Ping Wynny and fabric painting

The talk last month at Seata was by Gillian of PingWynny (Handmade Textiles). It was also a “Show and Tell” of a huge range of her beautiful work, quilts, cushions, pictures / panels, 3D vases, mainly in bright, vibrant colours and fabrics, a mix of machine and hand stitching. Gillian also told us about her workshops and classes, one of which is a 15-minute drive away once a month…. and the one on Wednesday evening this week was on fabric painting, something which I love and haven’t done for ages. Too good to miss.

The only thing I needed to take was fabric, either silk or cotton, and frames / hoops. Last minute as always, I was scrabbling about for suitable cotton and my frames. I’d bought a box of slot-together ones from a sales table for 50p, already coloured with paint, so not going to mess up good ones. Perfect.

Gillian was providing the paints, brushes and salt, mainly Setasilk and a few Maribou (which I have previously used on silk). I wasn’t aware that they could be used on cotton. They are all iron fix.

After a quick demonstration and showing us some of her examples, we were ready to start.

Rather than cutting my fabric, I attached my strip to two frames and made a start, with the green and yellow one first, basically in blobs, and adding salt at the end, then the middle one working the colours out from the centre before adding salt. These two were done on damp fabric (just a fine spray of water). Gillian lent me a hoop for the bottom one, which was done with spirals of colour on dry fabric and then wetting the darker areas to encourage the paint to spread. I was so engrossed in what I was doing that I forgot to take photos, so these were taken when the salt was removed once it was all dry.

The wrong (?) side of the fabric gives a more subtle colour.

I’m especially pleased with the spirals.

I’d also taken a very large frame with a fine piece of calico stretched over it, which Gillian asked if I was going to use. Yes, using some of the techniques again with a different palette. I blobbed colour and then sprayed with water, which made the paint spread into interesting tendril effects.

More paint, more water ……

…… more colour……

…… another colour, I needed to be careful that the purple wasn’t too close to the yellow, because I didn’t want mud!

Well, a little mud. It was very wet at this stage, so a little salt, and then a hair drier to move some of the water. I was really pleased with the results, but had to put it in the car to bring it home.

And by the morning, it had become this. I still like it, just not quite so much.

It’s a shame that very few of the tendrils remain. That’s the nature of the beast, you never know exactly how it will turn out, but it is also what makes it fun and exciting. It all needs ironing now.

Vintage bed linen

This is a cotton pillow case that my mum embroidered in the late 60s / early 70s. It has a matching sheet, with the embroidered edge folding over the made bed. There was a single set each for my sister and me, and a double-bed set for mum and dad. I found it in an old suitcase when I was emptying the house after my dad died in 2016. The cotton is a lovely quality, a high count and with a very smooth and silky feel. The pillowcases were 5 shillings and 3d each (26p). This yellow one was for my bed; luckily the colours are still right, although I’ll probably add some burgundy too, on the other pieces.

The pattern and some Coates Anchor skeins were all in the bag with the sheets and pillowcases.

Mum had started on a second pillowcase, but this is as far as she had got. We had moved into a ramshackle old house in 1969, and there were far more urgent things to do than embroidery. Also in the early 70s we had continental quilts and easy-care poly/cotton bedding.

I was delighted to find them all. I assessed the sizes and came to the conclusion that, using the single sheets along with the double one, I can make a king-size quilt cover. The pillowcases were slightly grubby and had marks on them, but I washed the finished one and all the marks have come out. Phew!

It’s lovely to see mum’s work, and the delicate design is timeless. I am going to continue mainly with a single strand of thread, rather than the three strands in the instructions. I’ll vary the colours, partly as I don’t have a number for the paler green and there is literally only one length of it left, and partly because I think it will make a more interesting finished piece.

I’ve made a start, trying to match mum’s satin stitch, the yellowy green (two strands).

So far, only one finished motif. It will be good to pick it up between other projects, for a change of pace.