MY CURRENT FIBER PASSION

I have been influenced and impressed by the art journal quilts of Rice Freeman-Zachery (http://www.voo-doo-cafe.com/) (http://www.voodoonotes.blogspot.com/) and have started my own journey to create fabric wall pieces that tell a story. Right now I am experimenting with different ways to put the written word on fabric. Rice's pieces ( that sounds like a candy!!) are dramatic in their use of stamps. I have tried stamps as well as actually drawing the letters on the fabric with my Pigma Micron pens. If I make the letters large enough, I can then paint inside the lines with some really fun results! If my text is a bit longer, I can just print the smaller letters on the fabric using those same pens. I also have 3 sets of stencils that work really well if I want only a few large-lettered words. Another way to put text on fabric is to create the words in a word processing program on your computer and print them off on fabric sheets to then cut in pieces or strips and sew them on the quilt. That is the process I used in this art journal piece called "Secret Garden". The large words were done with stencils. After I stencilled the words on using the green acrylic paint I had chosen, they started to look kinda military...so I took a small paint brush and closed in those parts of the letters to make them solid. Much better! I took a digital photograph of my own "secret garden" and printed it off on a fabric sheet. I printed it in sepia tones and then added a bit of color with colored pencils. I did some stitching on the photo using black quilters thread to give it some dimension. After I stitched the photo on the piece, I used 2 different leaf stamps to stamp all over the fabric. Then I added some beading as a final touch. As I finish other pieces, I will post them here with an explanation of the process. Right now I am enjoying the discovery!