STRETCH A leaf Study with Gel Printing

 

On the Fiberactions blog our current challenge word was ‘Stretch’. For myself, I wanted to do something I had never tried before. I started by getting out my copy of Rayna Gillman’s book “How to Create your own Hand-Printed cloth” and looked at her directions on Gel Printing. I used textile paints instead of mixing dyes, but the gelatin was the part of the process I hadn’t done before, & it was fun using such a squishy surface for the printing. I picked leaves from my yard, & laid them on the gelatin, then rolled the paint over them, peeled off the leaves, laid down the fabric for the mono-print, then also used the leaf to print an image too.      

I sewed the front & back fabrics together like a pillow, turned it with the batting in place, & closed the opening, then arranged the green pieces & 1 brown on the surface, sewed them in place, & machine quilted until I felt it was time to add another layer of texture.

I added lots of big stitches, French Knots, x’s, & a scattering of seed beads.

You can click on any of the images to see close-ups.