Colour on a Sunday

With it only being 30 days until Christmas and I haven’t even started planning anything yet, I decided to do something useful like playing a little with colour today. There is a challenge in which I have wanted to participate, but time is becoming an issue. I have planned all the important quilty things out in my head like the design, the fabrics and the techniques, but not the time to actually do the work. Sometimes getting everything out and do the prepwork feels quite overwhelming, don’t you think?

Anyway, today I finally had a go at the first step: prettying up a few recycled tablecloths using a box of Neocolor II which I have been looking forward to try for a very long time. In fact I have two boxes purchased separately a long time ago and an even longer time ago, and was planning to make a third purchase of the same box when I had the brilliant idea of checking my paint drawer.

First out was a piece of polyester sateen from a repurposed bridal shawl. A fellow guild member of mine brought a car trunk full of them to a guild meeting after rescuing them from being thrown into a dumpster by a bridal store. My part of the loot, two shopping bags filled to the brim with luscious whites, has been waiting for their time to shine, and I am happy to oblige.

I made a little scribble with the crayons

and added a little water. The wet paint does not soak into the fabric at all, so that’s a big no-no. There may be some water repellent stuff in the fabric, but washing is not an option.

Next I ironed freezer paper to the back of strips of the table cloths and drew some simple patterns,

and then added water with a paint brush.

 It looked ok, but the paint kept on bleeding, so I tried to iron it dry. It was a mess, thankfully a rather bland mess as the colours faded away when drying, but still a mess.

I re-drew a new pattern while the fabrics were still damp, and that seemed to work much better, although I had to do them over again once more before I was happy.

Now they are drying properly so I can move on to step two tomorrow.

So, what did I learn today? First, Neocolor is not for polyester sateen, but I have some transfer paint that I picked up in Birmingham back in August that probably will do the trick. Second, when painting with crayons on coloured fabric, I should not paint it out with a wet brush. Instead I will try to dampen the fabric with a spray bottle and take it from there. And third, double woven, hand woven and linen table cloths may not be the most appropriate fabric for water-soluble crayons, and now I know.

Not much point in doing all this if you don’t learn anything, right?

Wishing you all a lovely Sunday!