Block Printing and Slow Stitching

 We had a super evening at Flowerpatch Quilters recently when Iris L. brought along her wooden printing blocks and paints so that we could all have a go at printing on some calico. Iris explained how to do it - that you shouldn't use too much paint or press too hard on the blocks and have a soft board underneath, thus avoiding splurges!

Iris had given me a few prints at the previous meeting and I had great fun thinking of ways to use them in sewing.

The little hedgehog is on a needle case, there is a greetings card, easy peasy pouches for specs and some slow stitched hangings.

I so enjoyed making the small hangings that I made four of them. They are all approx 6" wide. The first was using the poppy prints:

The next one used two of the sunflower prints:

Then I did a very blue one:

Finally I used the two prints that I printed during the Flowerpatch meeting to make this one:

I started each little hanging with a layer of wadding and a piece of curtain fabric on top. I laid the print, or prints, on top of this and then added various rectangular scraps of fabric (I save lots of tiny pieces from other projects), overlapping them until the background fabric was more or less covered. So as not to overwhelm the prints I tended to use pale fabrics. Once I was happy with the layout I tacked the fabric pieces down with big stitches. Then it's just a case of stitching to hold the edges of the rectangles down and adding some embellishment. I did some stitching on the prints each time, but without obliterating all the printing. Sometimes it's hard to know when it's finished! I laid my work on a another piece of fabric without trimming, marked the edges, machine zigzagged all the way around and trimmed close as I dared to the stitches.

Here are some pics of a few details.

I have put three of the hangings together, but the blue one didn't look quite right with them.

I used the buttonhole edges of shirts to sew them in a line (I have no idea why I was saving these - maybe to tie a plant to a stake in the garden!) and these also make hanging loops at the top.

Happy Slow Stitching - Anita x