handprinted on flickr

there is really cool work popping up in the handprinted: fabric group over on flickr:


block printed birds by imaginegnats


screen printed by marywasadj using a vintage sheet and an embroidery hoop!! unbelievable!


gorgeous new screen print by blueberrypark

so exciting to see!

weekend*

finally, a little romper time for soph::both kids in mama-made outfits (mae's shirt from way back here, still going strong)::some educational app playing for mae (or watching rio, who knows)::a new {old} big girl bed for a very happy miss mae::



and some overdue sewing time for me : )

*a visit to north melbourne market, a beautiful summer-like early picnic dinner with lovely friends in williamstown and some quality "big girl bed sheets" shopping for me and maesey, not pictured.

it's official

swap sign ups are now closed and all participants have been emailed with their group details! please let me know if you signed up and for some reason haven't received your group email (maybe check your spam/junk folder, too). i've set up a flickr group, handprinted: fabric, to share pictures of what everyone is working on but it's not limited to swap participants. the group is open to everyone to share their handprinting adventures so please feel free to join up and add your fabric pics, old or new.





i've been going great guns with the screen printing this week, still working with the screen of large dots that i created by hand using screen filler. i've decided to call the pattern "many moons" and have been playing around with colourways on different linen and cotton blends on my new...



printing table! i had this desk in my sewing room, supposedly for cutting out clothes/large things but always seemed to use the dining room for those purposes and this desk for piles of stuff. so i reorganised a bit and got my lovely husband to cut an oversized table top out of mdf. voila! lovely big(ish) printing table. i can print about a meter and a half at a time which is just perfect for me right now. having so much fun with this stuff, i love it!

handprinted friday:: multiple colour screen printing

last day to sign up for handprinted: a fabric swap! you can find all the details in my post here. i'll be emailing everyone their swap group details tomorrow (saturday, october 22nd, melbourne time), can't believe that i am actually on the ball with this and have twelve groups already set up, ready to press send : )  inspiration for today comes in the form of screen printing again but today i'll show a few favourite examples of two or three colour prints.

{screen printed by ink & spindle*}

{screen printed by heuteschmidt*}

{screen printed by sarah waterhouse}

 {screen printed by patapri}

 {screen printed by spinspin}

 {screen printed by sara lee parker}

*swap participants - yee haw!

handprinted thursday::screen printing

hey folks, swap deadline is midnight of the 21st, that is tomorrow here in melbourne (i'm not going to worry about the time zone thing, if it's still the 21st wherever you are, you can still sign up). i have ten groups set up already, that's fifty folk getting set to print up some original designed fabric! today's inspiration is the king of hand printing, screen printing. there are many different ways to get your designs on the screen (stencil, drawing fluid, screen filler, photo emulsion) but all produce brilliant results in just one simple colour.

 

{screen printed tea towel by bookhou}

{screen printed by willowship}

{screen printed by pipwilly}

{screen printed by umbrella prints}

{screen printed by kalla}

 {screen printed by cloth}

handprinted wednesday::stamps + leaf printing

only three days to go now until the swap deadline! for today's inspiration, here are some great examples of printing using handmade foam stamps and simple ol' leaves from the garden.

{stamped by karen barbe}

{stamped by seedpod}

{carved leaf print by haworth}

{leaf prints by painted fish studio}

handprinted tuesday::potato prints

with only four days to go until swap deadline, i thought i'd post some of my favourite hand printed finds every day this week. today shows some gorgeous results from carving away the very humble and versatile potato to use as a stamp.

 {potato prints by elizabeth abernathy}

 {potato prints by lindamade}

 {potato prints by tricia wadell}

 {potato prints by oh happy day}

handprinted monday::block printing

with only five days to go until swap deadline, i thought i'd post some of my favourite hand printed finds every day this week. today is all about block printing, that is carving your design out of lino, wood or eraser-like carving material and then using it as a stamp.

{hand stamped by julie white}

 {hand stamped by jeanne mcgee}

 {hand stamped by sakura snow}

handprinted: a fabric swap

just wanted to pop in and remind you all that there is one more week left to sign up for handprinted: a fabric swap. the photo above is an oldie from earlier this year, polka dots i printed using a carrot, of all things. a good reminder that your designs don't have to be intricate or super detailed to be cool. simple is good. so come on, don't let intimidation hold you back, sign on up!

quilt for miss mae

i've been giving a fresh coat of paint to a cute queen anne style bed that i picked up for mae on ebay (actually, i got a pair, one for soph in the years to come, too) and realised that i'd better finish her single size quilt so she'll be able to use it. i backed it with a floral print and bound it with a tiny pink stripe, both from lecien. looking at the photos, i think it's funny that although this was completely pieced on the fly, it slightly resembles both a map of australia and the letter M...  bizarre, no?



i hand stamped the label using my new favourite tool, a rolling alphabet stamp that i first saw on gennine's blog and bought on ebay. (does it sound like i spend a lot of time on ebay? i do.) gennine's blog, by the way, is an absolute gold mine of handprinting inspiration, the perfect place to get yourself fired up for handprinted: a fabric swap. i'm just sayin'.

handprinted: a fabric swap

okay so let's do it, people! let's explore, print and trade some original, hand printed fabric.

::the gist::

you'll be sending one printed fat quarter to each of four assigned swap buddies and receiving four printed fat quarters from these same folk. whether you want to print one whole meter (yard) and chop it into quarters or you want to print four separate 50cm x 50cm (18inch x 20inch) pieces is up to you. designs must be your own and hand printed using whatever technique you want to play with. please print on natural fibers - cotton, linen, hemp or a blend of these - and be sure you use ink/paint designed for fabric. you will be sent your swap mates' preferred colours but, in the end, ink colours and design are entirely of your own choosing.

::sign up::

send the following information to handprintedfabricswap@gmail.com
name:
postal address:
website/blog:
preferred colours:

signups will be open until friday, october 21st. your swap group details will be sent to you by sunday, october 23rd and the deadline to send your fabric is monday, november 14th, which gives you plenty of time to play around with techniques but gets everything in the mail before the bulk of the holiday postal crush (if you can send your fabric out sooner, i encourage you to do so). this swap is open to anyone, anywhere in the world, which means if you sign up, you have to be willing to ship fabric overseas (since we'll only be sending fat quarters, you may be able to sandwich your fabric between two pieces of card and send it in a C4 (8.5 x 11inch) envelope to keep postage costs down).

::resources:: 

leaf printing tutorial
hand carved stamp tutorial
stencil and potato printing
foam stamping tutorial
lino stamping tutorial
contact paper printing tutorial
screen printing at home
screen printing tutorial
screen printing using drawing fluid

there are a ton of books on every kind of fabric printing you can imagine but one i can recommend wholeheartedly is lena corwin's Printing by Hand: A Modern Guide to Printing with Handmade Stamps, Stencils, and Silk Screens. i've also started a handprinted board on pinterest, a great place to start if you're looking for inspiration. if you come across something really cool, please feel free to add links to tutorials or inspiration in the comments on this post.


here's a little button if you want to show off that you are taking part : )

and please feel free to blog about the swap to encourage more people to sign up. i'm super excited to see what everyone comes up with!


{sign ups for this swap are now closed. thanks, everybody!}

screenprinted

i've been mucking about with some speedball screen printing supplies i picked up in canada. these are my first two screens, made using screen filler and creating the circles with a paintbrush (which was surprisingly relaxing, i think i miss a bit of painting). the big circles (in black) have been in my head for a long time, they are about 8cm across and i think they would be perfect on a twirly skirt for mae. they were my first attempt and i didn't have enough ink on the screen so the printing is imperfect, transparent in places, but i kind of love the way it came out. i may just print with insufficient ink on this one all the time. the pale blue design is a REALLY big circle, about 25cm across, and i designed it so i could carve blocks to add different designs/colours into the center but i really like the way it looks on it's own, too. so a pretty successful first run, i'd say : )

i've been thinking of organising a hand printed fabric swap. i remember hearing about one a couple of years ago, seeing all the cool designs that were being sent around and was bummed that i missed out. i've come across heaps of tutorials and inspiration over the past couple of months that i'd be happy to share to encourage newbies to have a go - any interest out there in some swapping action?

gymnastics + cupcakes

i made cupcakes for our mothers group third birthday party last weekend, classic vanilla with buttercream for the adults and confetti versions with personalised name flags for the kiddies. we had it at a gymnastics club that a couple of the kids go to and it was PERFECT. plenty of room for running, jumping, balancing and swinging.