September's Lesson: Silk Paper

Sue Anne has made silk paper to use as a fabric for this beautiful evening bag. The silk paper was layered with batting and a silk lining and quilted. It was then embellished with beads and a few silk appliques.

This month you will be making your own silk paper. The kit includes several types of silk fiber as well as some silk ribbon scraps. You will be using textile medium as the bonding product. Silk paper is made by laying silk fibers side by side onto netting fabric (we have included tulle), adding bits and pieces of other silk, or ribbon, or feathers, angelina, sequins, beads, dried flowers, seeds, threads, etc, and adding additional layers until you get the density of paper you want. It is important to build up the layers rather than starting with a too heavy piece of silk fiber. Once the fibers are in place, you will cover with your netting to control the fibers and saturate with water mixed with dishwashing liquid. Once it is fully wet, you will paint on the medium, let dry, remove the tulle or netting and then use however you would like.

The following pictures show you the layering process. Never cut the fibers, always pull them apart. Be sure to leave a margin around the tulle. Since you will be working with water, make sure you are working on a protected surface. The first photo shows the first layer; the second photo shows the second layer which is laid on top of the first in the alternate direction.

If you want, add your bits and pieces. Shape the silk fibers, lay the ribbon on top of the fibers or let snippets of ribbon fall whereever.

Cover the top of the silk fibers with another piece of tulle. You will have a tulle sandwich. With water mixed with a small amount of dishwashing liquid, paint over the fibers on top of the tulle, turning the sandwich over to make sure the piece is fully saturated.

Clean your brush and saturate the fibers with the textile medium. If you use the medium straight out of the bottle, it will have a stiffer hand than if you dilute it with a little water. Your choice. Experiement to find what you like best.

Find a good drying spot. Use a cookie cooling rack, a terry cloth towel, or make yourself a screen drying rack by covering an old picture frame with screening. Let your piece dry completely. The tulle should pull off when the silk is dry. However, you can leave the tulle if you would like.

The silk fibers can also be bonded with paper or cotton.


Use your paper as a background or as fabric within your artwork.

This last piece was done using only the short fibers call throwster or waste. It incorporates snippets of silk ribbon and some curly mohair.

The size of the piece is limited only by the amount of silk fibers and your tulle.

August's Lesson: Texted Collage

This month we want you to use lettering and text as the primary design element. The kit includes a pen and stencil, tissue paper, a page from a book, dye, and a primed canvas background. The texted collage can then be used either as the whole quilt or as an applique or part of a larger piece.

First you will color the primed canvas with the dye. Dilute a small amount of the dye to the intensity you would like with water and apply with the foam brush and/or the mini-mister that is in your kit. Once the dye is dry, write across the background with the Sharpie pen. Write words, sayings, a recipe, a letter, anything that suits your fancy. Much of this writing will be covered with layers of paper, stamping, or paint. The text will become a subtle background element.

Dilute the Elmer's glue with water, one part to one part. Use the glue to adhere pieces of tissue paper, magazine or book text, computer printing, the top ply of decorated paper napkins or other bits and pieces. Cover the top with the glue, decoupaging it all to the canvas. If you'd like, while the glue is still wet, spritz more dye onto the surface.


When the surface has dried, add stamped images or words with ink or paint. The finished canvas may be cut and stitched.

This project is your chance to "make a statement"! It can truly be a one-of-a-kind piece especially if you have incorporated your own hand writing.

July's Lesson: Blue Glue Batik

This month's kit is a lesson on "batiking" with using Elmer's blue glue as a resist. The kit contains fabric, glue, fabric paint, and brushes. You may use the glue to draw, doodle, stamp or paint on the fabric. When the glue dries it will resist any paint that is brushed onto the fabric. In Sue's mountain scene, the glue is used to outline the mountains and to create the fence. Once the glue has dried, Sue painted the sky, the mountain, and the foreground with fabric paint. When the glue is rinsed out, it leaves the white, unpainted lines. In this piece, the fence then was colored with watercolor pencils. Machine quilting added the finishing details.

Create a whole cloth picture by outlining shapes with the tip of the bottle.

When the glue has dried, color each section with fabric paint. Lightly spritz the fabric in order to allow the paint to flow into each section. Allow the paint to dry thoroughly and then iron it with a protected iron in order to set the paint. Soak and rinse your piece to wash out the glue. Dry and press.
Doodle with the glue on a piece of white fabric. When the glue has dried, apply a wash of paint over the entire piece, allowing multiple colors to bleed together.


Your fabric can be painted or dyed before you begin the batik process. In the example below, by stamping with the glue and then painting a second color over the entire piece, the initial color will become visible when the glue is rinsed out.

In this last example, multiple layers of glue and paint have been applied to the fabric. After brushing glue onto the fabric and painting, the process can be repeated several times once the first layer has dried and been washed out.

You have now created pieces that may be incorported into a larger piece or cut into shapes for piecing or applique.

June's Lesson: Block Printing

In this lesson, you will be making your own stamp by carving an eraser or gluing craft foam to a plexiglas square. A fabric marker will be your ink. The Sunshine Square above was printed with the sun motif made from craft foam, a button, and a square of corrugated cardboard.


The four examples of carved erasers show two curved desgns: the scroll and the leaf. The scroll is the design or the positive image. The background of the leaf is the printed area and the leaf outline becomes the negative image. The last two motifs are geometric. By not cutting more than half way through the eraser, you will be able to have two designs. Apply the ink from the marker's brush end and stamp. Examples of the images stamped on fabric follow.

The cork that was included in the kit can be used to mount small objects that have an interesting design. The ink is applied to the object and then printed.


Cut shapes from the craft foam and glue them to the plexiglas, apply the ink and stamp.

May's Kit: Circles Make the World Go Round

This month is a departure from the usual product or technique lesson. You will be concentrating on using a shape as inspiration. This will give you a chance to work on your design skills. Use the circle in some way in your composition.

Your circular tin contains, polka-dot fabric and ribbon, buttons, sequins, chipboard circles, and a compass. Use any of the contents for inspiration or decoration. As you think about circles, consider finishing your piece in a circular shape, using a circle theme, using various sizes of circles in the design of the composition, using fabric, ribbon, trims, etc printed with circles to construct the composition, or using circular elements for embellishment. Have fun. Try not to go around in circles!!

April's Kit: Putting on the Glitz

This month's kit contains several options for glitzing your art pieces. To give these Easter baskets some sparkle Sue Anne outlined the shapes with glitter and added Fashion Beadz around the top edge.

In this kit you will find art glitter, Fashion Beadz, a glitter pen, and glitter glue. This is an easy lesson, but gives you the opportunity to try these products and add a little sparkle to your work.

To use the glitter glue, snip off the tip and apply the glue onto the fabric. You can either use it straight from the tube or apply it with a paint brush. Pour the art glitter onto the glue and shake off. You will want to work over a protected surface. Fold a piece of paper in half and shake the glitter over it. The crease will make it easier to pour the glitter back into the bottle. The glue will dry clear and it is washable.

The Fashion Beadz are a bead "soup" immersed in glue. When the glue dries clear the beads will be attached to your fabric. Use the craft stick to place on your piece.

To use the glitter pen, drag it across your fabric. The glue will dry clear, but it is not washable. Have fun and do get carried away!

March Tart Kit: Starch Crackle

This month will be an experiment with starch crackle. The kit contains PFD fabric, Dye-na-Flow paint, wheat flour and rice flour. The process will take several days so be prepared!

Prepare your work surface. Tape the PFD fabric down. Mix the flour according to the directions in your kit. Make sure there are no lumps. It should resemble pancake batter. Pour it along the top edge of your fabric and with the card pull the batter down the length of the fabric until there is an even layer of flour paste on the fabric. If you want to make a picture, with the craft stick, make your mark before the flour paste dries. As the paste/fabric dries, it will curl and become hard. This usually takes overnight.


When the paste has dried thoroughly, remove the tape and crinkle the fabric to create hairline cracks in the flour. The more you crinkle, the more cracks. Snap the fabric and brush off the excess flour dust.


Retape the fabric for painting. The paint you use needs to be very watered down - the consistency of milk. Dye-na-Flow is perfect. It does not need to be thinned. However, an acrylic will need to have water added to get the correct consistency. Without putting too much paint on the brush, brush paint over the surface of the flour. Be careful about oversaturating. If the back gets solid looking, you have overpainted.


This is an example of the back of a piece that has been painted.

You now must let the paint dry and cure for at least 24 hours. You will not be able to heat set the paint before it is washed so the longer you wait between painting and washing the better the color. Soak the painted fabric in water to remove the flour paste. Wash thoroughly with a little soap, rinse, and dry. Press the final piece.

Use this one of a kind fabric however you like. It can be overdyed, painted, stamped, or foiled before sewing into your art piece.