February Tart Lesson: Embossing Bamboo Batting

Who says batting has to be used only as the middle of a quilt sandwich? This month's Tart lesson will have you texturing and coloring bamboo batting to use on the surface of an art quilt. Sue Anne used a floral texture plate to emboss a piece of bamboo batting. In this sample she used dye and Lumiere to color it, then quilted and beaded it. This is piece with textue and interest.

The materials you will use include bamboo batting, a texture plate, textile medium, dye and paint. It is important to use what seems to be the wrong side of the batting in order to get a good impression. This side will have flecks of bamboo and a rougher look and it will be placed next to the texture plate. The side you don't use is clearer in color and smoother. The texture plate in the kit isdesigned for rubbing so it is heat sensitive. However, with a careful hand you can use it in this application by not overheating the batting when you make the impression. Mix the textile medium with water 1:1 and fill the mini-mister. Spritz the "wrong" side of the batting until the batting is moist; do not saturate.

Lay the texture plate onto a protected hard surface. Cover it with the wet side of the batting and cover with a piece of parchment paper. Using an iron set on cotton, press firmly for about 2 seconds. Use a little pressure in order to get a good impression. Try other textures such as a metal grids, or rubber stamps, or wooden print plates, or a heavy doily, or found objects. Be aware of the heat issue.

Let the batting dry completely.

Now you can color the batting. Mix the dye with water to the saturation of your choice and spritz or brush the color onto the batting. You may also use paint that has been diluted. The amount of color you use will be your choice. The depressions will be more visible if you do not oversaturate the batting.

When the paint has dried, you may apply highlights of a second color such as Lumiere. Use a dry brush application to just hit the high areas.

Adding color to the textile medium and water mixture will eliminate a step in this process. Once embossed and colored, the bamboo batting can become a wonderful textured background.

January's Tart Lesson: Gelatin Plate Printing and Reverse Applique

This month we are giving you the materials and instructions for two lessons: gelatin plate printing and reverse applique. The sample above was completed by Susan and Sue Anne. Sue Anne made the fabric print and Susan reverse hand-appliqued the black top and finished the little quilt. The painted design in the print shows through in an interesting way.

Dissolve the gelatin in water in a pan on top of the stove. Pour it into a bowl or plate where it will cool in the refrigerator. When cool, unmold it unto your work surface and get ready to print.

With the textile paints, squeeze out a design directly onto the gelatin. Lay the PFD fabric over the paint and press lightly from the center out. Carefully lift the fabric from the gelatin and allow to dry completely. You may want to cut your fabric in smaller, workable pieces. You may print successive prints but each will be lighter as you remove some paint from the gelatin each time you print. More paint can be added as necessary. However, no two prints will be exactly the same.

When the print has dried completely, heat set the paint with your protected iron. You can add more paint to the surface without affecting the original print. Below, I painted a wash of textile paint mixed with water over the first print to color the white background.

The gelatin plate can be used over and over. Wash the surface carefully with a wet sponge or paper towel.

Experiment with various designs and textures. The softness of the gelatin plate will allow you to get some depth in your prints. Use different tools to remove paint or lay a resist over the plate before adding paint. Here, I used a paint brush to make random circles, followed with "drips" directly from the paint bottle.

Here's the orginal print, followed by the same print with a blue wash over the background.

Below is an example of giving my print some texture. I used a large-tooth comb to make a narrow grid. It is followed by my first printing, then my second printing. Notice how much paint was removed with the first print.

When you are done printing, clean the gelatin plate and save in the refrigerator. It should keep for quite awhile. NEVER, put the gelatin plate down the drain. Throw it away when you are through with it.

Reverse applique is a technique where instead of sewing a motif to the top of a background, you are cutting away the top layer to reveal another fabric beneath. In this lesson, we have given you black cotton for the layer you cut away and you will use your printed fabric for the layer beneath. Reverse applique can be done either by hand or by fusing. We recommend fusing if you are new to this technique or if your design has very small cut-outs.

Draw your design onto the non-shiny surface of freezer paper. Remind yourself about the areas that will be cut out by marking the area with an X.

Cut out along the drawn lines and discard the inner shape and keep the larger piece.

Iron a piece of fusible web to the wrong side of the black fabric. Leave the paper on for the time being. Iron the freezer paper pattern to the front side of the black fabric.

Use the chalk to mark the edges of your cutout. For large areas, the chalk just needs to run along the edge. Remember, you will be discarding the inside shape.

Carefully, remove the freezer paper from the front and the fusible web paper from the back.

With sharp scissors, cut out the design along the chalked edge. If you were reverse appliqueing by hand, you would leave a small seam allowance. Once you have removed the black fabric from inside your chalk lines, press it to your printed fabric.

You are now ready to layer the piece with batting and a backing and machine quilted around the design edges. You can either use a straight stitch or satin stitch or buttonhole stitch. You might even use embroidery floss to add a textured edge. Complete a whole cloth quilt or incorporated this technique into a larger design. Doesn't it remind you of grade school where we colored a background sheet of paper and then painted it with black paint and scratched away a design. Have fun!

December's Tart Lesson: Bedazzling Beads

Bedazzling beads are strung with round commercial beads to decorate this Christmas tree. Sue made a dozen embossed felt beads and then embellished this holiday quilt as an example of using this month's lesson.

This easy project will have you rolling and melting! The supplies in the kit for the most part can be melted and/or painted and embossed and then melted. Work carefully, protecting yourself with a respirator and working in a well-ventilated area. You will be making beads by rolling any of the materials onto a skewer, securing with either glue or a straight pin and melting the roll together. The kit lesson includes a triangle shape to use or design your own. A rectangle shape will give you a bead that is kind of clunky where the triangle shape gives you tapered ends. Experiment with different shapes. Any of the materials can be altered before rolling them, but we found that sometimes the paint interferes with melting. Again, experiment. Making beads is quick and easy so you won't be spending alot of time trying out any of the fabrics or papers. The photo below is a sample of the different materials made into beads of different shapes and sizes.

For illustration purposes we are showing the Kunin felt rolled and melted. The felt was cut into a long skinny triangle and rolled around the skewer and secured with a pin. Next it was heated with a heat tool which melted it. The bead can then be left as it is or painted.

Or you can paint the rolled bead before melting it. Here it has been painted with the silver acrylic paint, covered with gold embossing powder ready to be melted.

The felt was layered with a few angelina fibers and organza before being cut into a triangle. It was then melted as one unit.

Make lots and lots of beads to keep with your stash of embellishments, ready to be sewn on the next art quilt you construct!

November's Tart Lesson: Painted Fusible Web

In this month's kit, you will be experimenting with coloring fusible web to use on the surface of your art piece. Instead of using the fusible web as a bonding product between two pieces of fabric, you will color it and leave it exposed to add color, texture and depth. The fusible will be a bit sticky when it is first applied to the surface but will lose that tackiness over time. However, remember that any time heat is applied to the fusible web, it will once again become sticky. Protect your iron!!

In the kit you have a piece of Wonder Under which is the fusible web with a paper backing. You will paint the web with a watery mix of acrylic paint. As the glue layer (the web) becomes wet it will partially lift off the backing and ripple. This is a good thing! Try painting two or more colors and see what happens when they bleed together. When the paint has dried, you will iron the web to a piece of background fabric. Cover with parchment paper and iron with a dry iron. Let it cool a bit and remove the backing paper. The results will look like the photo below.

To use the second piece of fusible web, you will be working with Misty Fuse which is the web without a paper backing. You can color Misty Fuse by immersing it in diluted fabric paint (Setacolor, Dye-na-flow, etc.) or diluted acrylic craft paint. We have included a jar of Pearl Ex Powder to add glitz to the Misty Fuse. Put a small amount of the powder into a ziplock bag, add a piece of Misty Fuse and shake the bag to adhere the powder to the web.

Take the Misty Fuse from the bag and lay onto your piece of fabric. With a pressing sheet over the top, fuse with a dry iron.

Try adding a small amount of water to the powder in the bag before you add the Misty Fuse and agitate to color the web. Take it out of the bag and let dry. Fuse to fabric. This gives a more spotty, but shinier look.

You can add foil to the fusible web that is adhered to the fabric in two ways. Lay the foil pretty side up over the fusible web and iron very lightly with an iron to get an overall foiled look. Don't use too much pressure or you will lose your painted web. Protect your iron!

Or iron the foil with the side of your iron to get stripes.

Try trapping fibers and snippets of stuff under the fusible web. Write, draw, or stamp on the fusible web. Mix Pearl Ex Powder into the acrylic paint to add sparkle and shine.