I had a very industrious weekend. Saturday was filled with sunshine and photographic possibilities whereas Sunday was steeped in rain, which meant for a lot of indoor creative endeavors.
My weekend in pictures:
My night water lily. It is a little groggy to close in the morning, so I can usually catch it still in full bloom at 6:00 AM.
A hibiscus blossom greeting me first thing in the morning.
Plumeria! This flower is so fragrant, not to mention velvet to the touch.
A water lily, just waking up and spreading her petals to embrace the day. I thought this might make for a nice Thermofax screen, so I imported the image into my computer.
I used the magnetic lasso tool in Photoshop to focus on the central flower shape.
I then dragged the flower to a white background.
Using the photocopy tool in the filter menu, I turned the full-color image to a black and white rendition.
Then I opened a new file in Photoshop and dragged three of these flowers to create a row. Later, I copied this row a couple of times so I had a sheet of three rows of waterlilies.
I then printed the sheet of waterlilies on my inkjet printer, placed a piece of screening material on top, and ran them through the carrier of my Thermofax machine. The bulb in my Thermofax machine heated up both sheets, and where the black carbon ink appears on the sheet of paper, it melted the screening material, creating the graphic impression on the screen.
I usually run the print and the screening material at least three passes through my Thermofax machine to make sure the image took on the screening material.
I chose pink paint to screen the images onto a rich lime green background. I created about 1/4 yard of fabric with this image, and screened with a variety of colors.
I had an idea to incorporate this piece to create a stitched cover for a recycled aluminum can to hold my watercolor pencils.
And here it is: my new watercolor pencil holder. I guess I should make greater strides to keep a sketchbook now!
When I was done, I experimented in the kitchen and made spinach and parmesan dumplings in a ginger broth:
I enjoyed a nice couple of quiet days. Did you stitch or quilt this past weekend?
Hi Pokey, How are you? Long time …
What a lovely thermofax screen you created. I liked the results of the pink over lime green. Very “me”! I did have a creative weekend too, I am proud to say. I worked on a painted piece for which I had created the canvas beforehand. We are having an offsite at work in September, for the Assistant’s Network, and I had the great idea of volunteering for the decorating subcommittee, which means that I’ll do most of the work; but that’s OK. The theme is growing together, and the branding is a tree, which I painted on the fabric canvas. I am also making hundreds of fabric leaves to make tree center pieces, and larger leaves to make a leaf mobile using a tree branch. So I spent quite a bit of time on Saturday fusing fabrics and cutting leaves out of them.
Yesterday, I also started and quilted a small landscape; it will end up being about 10″ x 20″ using some of my new hand-dyed fabrics. I finished quilting it yesterday, so I only have the painting to do on it.
I don’t have your email to write to you. I’m hoping to come to Houston this year once again, and I’d love to see you and continue our chat.
Take care in the meantime. I’m having fun following your ponderings.
Best regards,
Ana
Ana,
It’s so nice to hear from you! This decorating sounds really amazing (and a little overwhelming)! Please send me pictures: pokeyb@quilts.com And yes, let’s catch up at the fall show! I would love that…
productive weekend indeed! love the fabric, love that you have pencils, love that you mentioned sketchbook! xo
When I actually typed the word “sketchbook” I admit I thought of you. 😉
My “productive” weekends are usually filled with cleaning, shopping and running around with family – which is exactly what happened this weekend. My creativity times are when the hubby is at work and the children are at school – summers are crazy but I am doing my best to fit in creative times when I can.
I think if I had a themofax screening machine in my house I would have a closet filled with images! I absolutely love themofax screeing! I love what you did with the lily! In fact you have inspired me and I am going to take a few of my photos and convert them and then send them off to Lyric to be made into themofaxes. Thanks!
That’s great, Lisa, and I know Lyric will be happy to make the screens for you!
Very inspiring, love your screenings.
Thanks, Linda!
Love what you did with the waterlily photo! The fabric is really pretty and you have inspired me to use some of my garden photos on fabric.
Our LQS has a project to help collect 1000 pillowcases for the local Children’s Cancer Center. So that’s one of my current projects ~ I hope to make 25 or more since I have a HUGE stash of fabrics that kids will love. I spent time digging into that stash, pressing and cutting fabrics and stitching.
I’m already halfway to my goal of 25! We have until September so I may be able to stitch up 100! Woo Hoo!
Edy, what a great cause…nice going!
Hi Pokey,
I love your blog and follow it regularly. I want to do more with photos and quilting and need a good reference for using Photoshp for quilting. do you have any suggestions?
Maryjo, try this book by Charlotte Ziebarth. It is fantastic! http://www.amazon.com/Artistic-Photo-Quilts-Stunning-Computer/dp/1571206000/ref=la_B002MGK42Y_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1341883180&sr=1-1
Yes, I did! I fused and die-cut shapes, then fused them to parchment paper squares. These will be used as signature pieces at an upcoming baby shower in Southern California. Once signed, these shapes will be fused to background squares and made into a baby quilt.
What a great idea, Leslie!
Great idea running the screen through three times. I will have to try that. Love, Marlene Glickman
Pokey thank you for the book recommendation I just looked at it and think it might be perfect for me. The sharing spirit of quilters makes the world a better place.