Breast Pocket Update

I just realised that it's been two months since my last blog entry. Time has flown, and I've discovered that Instagram has taken over some of the role that this blog used to have. I find that I spend less and less time on writing blog entries and reading other people's blogs, and I've wondered if it's the same for others too, or if it's just me. I think I'm searching for a new direction with this blog, to make it feel more worthwhile. In the meantime, Instagram has swooped in and is carrying the torch. My Instagram alias is annika.c.lund, if you'd like to visit me there.

You may remember that I've talked about Melanie Testa's Breast Pocket Project several times before (click the label 'Breast pocket projcet' in the list, or follow this link). It's a project to raise awareness about breast cancer, and in particular about women like Melanie, who choose not to have reconstructive surgery or prosthetics after a mastectomy. She wants to turn the repressive body image pressures off for women. Women should be allowed to feel sexy, strong and beautiful whether full, flat or half flat. So she started the Breast Pocket Project with the aim to gather in 1 000 breast pockets for an art project.

In the October/November 2014 issue of Quilting Arts Magazine there was a Reader Challenge that called for breast pockets in honor and support of all who are or have been touched by breast cancer. The challenge was connected to Melanie and the Breast Pocket Project, and all the pockets that were submitted were to be donated to her project. 

I participated in this challenge, and imagine my joy when I discovered that my breast pocket was among the 40 pockets that were included in the magazine (April/May 2015 issue)! A total of 250 pockets were submitted. Here's a scan from the magazine (don't you just love the embroidered cloth they used for the background?):

The pockets that weren't included in the magazine can be seen online as a free eBook, if you're a member of the Quilting Daily online community (it's free to join). Check it out by following this link.

And if you haven't already, check out Melanie's Breast Pocket Project, and send her more breast pockets! Here's a link to her blog. Click the tag 'Breast Pockets' for more information.

Thanks for visiting!

Personalized Sponge Cloths

Just before Christmas I was inspired to work with stencils, and that inspiration has continued after the holidays, partly because I'm teaching stencil techniques at the moment. Today I want to show you a couple of small projects that perhaps could make your household chores a little more fun: personalized sponge cloths. You can buy sponge cloths without print in craft shops.

You've had a sneak peek of the first one already, but as it was a gift for my mum, I didn't want to reveal it completely and spoil the surprise for her. For this first one I've used freezer paper, which I cut into a sort of 'snowflake'. The artist Melanie Testa was the first person to open my mind about the possibilities with freezer paper 'snowflakes' (See e.g. Quilting Arts Magazine issue 21, spring 2006). Paper 'snowflakes' don't have to look like the snowflakes we all cut when we were kids. So I cut a Westie snowflake for my mum. (Regular readers know that I keep referring to Fia the Terri(fi)er. She has an impressive bark, but she really is a very gentle and sweet dog.)

Here you can see the design process: sketch, folds, cut-out, stencil:

And here is the result. As the sponge cloth was quite porous, the paint went under the edges a little bit and made them slightly fuzzy, so I used a Pentel Gel Roller for Fabric to tidy up the edges. I love that pen!

And then I decorated a sponge cloth for myself too, but for this one I didn't use a stencil, only a fabric marker: a Tsukineko Fabrico Dual Marker. A lovely and juicy pen that comes with a bullet tip and a brush tip. A lot has happened with fabric markers since I tried my first one many years ago.

That should add a bit of pizzazz to my kitchen.

Thanks for visiting and see you again soon!

- Annika

I have a little project going on

Do you remember my experiments with snow-resist dyeing? Well, here’s the next instalment in the series ‘Weird and Wonderful Ways to Dye your Fabric’.

It started innocently enough with low-water immersion dyeing. I used turquoise and lemon yellow Procion MX dyes that I poured over soda-soaked fabric crammed into an old ice-cream tub.

After rinsing out the fabric, I started thinking about texture. I went through different options and settled on this weird and wonderful technique that was described in the October/November 2010 issue of QAM (#47): oatmeal-resist dyeing. Who could resist that? It’s too weird to be left untried. So I set everything up and cooked myself some porridge. Now, the kind of oatmeal I have in my cupboard resulted in porridge that was a bit too mushy for my taste – I wanted more texture. So I looked through my cupboard again, didn’t find any muesli, but did find some pumpkin and sunflower seeds that were well past their best before-date. What better way to use them than to throw them into the pot? Then I spread a healthy helping of the goo onto the fabric, and now it needs to dry for a day or two before I add the dye. I’m very excited. Stay tuned and I’ll show you how it turned out. At the moment it smells a bit like dog food.

Jag har ett litet projekt på gång

Kanske du minns att jag prövade på att färga tyg med hjälp av snö för ett tag sedan? Här kommer del två i serien konstiga och roliga sätt att färga tyg på: reservage med havregrynsgröt. Jag fick tipset i nr 47 av QAM (oktober/november 2010). Jag började med att färga tyget i två fäger: citrongult och turkosblått. Jag var inte helt nöjd med resultatet så jag började fundera på hur jag skulle kunna få mera djup och intresse i det hela. Efter att ha funderat en stund valde jag att pröva havregrynsgröt som reservage. Det är helt enkelt för konstigt för att jag ska kunna låta bli. Så jag kokade en rejäl sats gröt och kletade ut det på tyget. Nu ska det torka en till två dagar och sedan är det dags för färgning. Jag återkommer till hur det blev i ett senare inlägg.

Procion MX dye bath - Färgbad med Procion MX reaktivfärger

 Cloth after washing - Tyget efter att ha tvättats

(the colours are not quite as pale as this - färgerna är inte fullt så här bleka)

 Oatmeal and seed-resist - Reservage med havregryn och frön

 I needed some colour therapy, so I also started this little wrist warmer project.

Jag behövde lite färgterapi, så jag började också med det här lilla pulsvärmarprojektet.

Gissa vad det här är. Det är inte mosad isglass, men nästan lika läckert.

Guess what this is. It's not crushed iced lollies, but almost as delicious.

När det nu har kommit så mycket snö...

... måste man ju passa på att dra nytta av den. Det här läste jag om i Quilting Arts Magazine nr 41: tygfärgning med hjälp av snö! Folk är så påhittiga! Vem har kommit på en sådan här sak? Man blandar färgpigment med snö och låter snön sakta smälta över tyget och, voilà, marmorerat tyg. Jag har aldrig prövat detta förut, så jag är inte säker på vad resultatet blir. Men åtminstone var det roligt och annorlunda.


Since we have such a lot of snow...

... one has to grab the opportunity and make use of it. I read about this in Quilting Arts Magazine issue 41: snow-resist dyeing! People are so inventive! Who came up with a thing like this? You mix pigments with snow and let the snow slowly melt on top of the fabric, and voilà - marbled fabric. I've never tried this before, so I'm not sure what the results will be. But at least it was fun and different.

Efter att mest ha tänkt på julmässan på sistone, beslöt jag mig för att bara tänka på mig själv nu - och mina fötter. Det här ska bli ett par sockor, och se bara vilket läckert garn (kirjopirkka). Slurp!

After having thought mostly of the Christmas fair lately, I decided to think only of myself now - and my feet. This will become a pair of socks, and have a look at the delicious yarn (kirjopirkka). Yum!

Batik med sojavax

Den här veckan har jag experimenterat med batik och sojavax. Sojavax är ett miljövänligare alternativ när man vill jobba med vaxbatik. Det är lätt att applicera och relativt lätt att få bort när man är klar. Jag har ännu inte hunnit skaffa något mera avancerat kärl att smälta vaxet i, så jag använder mig av en lykta som egentligen är tänkt för doftolja. Den fungerar utmärkt så länge som jag inte behöver några stora mängder vax. ;-)

Det är kanske vanligast att man färgar tyget genom färgbad när man jobbar med batik, men i det här experimentet har jag prövat den teknik som Melanie Testa beskriver i Quilting Arts Magazine (nr 45, juni/juli 2010). Hon väter tyget efter att ha applicerat vaxet och målar det sedan med tygtrycksfärg. Efter att tyget har torkat kan man sedan applicera mera vax och färg på samma sätt, och fortsätta bygga upp lagren tills man är nöjd. Mitt tyg innehåller 5 målade färglager (gult, ljus orange, mörk orange, rött, svart; tyget var ursprungligen vitt). Jag applicerade ett nytt vax- och färglager varje kväll under en veckas tid. Sedan strök jag tyget mellan massor av tidningspapper för att få bort det mesta av vaxet och fixera färgen. Till slut tvättade jag tyget i hett vatten.

Soy Wax Batik

This week I've experimented with soy wax batik. Soy wax is a more environmentally friendly alternative when you want to work with batik. It's easy to apply and relatively easy to remove when you're finished. I haven't yet managed to get myself any more advanced pot to melt the wax in, so I use an oil warmer. It works like a charm as long as I don't need any greater quantities of wax. ;-)

It's probably more common to immersion dye the fabric when you work with batik, but in this experiment I tried the technique that Melanie Testa describes in Quilting Arts Magazine (issue 45, June/july 2010). She wets the fabric after she has applied the wax, and then paints it with fabric paints. When the fabric is dry, you can apply more wax and more paint in the same manner and continue building layers until you're satisfied. There are 5 painted layers in my fabric (yellow, light orange, dark orange, red and black; the original colour was white). I applied a new layer of wax and paint every evening during the week. After this, I ironed the fabric between many layers of newspaper to remove most of the wax and heat set the paint. Finally, I washed the fabric in hot water.

 Redskapen - The tools

 Det färdiga tyget - The finished cloth