Pink-footed geese and other birds

A tiny bit of background for the latest project.  I have dear friends who have relocated to the far distant reaches of Scotland, more specifically a place called Findhorn Bay, which is both remote and beautiful.  It's also particularly important for the migrant wildfowl and waders it attracts and my task is to try and make a piece that references that. Since I haven't been there yet, I am relying on photos, but luckily there are plenty of those available

In my last post I mentioned that I had a little scribble I'd done when I started thinking about this new project.  You can see I was just doodling on the pack of a cardboard envelope.  Not very enlightening, I know, and of course where I end up may bear no relation to this at all, but it's a starting point.

I have started by printing bird names onto some of the fabrics I pulled, and then cut some wedge shaped bits to piece with.  I like this shape because it reminds me of feathers, of the spread of a wing, but also of the sun's rays.

Linking up with Linda and Julie for Sew Stitch Snap SHARE.

Quick start

More like a slow start, actually.  I wanted to participate in Ann's AHIQ challenge to make something incorporating words and since time is running out, I am going to try doing more than one project at a time.  A few of you may remember that last time I let my projects proliferate I ended up feeling like my head was going to explode, but hopefully this will be manageable.

As a result, instead of getting out my piecing this morning, I set to work printing the words I want to use.  After a couple of hours I have made some progress, but there's still a heap to do.

When I can't get to sleep (which is often) I listen to Radio 4, and then, when it goes off air, to the World Service. Between the two comes the shipping forecast and that's where I'm getting my words for this project (here's a link which will take you to today's forecast).  There's a lot to be printed, but I've made a good start and at least I have a good idea of what I'm going to try and do with them. Having said that, I don't remember the last time something worked out the way I expected!

Lettering revisited

Since Ann's post introducing the next AHIQ challenge, several people have asked about my method of printing words, so I thought it might be useful to do a quick recap.

I use this lovely set of letters, found on ebay, but there are plenty of modern versions easily available. I have often wondered about using printers letterset blocks, but the cost of a whole alphabet would be pretty steep.

Julie of Pink Doxies did a really useful post  about her exploration of surface design and as a result of what I read there I decided to try Liquitex for my  printing.  I use the inks plus their fabric medium - one measure ink to one of fabric medium.  In practice this is two or three drops of ink (the bottles have droppers) to one little squeeze of the medium.  I do it by eye and that seems to work okay.  If I know I won't have time to print everything I want in one go I count the drops of ink to reproduce the colour.  When I printed the lighthouse names for All at Sea I actually did it in three batches, and managed to get the same colour each time this way.  

I should also maybe mention that when I started I did a little sample of printing on a scrap, let it dry and then scrubbed it hard under the tap.  My printing stayed put but the fabric did not end up all stiff, so that was good enough for me.

My method is not very high tech: I mix the inks on the lid of a plastic box, apply to the letter with a paint brush (common or garden, stolen from the kids variety) and just press onto the fabric.  I did buy a couple of empty stamp pads, thinking that might be the way to go, but when you think about it, that method would use quite a lot more ink and in the end I didn't use them, preferring my paintbrush.  It's slow but I have a lot of control this way.

When I started I was lining my letters up by eye, but that proved a bit hit and miss, so now I use the edge of a ruler as a guide.  I put the stamp down so that its bottom edge just touches the top of the ruler,  like this:

And that's it, really. Nothing to it.

Just popping back here to add a note: if I think I have put a bit too much ink on, I just use a scrap and do two stampings, the first on the scrap, the second on the good fabric.

Stamping the strips

Well, I had done loads more printing and laid out some of my circles with the strips, was pretty happy with how it looked, got ready to take a photo to post here and new kitten rolled straight over the whole lot.  So no pictures.  

Instead here's a quick summary of what I've used for the printing.  I was swayed in the direction of Liquitex by a post on Julie's blog, though I've ordered a couple of ink pads recommended by other people to try out too.  

As I reckoned I would only want a small amount of each colour I chose to buy the inks, which come with a dropper, rather than pots of acrylic and I'm glad I did.  To mix enough colour for one strip I only need three or four drops of ink (depending a bit on how long it takes me to get a colour I'm happy with) and the same number of drops of the fabric medium.  

I really like this stuff - the colours are strong, and the fabric medium works beautifully.  I did a tiny sample, on white fabric, not pre-washed.  (I'll add a picture when I find it!)  The following day I stuck it under the hot tap in the kitchen and rubbed like billy-o.  Not even the tiniest smear; it stayed just the same and since my quilts mostly have wool wadding that's about the roughest treatment it needs to stand up to.  

I had ordered some (cheap) blank ink pads but they were rubbish, so I ended up mixing on a plastic lid and then just using a quick wipe with a paint brush to put the colour on the stamps.  Worked fine.

So now I've done a big pile of colour definitions - and had a whole other load of fun looking through Webster's and choosing them.

Next step will be to reclaim my floor!