Hand Calligraphy with Stencil on Fabric

I wanted to practice hand calligraphy mixed with my own stencil in the same piece.

I started painting a cotton fabric with acrylic paint. I used the small bottles of acrylic paint that you can find in hobby shops. When you use this kind of paint on fabric it can leave a thick layer, making it difficult to sew so you must be careful to put just enough paint.

Next, I drew the word *florero* and painted it with FW acrylic purple ink. When it dried, I took out the stencil I designed and cut and colored with paintsticks.

I hung the small panel and noticed that the word was competing with the vase and flowers. That was not what I was looking for so took the ink out again and painted on top of the letters, but this time with a lighter color.

The edited piece looked like this:

I sandwiched it with batting and a backing fabric. I loaded the sewing machine with Aurifil 12 weight and sewed around the vase, flowers and the word.

Because I love to combine different kind of threads in the same piece, I then changed to a thinner Invisaline thread and stitched the whole background with an easy quilting design.

For the finishing touches I added french knots around each flower.

Transparent Design

 

"Crimson Bird"

My goal was to paint a transparent design over a busy background.

I started painting a cotton fabric with acrylic paint. I used the small bottles of acrylic paint that you can find in hobby shops. When you use this kind of paint on fabric it can leave a thick layer, making it difficult to sew so you must be careful to put just enough paint.

Took out stencils, in this case stencils I designed and cut and colored with paintsticks. I sandwiched it with batting and a backing fabric. 

Load the sewing machine with Aurifil 12 weight and sew around the bird and plant. I could have left the piece like this but you know how much I like to combine different kinds of threads in the same piece. The texture that is achieved with the combination of different thicknesses of threads makes the piece sing.

I wanted to choose a thread that gives texture but not distraction since the background is colorful enough so I used Invisaline thread on the top and Sew Fine thread in the bobbin. I used an easy stitch design and sewed the whole background slowly. For the finishing touches, I added some beading for the center of the flowers and a french knot for the bird's eye.

Detail