Crayons And Fabric!

We finally had an almost sunny day, so I thought I'd show you how I color on fabric.  There are tons of tutorials out there, I'll just add mine to the mix.

I've been using crayons and paint on fabric since the early '90's.  The first wall-hanging I ever made was painted with acrylic paints, and hand quilted.  It was over six feet long and my own design - I got sick of looking at it after a few years and threw it away. (gasp)

So let's get started - the first thing you'll want to do is gather supplies.



Freezer paper, parchment paper [or copier paper, any paper will do], your design, a non-heat erasing tracing pen [I used a Zig Millennium 03 brown], fabric, crayons, and your iron.

Trace your design onto your fabric.



Cut a piece of freezer paper smaller than your fabric, but big enough to cover the entire design.  This is going to stabilize your fabric while you color, and also keep the crayon from going through the fabric underneath when you're heat setting.  Making sure the shiny, plastic side is next to the fabric, iron it on the back of your design fabric.



Double-check it before you iron - you don't want that plastic gunk on your iron.

Now you can pull out your crayons!  Color in the tiny bits first, it's easier to do those while the crayon is sharp, unless you have a sharpener.  If you want light color, use a light touch - you can always add more color after you've heat set, but you can't take any away!  [Oops, I went outside the lines....]



Cut a piece of parchment paper [or copier paper, or a brown paper bag] and cover your design - placing design side up on your ironing board.  Press with a hot iron to heat set the crayon.



The crayon will melt into the fabric.



If you want to add more color, just repeat the steps until you get the saturation you like.

While your fabric is still warm, peel off the freezer paper.



Using a pressing cloth, this is when I add my fusible stabilizer to the back, and start stitching!

Now wasn't that easy?  I believe some company makes fabric crayons, but honestly, any crayons will work just fine....as any mother knows who's tried to get crayon out of clothing.  You can mix colors if you like, just layer them lightly until you get the effect you want.  I've also used metallic crayons with great success, so pretty!

And now I'm going to put my inner 6-year-old away and go make lunch....all that coloring made me hungry!

Captain's [b]Log: Stardate July 1

I got up too early.  I'm feeling silly.  Can you believe it's July already?  Our weather has been delightfully cool, but rather humid.  And wet.  Great for ducks, but not for pictures - too cloudy.

I've been playing this morning.





Can anyone tell me why the black floss seems fuzzier?  I have bits of it everywhere.

I've also been daydreaming, this came in the mail yesterday....




Yesterday was my son's birthday but I got the good mail.  We're going to celebrate his birthday this coming weekend.  Everybody had to work yesterday, and though I offered to take him out for ice cream, he declined - he was too tired!  Too tired for ice cream!  I didn't think that was possible.  I think there's a law against it.

Since I feel so silly today, I'm going to leave you with some chuckles.  Cuz there's no law against that.

Have a great day - go smile at everybody and make them wonder what you're up to....

Loaves and Fishes

Finally finished one of my patterns from last week - my burst of creativity fueled by dinners out - and interestingly enough, it has to do with food.

One of my favorite passages in my bible.  Jesus feeding the five thousand with nothing more than 2 fish, and 5 loaves of bread.  And when the disciples cleaned up the leftovers, they filled 12 baskets!  I was reading this passage last week, and the quilt idea popped into my head, just like that.  A whole picture of it.

This passage reminds me that my Lord will provide, and provide abundantly...and now my quilt hangs on my wall to remind me too.

I used more scraps for this little quilt, it finishes at 22 inches square, so not MANY scraps, lol.  I started to blanket stitch with my Viking, but it pooped out on me and I ended up doing it by hand.  Maria, my little Featherweight, came to my rescue for all the piecing and putting the binding on.  I used the walking foot on her for the first time, and it works wonderfully!  I do love my little workhorse.

So, Loaves and Fishes is up in my craftsy shop now, if you'd like your own reminder of the Lord's provision - just click here > Allie-oops Designs or on the link on my sidebar.   

By the way - this is my first time doing diagonally striped bias binding - oh how fun.  I followed a tutorial from The Quilt Rambler, and held my breath until it turned out perfectly!  Click on her blog name to see it, it's great.

Now to get to work on those other patterns....it's Wednesday already!  For those of you who pray, could you please say one or two for my mum?  She had an extensive stress test last week, and they found a blocked vein - she's on new meds now, and we're not sure what else they're going to do.  I know she'll appreciate the prayers too.

See you soon....

All Quiet On The Allie-Front

But behind the scenes - that's a different story.  I sketched up three new patterns this week!

And I've figured out what fuels my creativity the most.  Eating out.  That's right....not having to cook makes my brain work better.  I ate out three times this week, and I have three new patterns to play with.  I'm telling everyone.  Buy me dinner!

Here's mum on one of those evenings....remember mum, the diabetic???  Do you SEE what she's eating???



What you can't see is that she asked for extra whipped cream.  She didn't want her sister to get more.  These kids, I tell ya.

Anyway, today has been spent at home, quietly having a play with fabrics....



And forgetting to reverse my templates, and having to trace, cut and fuse all over again, as usual.  The templates in the pattern will include the reversed version as well, pinkie-promise.



One of my new patterns is a stitchery.  It will be colored with crayons, and I'm thinking of doing a tutorial here on the blog.  What do you think, would you like to see a tutorial on using crayons?

I'm having a problem with marking it, none of my usual pens are working properly, so I'm waiting for a pen to arrive from Dick Blick.  We have a few of their stores near me, but none of them carry the Zig Millennium pens in-store, you have to order online.   Jenny from Elefantz uses them in her stitcheries, and I'm anxious to try them!

Tomorrow is more playing with applique for me - how will you spend the day?

My Anchor Holds

This is what Port Huron does to me - it inspires me!  My Anchor Holds is a new mug rug pattern in my store here>:  Allie-oops Designs - love the instant download from craftsy!

Based on the hymn by William C. Martin, written in 1902, this will be my morning coffee and evening tea mug rug.  I need that reminder, that Jesus is my anchor and will never let the storms capsize me....



It's a quick and easy project, quick enough to make for anyone you know who might be going through the storm.  I used some leftover scraps from a charm pack, don't you love being able to use up some scraps!  My scrap pile has diminished by .000000000000000000001% now.

I've included already reversed templates for your convenience, a layout diagram, and step by step instructions with photos throughout.  Also, the words to the hymn, which I find so inspiring.


I tried to embed a youtube video to a contemporary version, but it didn't work.  So here's the link to a young lady with a beautiful voice, singing this hymn!
My Anchor Holds

My New Toy!

I'm so excited - I just got a new toy.  My son John and I went looking for a lawn mower, and the store we went to was closed - gone - so we stopped for an ice cream.  Just down the street was a garage sale sign, and on the spur of the moment we decided to see if it was open - it was 5:30pm, and that's kind of late.  Well, it was, and I found this!!!!!



It's a huge light box!!



It uses fluorescent tubes, they're 2ft long.  Not the light box on my wish list - that one is only an inch thick and uses LED's - but for $15 it will more than suffice.  I've already used it and it is amazing.  Much better than my piece of plexiglass, held on my lap over a lamp, lol.

I think I'm going to get a lot of tracing done....don't you just love garage sales!!!