Carving Your Own Stamps

I recently ordered in some Renoir Ezy Carve blocks to carve my own stamps. Oh what fun! These are so easy to carve, a light touch of the carving tools and you have a line, slightly more pressure and it is a deeper line.I brought in 8cm square, 14 x 21cm and 50 x 50cm blocks, plus some sets of carving tools and some brayers (the hard rubber rollers to put paint or ink on them).
I took a small block and decided to cut it in half using a craft knife. Very easy to do. So now I had 2 pieces 3" x 1 1/2". I started playing with simple straight lines with the carving tool. Yay, so easy to do. Turned over the block because they are thick enough to carve on both sides. Played with some tiny notches cut out which sort of look like rain or rice dotted over. Then I thought I would try some spirals. Very smooth by gentle turning to create the pattern without any bumps. Again very easy to do. Here are some photos of what I did...

Now, once you have carved you need to stamp them and see what they look like, whether they need any small details fixed. So I stamped them on the Fabrico stamp pad which is good for fabric (it does need a top up of ink so is a little faint, but still shows up okay -

I stamped this on to hand painted fabric. You can create your own designs with the stamps and then stamp all over your plainer fabrics to make them more interesting. I could have used fabric paint as well.
I am having a class on how to carve your own if anyone is interested in attending (see earlier post), otherwise have a go yourself. It is fun. If you want to know more about these items and prices please email or phone me or call in and see me, and the samples, in the shop.
Dianne

Craft classes July/August

It is time for a new set of classes for July and August, so I have listed them all below. If you are interested in any please contact me be email or phone.

Burn It Up Wednesday 8 July 7-9pm

Learn how you can use Kunin Felt (which distresses beautifully) with coloured sheers, stitch them and then use a soldering iron and a heat gun to distress. I will also include painted fusibles and fusible foils. Here is an example.

Paintstiks on Fabric Tuesday 14 July 7-9pm

Dianne will show you a variety of techniques to use with Markal/Shiva paintstiks. See how easy they are to use and how rich the metallic colours can be. Can be used on plain or printed fabrics and on completed quilts and clothing.

Birds on A Wire or Branch Thursday 23 July 7-9pm

You can choose whether to paint a background yourself in class or bring along a fabric suitable for your background, fuse the appliques in place and stitch them down. You can create small, medium or large sized pieces for your project, they can be on quilts or canvas. Learn how to couch a yarn for the 'wire'. A fun project.

Scrap Busters - Applique Quilt Sunday August 2 10am - 4pm

Come along and have fun making this lovely and easy to sew applique quilt. You can use up scraps or use new fabrics. I chose to work with an 8" block but can easily be made smaller or larger depending on how big you want the quilt to be. Lots of variations on settings, including scrap sashing and borders or applique. No fusibles used and machine appliqued, but you can hand applique if you prefer.

Carve Your Own Stamps - Tuesday 4th August 7-9pm

It is fun to create your own designs. Dianne will show you how to carve your own stamps easily using Ezy Carve blocks which can be carved on both sides. Then you can stamp on any surface.

Machine Quilting - Thursday 6th August 7-9pm

Want to learn more about free motion machine quilting or come along and practice a little more. Dianne will show you some designs and how to practice to get better. Make a small scale sampler to see how easy they can be to sew.

Small Quilts - Sunday 16 August 9:30 - 4pm

Learn a variety of techniques by making some small quilts, techniques which can be used in making larger sized quilts. This way you learn the techniques, make some small quilts to get used to the technique and have samples you can refer to in future but also have quilts you can hang on the wall. Also good for practicing machine quilting in a small scale.

Quilt As You Go - Wednesday 12th & 26th August 7-9pm

Many people find quilting their own large quilts daunting. Why not try quilt as you go. You break up the pattern into small portions, quilt them and then join them together . Much easier than trying to push a 2m wide quilt under a small sewing machine area.

Here is one example

Fabric Dyeing

I offer a Beginners Fabric Dyeing Sunday 30th August 9:30 - 12:30

You will learn how to mix colours, how to double dip and how to shade colours. A fun class. and Advanced Dyeing - Sunday 13 September 9:30 - 4pm

I will show you a variety of more advanced techniques including batik style dyeing, soy wax and Shibori style wrapping.

Please contact me if any of these classes interest you. 

Dianne