Hand-printed fabric swap & *giveaway*!

I saw this hand-printed fabric swap a while back and thought it sounded like fun, so I signed up. We got a list of four partners and their fave colours, and had to hand-print them each a fat quarter.  So last week my kitchen was turned into a bit of a gong show (what’s new?!) while I got stuck into some printing.

Fabricana had some lovely linen-cotton blend fabrics so I got some white and natural linen options. I made this pencil stamp by cutting craft foam out with a scalpal, then pasting it onto a piece of firm foam I had. Aside from having to clean the corners every so often, it worked nicely. Love the effect of the step and repeat.

One of my swap partners was a red fan so of course, I had to go with a LOVE theme – one of my faves. I had these letter stamps from when I had made a prototype of my Love Banner, which was a bonus.

I added a row of little fuschia dots for fun, using the eraser back of a pencil. It was a brand new one so the round eraser hat a perfectly flat end and it worked like a dream.

I was quite happy with the outcome of it – aside from a few little inky glitches which, I guess, are part of the hand-printed process.

Another partner who was into whales, so I made another stamp with craft foam. I used a roller for the whale body and a paint brush for the splash.

She picked grey and aquas as her colours which worked well with the whale theme.

The whale was working for me so I stuck with him for the last partner too. This chartreuse ink was a bit stickier than the others but the texture that created on the stamp from the roller seemed apt for a wet whale.

Here are the final pieces which I popped into the mail on Friday.

I also squeezed a wee HSL gift in the envelopes for good measure. Christmas is coming after all.

And talking about prezzies…..

While I was on a roll, I made an extra fat quarter for one of you in rainbow colours. Perfect for making a little zippy pouch or purse. There are 3 designs on one fat quarter of linen-cotton blend up for grabs. Pinky-red dot mix, Rainbow Asterix’s and Green Eggs No Ham, based on a larger version of my Soft-Boiled Spoonflower design. I used a freezer paper stencil for this last one. Have to say I love it in the green. May have to add that to my Spoonflower collection.

If you’d like to win this fat quarter, leave a comment with your email or blog address. I will pick a number on Friday November 25. If you win, I’d like a pic of what you make with it too.

Here’s a peek at more handprinted fabric in the swap.

And now, sigh, for my sad confession: Look what I did to my True Religions!!

A big fat splodge of white ink. Totally sacrilegious! The most annoying part is that I had had my painting jeans on before, but had to get changed into my TR’s as I had an appointment to go to. Of course when I got home, being the impulsive type, I just wanted to get stuck back into printing and didn’t put the oldies back on. What a brat. Well, I guess I’m going to have to pay for this sin. Was that lighting I just heard???

ADDENDUM: Shweta from Essknits asked what inks I had used. Good question! So here’s the scoop:

Note the OPAQUE and TRANSPARENT on the labels.

I use a few different inks but my two fave brands are Jacquard made by Rupert, Gibbon & Spider in California, USA, and  Setacolor made by Pébéo in Europe. Both use water for clean-up and require heat setting with an iron or a dryer. Choose your labels carefully as they have transparent and opaque options, so depending on what colour your fabric is and whether you want to overlap colours or not, you need to pick the right one. I like the consistency of these inks as they are liquid enough to flow when you apply them, but thick enough not to run.

Make sure when you choose your inks that they are nice and fresh. They can dry up in time. I also have used some of my silkscreen inks for hand-printing but they tend to be a bit too thick & sticky to make nice smooth prints.

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