My Street- Pretoria, An Art Quilt

About two and a half years ago Quilting Arts had a reader challenge that inspired me to do a quilt of my street.  I had just moved to South Africa at the time.  It was spring there, just before rainy season and the plants were all flowering.  Security is a serious issue in South Africa and I could help but remark on the juxtaposition of the heavy security and massive walls with the delicate beauty of Jacarandas and Fever Acacia in bloom looking like they were a part of a beautifully landscaped garden. 

The quilt is 12 1/2 x 16 1/8 x inches  (31.75 x 41 cm.)  The background is a gelatin print on cotton.  I used cottons and silk fabrics and plastic mesh screening. I used several techniques: couching of wool, cotton, polyester & plastic fibers, embroidery, beading, applique and painting with fabric paints.

Samples for Fabric Painting Class

On Saturday I taught a fabric painting class. Above are several samples I made to illustrate techniques worked with in class. The second picture is a fabric painting my four year old son did. I just had to include it. My first exposure to many of these techniques was by June Silberman of the Ithaca Doll Club.
My class focused the techniques shown above: painting, scrunching, rock salt effects, heat effects, and gel glue resist (not shown, see Quilting Arts Feb/Mar 2009 for a sample.) The sun did not shine down on our group and we were unable to do a sun print. These techniques are all accomplished with Setacolor fabric paint by Pebeo. We painted on prepared for dye (unsized) Pimatex cotton. One doesn't need a class to purchase a couple bottles of Setacolor and do your own experiments.

A very good overview of many of these techniques on silk is found on the fascinating Canadian website Maiwa Handprints.