workshop, others commented that they thought the tie dyed fabric worked well as a background for the block printing! However, I'm wondering, looking at my photos now, whether or not I applied sufficient paint to my printing blocks!

BTW - nearly forgot to say - all fabric needs washing before painting .... hence the crumpled appearance!

My experimental printing

In comparison the photo (mine again) below shows printing on a plain yellow fabric which looks a little stark to me.

My printing, again.

Looking at the visitor's blocks I think she had a lot more idea in respect of applying the paint to the blocks than I!

Some of you will no doubt recognise that the following three blocks involved sponge painting .....

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When we sat down for our lunch break we noticed these cute little critters just outside our window ..... they obviously thought they had found a lovely quiet place to hunt, but had no idea how many pairs of eyes were watching them!!!

You can't see from my photos, but they were sitting, side by side, just a foot apart from each other .... proper hunting buddies!

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After lunch we worked towards the projects we each intended to make from our blocks.

A future book cover

The long piece here is going to be made into a cover
for the tissue box.

Don't forget you will need to iron your painting to "set" it (Protect your iron and ironing board with sheets of baking parchment or baking paper either side of your fabric.) Once ironed your precious masterpieces, will be washable!

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Well, I hadn't been sure what to expect from this workshop, however, I thoroughly enjoyed the day, and only wished I had produced more painted pieces! 

It would be nice to have another go sometime!

Hugs,

Barbara xxx

PS I see Benta from SLIKstitches has blogged about a "Lino block" workshop held at her Crafty Group, and she also shows the use of "Magic" blocks for printing - Click here to visit Benta's blog.

You might also be interested to visit Svetlana's blog SOTAK for her quick tutorial on stamping and printing - Click here for Svetlana's blog.