Summer out of doors projects- Sun Printing and Flower Pressing

What a beautiful morning today - the skies are blue and I will have my day off with three good friends - time to chat and have some relaxing time in the country, so all in all a great start to the day. I don't know about you, but I am really sad that summer has passed so quickly. The gardens are looking very sad once again and this year it is not because of drought conditions as in the past several years, but because of RAIN. We certainly have been inundated with an abundance of rain and bad storms this summer, making for very green grass, and a proliferation of weed growth and sad, rain soaked plant stems. The trees are happy, but the leaves are showing lots of rust or the draining of the chlorophyll due to the insect infestations that have overtaken the gardens. I was looking at my purple sand cherry closely yesterday, and many of the leaves have been eaten completely, with only the skeletons left. They will make great additions to small art quilts - the colour is still quite beautiful. Be sure to use your imagination when surveying the garden to see if there are pieces of natural material that could be used in art work.

Fabric Painting this time of year is a terrific pass time for both adults and children. For those of you who have been in cottage country retreats, the days pass slowly without a project or two to work on. Take some great SETACOLOR Transparent Fabric Paints along to the cottage or use them right at home to create some beautiful new fabrics. The paints are available in Kingston at MICHAEL'S in the fabric paints isle and run about $5 a small jar or you could purchase a set of "Seta Soliel" fabric paints - sometimes hanging on the wall above the paint display or in KIT FORM in a box on the bottom shelf to the right of the display rack. The Setacolor paints are on the lower shelves of the rack, and small jars will go a long way, but the 250 ml. bottles are a good investment. Cardinal Red, Lemon or bright Yellow (I prefer the "sun" yellow which has a bit more orange in it) and Ultramarine Blue can be mixed to give you a beautiful palette of colour. Be sure that you have washed your quality cotton, and white is best of course. The paints should be diluted 50/50 with water right out of the jar as they are very concentrated and will be used up very quickly if painted full strength. You can layer in some great leaves, ferns, small sticks and stones onto the surface of the wet, painted fabric for great "sun printing" effects. Be sure that the items are pressed firmly into the wet paint for the best prints and leave your pieces outdoors in direct sunlight for at least an hour. Have fun.

As you are playing outdoors this summer, give "flower pressing" a try as well. Take a few flowers from the garden, at their fresh best. Use a nice piece of linen or one of your lovely hand dyed cotton pieces for a background and make sure you have enough "Steam a Seam 2" or Wonder Under (Wal-Mart) for the first layer of your design. This will be laid on top of your background BEFORE layering on the flower design. Cut two pieces of fusible, just slightly larger than your background. Start by laying a piece of copy paper on the table. Layer on your background fabric topped with a piece of fusible - just make sure that you have removed the paper backing from the fusible and that is laid onto your background, sans paper. Now you can begin the collage with your beautiful flowers... start with a few beautiful leaves and geranium leaves lay so nice and flat. Add a few thin stems or twigs (not too thick). Layer on the arrangements of flower petals, one at a time. When you are satisfied with the arrangement, stand back and have one final look. Then layer on your second piece of fusible right on top of the floral design, with the fusible side down over the flower petals and pin in place around the perimeter of your piece (this is where the Steam A Seam 2 is best - it will fuse to the background, hold the flowers in place as you layer on the petals because both sides of the fusible are "sticky" to the touch, and it will fuse to the second layer and the toile you will add as the last layer)... Now is the time to add a nice piece of fine toile or netting over the top to ensure that your petals will remain in place over time. Once the toile is pinned down, layer on another piece of copy paper or better yet, your TEFLON pressing sheet. (you can layer the entire collage between a good sized sheet of Teflon pressing sheet of you have it.) Now, PRESS WITH A MEDIUM HOT IRON - yes, press with the iron, moving the iron consistently and for a few seconds in each position across the surface of your collage. DO NOT USE AN IRON THAT IS TOO HOT... you might actually burn the flower petals evne through the Teflon or pressing sheet. This process does take some practice, so you might like to practice on a "starter" piece before doing a hugely amazing collage and then burning it with a too hot iron. The more of these you make, the better. The whole idea here is to sandwich your collage of beautiful garden petals between the two layers of fusible and the toile. Once you have your pressed collage all fused, remove the Teflon and test the layers for puckers or unfused areas that might need to be re-layered between the paper/Teflon and pressed a bit more. You want to have a great fused collage that will last for years. I have some that I did with Linda Burke in Napanee six years ago that are still quite lovely and are looking like vintage collages now with still beautifully preserved though paler versions of the garden flowers I used in the collage. Once complete, you can "square up" the collage, add borders or frame as desired for a great summer memory piece to enjoy all year long.

Here is hoping that all of you are checking out the calendar of College Fall Term Part Time Studies courses at SL.on.ca Continuing Education pages and registering either online, in person at the College's Student Services office or by phone at 613-544-5400, ext 60. TEXTILE DESIGN will be on Thursday evenings this fall, twelve weeks from Sept. 11th - Nov. 27th, 6:30 - 9:30 pm. We will be experimenting with deconstructed screen printing and more in class...and creating all new fabric designs for exhibition and sale. Come join in on the fun... Silk Painting with Tina Barnes and Zhara Hussein will also run on Thursday evenings, Fibre to Fabrics with Beth Abbot on Tuesday evenings and Janice Vandijk is presenting a variety of Photography and Image editing courses that will lead students to their PORTFOLIO DEVELOPMENT credit in the Textile Design diploma Program.

Have a GREAT SUMMER DAY.