A Wee Quilt

Cookie Monster's a got a special place in this house. He is Nash's baby. For whatever reason, when Nash saw new little baby Margot getting swaddled, Nash went straight to Cookie Monster. He's been swaddled, given pacifiers and taken on many a stroller ride by Nash. I'm not sure why it took me so long, but finally, finally, Cookie has his own blanket.


I couldn't be happier that Cookie Monster likes vintage-inspired fabric. I've been eyeing these fabrics for months and could resist no longer. They remind me of men's neck-ties, but they also remind me of a dress I would pay way too much for from Anthropologie.
Also, I'm proud to finally blog about using recycled fabric: t-shirts! I'm no pioneer, but have recently started using old t-shirts in my projects. I haven't gone as far as to shop for them (I've never been much of a thrift store shopper) but am so happy to have a small collection of my Dad's, my husband's and my own to use. They are so soft and wonderful and so many get thrown away. Why?? So I'm happy to find uses for wonderful cotton, do some recycling, add a personal touch to my projects. I think it makes it that much more special that the backing on Cookie's blanket comes from a t-shirt once worn by Nash and Margot's Grandpa. I think Cookie likes how soft it is too.

Soft Book

Making this little book was a fun project I will definitely do again. I was really excited to put it all together, so I didn't do as much decoration/activity work as I should have. I did make a pouch with a rattle in it (which she loves to play with) and there's a crunchy flap, and some bows her to feel and of course put in her mouth. She likes it! Each set of pages is 1/2 inch smaller so they fit together nicely when folded up. Overall, I'm happy.

Sweet Satisfying Uniformity

I made two bibs for Margot and thought, why stop there? Aside from the one Mom knitted her, and a few we received as gifts, Margot's been wearing Nash's yucky stained boy bibs. There isn't a good reason I can think of that I shouldn't take a few days and make her some sweet little bibs and use some of the cool buttons I've collected. So here are 6 new ones.There really is something so satisfying about having a stacks of something in the same shape and size. I'm up to 9, and have 3 more before I'm done. Hope everyone's having a great weekend.

Stamping

As an intro to stamping, here is a scene from our breakfast table this morning.
Smoothies, coloring, and fabric stamping. Rubber stamps are amazing. I'm trying to distract myself from wanting an embroidery machine, so I'm using alphabet stamps and fabric ink. Yes, it can be washed! I love typewriter font and use it in almost everything.
Here's a ribbon I made this morning, which will get sewn onto something.
I think Nash will probably be the recipient of some stamping today too.

Printing

I posted picture of a fabric print I did at the bottom of my last post and on Facebook, and have gotten a few questions about it. So I thought I would attempt a run-down at my favorite methods of printing in a series of blogs. I just did a quick silk-screening project (also called screen-printing, because silk is rarely used in the screens anymore), so I'll blog about that today.
The manufacturer of most every tool I have for screen printing and block printing is called Speedball. They make a starter kit which I think might be about $50 or $60 with a screen and squeegee and a few types of acrylic ink for paper and fabric. It's a good value and makes it all very convenient. Ray got me the kit for our first anniversary and I was sooooo excited, but it still took me over a year to do anything with it because I was really intimidated and thought it was complicated. It's not! I'll simplify it as much as I can.
The basic concept is to pull ink through a screen which allows ink to flow through, except in areas which are otherwise blocked off. So if you cut a 4x4 inch square out of a piece of paper and laid it down under a screen and pulled ink through the screen, there would be ink everywhere except where the square is. So you need a stencil. So get yourself a 8.5x11 piece of paper and a cutting mat and an exacto knife and cut something out. Let's say a sunburst, since that's what I did today. I used a transparency so I can re-use it (the ink will soak your paper and so it's not re-useable.) Here is my sunburst stencil:
You can trace an image or create your own. I drew something I liked then laid my transparency on top and traced it with a sharpie, then cut it out. Don't forget to think about positive and negative space! The holes you cut out are where you'll get ink on your shirt.
To set up your printing, you need a pretty good work space. I'm lucky enough to have this old tool bench in our basement as my permanent set-up. Paper towels, tape, ink, plastic cups and spoons for mixing, a screen and squeegee, a bag for trash, and you're all set. It's also good to do your printing on top of a soft surface so you can apply pressure as you're pulling your squeegee down your screen and the screen can give a little. I have 2 layers of felt on the countertop, covered with newsprint. Give yourself at least an hour to do your first print and get a feel for set-up, printing and clean up. You can use color right out of the pot, but usually I add some white and a tiny bit of black for more depth. I also added a little yellow to my blue to mellow it.
So tape up the sides of the screen so that no paint can get into the edges of the wood and so that there is no open space for ink to flow through, other than where you've cut out.
Here's the screen ready to go. The stencil is underneath the screen next to my fabric. Scoop some ink across the top of the screen and hold your squeegee at an angle toward you and pull the ink down toward you across the screen. You'll want to do one or two test runs on a scrap piece. I have a piece of muslin I use to test everything. It's fun to look at things I've done in the past!
Yes, that's a Streetcar and a red bean! It takes a few runs across the screen to bring the ink all the way through the stencil. But it only takes one time dragging the squeegee across the screen for the stencil to stick to the screen. So you won't need to reposition your stencil every time you lift the screen. Since I rarely do many multiples I don't worry too much about "flooding the screen" but if you're doing a bunch of prints, you should learn more about this. I think it's basically putting some ink on your screen to keep it wet between prints. Once I'm done I always hurry to wash the screen off so I can reuse it. I've don't at least a dozen prints using this screen and hope it'll last me awhile longer. Here's the outcome of today's project. I'm thinking about adding another color and image on top of it, but don't know what that'll be yet.

I hope this is helpful! Screen printing is definitely not the simplest printing to do, but it does give nice crisp images and you can do a nice run of a lot of images in one session. But it's difficult to use a large piece of fabric. I hope you have enjoyed this and it's clear enough for you to follow. I'd like so answer any questions or see pictures of projects you try.
Also, I recommend anyone who is interested and doesn't know where to begin to buy Lena Corwin's book Printing By Hand. It is completely amazing. I will blog next about block printing, which is a super-easy fun project to do.