by Sandra | April 9th, 2009
This story is in response to Mary’s question about the highlights on American Still Life and whether or not I used paint for the highlights or my colored pencil technique.
The original creation of this quilt was before, and helped lead to, my colored pencil discoveries. This was also the first and last time I used fabric paint because I was never really jazzed at how the paint just floated on the surface and didn’t integrate with the fabric. It was very disturbing to me visually and was the impetus to my experimentation and discovery with colored pencils for use as a tool to help accentuate the highlights and shadows on fabrics.
The only painting on the applique parts of the quilt are the white highlights added to the fruits
Close-up: The white painted highlights on the fabric of the hand applique
The background story to how the light came on to the idea of using colored pencils:
American Still Life was a perpetual quilt in progress even after it had been to Houston and won an award there. I hated, really hated, the way it showed and seeing it hanging there made it clearly evident to me what I already knew to be a problem with its visual impact.
I had used a Hobbs packaged wool batt and it had thick and thin spots throughout and sometimes only a hair of a fiber for a layer between the quilt top and the backing. This only became evident as I quilted and not as I layered the quilt. Of course, and as always, I had procrastinated and in order to make the entry deadline, I had waited until the last minute staying up to an ugly hour in the night to finish. So basically I had to deal with the batting and I was not a happy camper.
The quilting detail that was supposed to “pouf” outward was rendered anemic. This was a problem because it had been designed to have a stuffed textural impact and be an important design element to play off of the center. It didn’t. Oh dear. This one very important detail is what ended up being painfully obvious as it hung in Houston. Only a big brown background of nothingness with an intricately appliqued center. Whoops.
So when it came home, I knew I had to fix it (most people gasp here). I have never been one to blow off something as “good enough”, or justify the problem with ridiculous and pompous artspeak to excuse it, so just how do I correct a problem on a finished and already prestigious award winning quilt?
The “award winning” didn’t matter to me because the quilt did not stand up to my scrutiny and standards and I thought it a failed design as it was. I couldn’t stuff it after the fact without possibly damaging the fabric. So how do I get the quilting to pouf like it should? Ah! Use a surface technique that would fool the eye into thinking there was dimension when in actuality there wasn’t. It wasn’t the ideal, but it would make lemonade out of the lemon. Follow?
In my eyes the quilt was already ruined. After the quilt arrived home from Houston, I went to work experimenting on it. I had been formulating some ideas in my head since Houston though. I instantly thought of a technique called Grisaille. By using shading to bring out the dimension with the softness of colored pencils.
The colored pencil soon faded and disappeared leaving only the Rose Gold paint and that was when I started experimenting to find a solution to make the colored pencil permanent on fabric. I found that solution a couple of years later and wrote about it in my colored pencil tutorial post of February 2009. This is NOT stenciled, that is an urban legend started by a white glover.
I was very happy with the results and I noticed how much softer the colored pencils appeared over the latex flat look of the paint. The pencils blended with the fabric whereas the paint only sat on top a bit disconnected in appearance. However, I decided to give the paint one more chance and I thought maybe it just needed a bit of dilution to help it blend in more covertly with the fibers of the fabric. I used a Rose Gold fabric paint and thinned it down with a bit of water to add some accents to the small parts of the faux raised areas of the quilted “frame”. The paint still remained orphaned from the fibers. However, the quilt’s background design element had been vastly improved and I had my lemonade.
I knew at this point though, I would never use the paints again and I haven’t other than the blending fixative I use to fix colored pencil. That is another story.
©2009 Sandra Leichner
I remember seeing that( current ) backround , it was amazing !
well all the fruit does .
Those strawberries look good enough to eat !!
I remember going to this show in VT. and coming around the corner and seeing THIS awesome wall hanging that I had only dreamed of ever getting to see in person ( had seen it on the internet ) and almost fell on the ground . I ran to get my husband and daughter . They thought I was cracking up , LOL ! They agreed when they saw it it was something to be gauked at ! We still talk about it , to this day !! and needless to say It was your “American Still Life ”
Did you highlight the strawberries ? how do they get that shine ?
OH ! so that is the reason you use the wool ( good ) batting is to get the poof you need ?
HMMM, I learn more every time I come here .
Can you achive highlights ( that are better ) using the colored pencil ?
I know you can do shading , but does a light color work for highighting and what color would you use ?
I’d like to try doing a bowl of fruit some time in the near future .
Thanks
Mary
Do you still (in spite of this bad experience) use the Hobbs wool batt, or do you now prefer some other batting (and if so, which batting)? You are indeed a perfectionist, and it shows in your fine work. Thank you for sharing your thoughts, ideas and experiences with us.
I haven’t used Hobbs since. However, I did talk to someone that said if you use the wool batt off of the roll, this is not a concern. Since I procrastinate so badly, I have never taken the chance again. I have used both the Quilter’s Dream Wool and Matilda’s and found both of them to be great battings and I use without hesitation. My favorite by a hair is the Matilda’s. It is hard to find, I buy it from Kings Men Quilting Supply.
I love to share and I appreciate knowing when it helps a quilter out, so thank you for letting me know!
Ah Boop,
I love to hear stories like this! It is always my quilts that I want to shine and be inspirational and stories like this really touch me and make me want to continue creating them.
Believe it or not, it is just that slight touch of the white paint that makes the berries look as though they are glossy. What also adds to the deception is that they are stuffed and then a straight stitch of gold DMC for the seed all the way to the back to create the indentation, and another straight stitch right beside it of a dark red sewing weight thread that adds the convex shadow. All together this tricks the eye into thinking it is seeing something that really isn’t so.
You can get highlights with colored pencil, but not with the white very well. I have been experimenting with using a dry brush technique and the Tsuineko (sp?) white ink. These are a bit harder to control on smaller areas but so far this option looks promising.
Sandy , Have you tried these ?
http://www.sewthankful.com/PaintstikInstruct.html
I have and I like them !
I’m not sure how much control you can achive , but it may be managable with a small brush .
I do dry brush with them and also use for stenciling . I think you might like the effect . The only thing is it had an oil base and so it smells a bit for a few days : (
Yes and you are not going to like my answer
)
For a craft project or something that you just want to have fun with, I say go for it, but not for a quilt I want to be special or have around for the long-term.
I tested them and I do not use them on my quilts. The oil attracts every dust and dirt speck to the quilt and eventually will damage the fibers because I cannot spot clean or wash. We wash our hands when working with our quilts so we do not transfer dirt and oils from our hands to the fabric and using painsticks is like working with hands that have not been washed. (my tested quilt looks nasty now where the painstick was applied and it is kept in a drawer with very little handling)
The paintsticks also transfer color (imperceptible at first) to anything that comes in contact with it. I have been mulling over sending instructions to quilt shows NOT to stack my quilts with an art quilt that has used oil based products because of this (I had this happen). The damage is irreversible.
I hope this answer doesn’t disappoint you Boop
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oh !!!!!!!!!!! OH !!!!! it does dissapoint me ! I did a whole quilt with them ! : (
It is good to know though . I guess I’ll not use them for fabric again .
Just protect the quilt with a cover (pillowcase) if not in use. You obviously had fun and you learned from the process so nothing is lost. Remember, I learned to after my excitement was brought crashing down to earth! I liked the idea of being able to give my applique more depth, I just had to keep searching for the appropriate tool that was a win-win.
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Happy Easter Sandy !!!
Thanks Boop! I hope you had a very special Easter.
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