Archive for the ‘Paintstik Projects’ Category

Free Project: Shelly’s Magic Mats

Friday, July 30th, 2010

Here’s a great little project for our DesignMagic stencils – or one of your own designs! My Magic Mats pattern is the simplest way to make a placemat that I can think of. All you need is two pieces of fabric, some interfacing, one paintstik, one brush, and one pair of DesignMagic stencils. It’s easy!

Fair warning – this is a long post with a lot of pictures. If you want the short version, visit the Learning Center on our site and download the instructions as a PDF. The instructions are posted here.

Here are photos of three finished Magic Mats.  As you can see, you’ll need one piece of fabric to be painted and one that will serve as the borders and backing. Let’s get started!

Material List (for one Magic Mat)

  • 1 (9″ x 17″) rectangle focus fabric (to be painted)
  • 1(18″ x 17″) rectangle of border/backing fabric
  • 3/4 yard medium weight fusible interfacing, such as Pellon ShirtTailor
  • 1 set DesignMagic stencils
  • 1 or more Shiva® Paintstiks
  • 1 stencil brush (more if you use more than one color of paint)
  • Grip-n-Grip no-slip mat [Bear Thread Designs]
  • 404 spray adhesive [Spray and Fix / JT Trading]
  • Removable chalk pencil

Step 1 – Fuse interfacing to fabric

Cut two rectangles of fusible interfacing slightly smaller than the fabric rectangles. (I cut mine about 1/8″ smaller so I don’t get fusible stuff on my ironing board cover.) Fuse the interfacing to the wrong side of the fabric rectangles using the manufacturer’s instructions.

The interfacing adds body to the fabric and eliminates the need for batting. The placemat stays thin, but it’s not wimpy. I used Pellon’s ShirtTailor interfacing, which is a nice medium weight product.

Step 2 – Prepare fabric and stencils for painting

Mark the horizontal and vertical center lines on the focus fabric with a removable chalk pencil.

Place your stencils right side up on your work surface. Clearly mark one as Stencil-A and the other as Stencil-B with a permanent marker.

If you are using pre-cut mylar DesignMagic stencils, place the stencils wrong side up on a piece of newspaper and spray the back side of each stencil with 404 adhesive spray. (I prefer to do this outside or in the garage so I don’t stink up my work area.) I like to call 404 spray “post-it notes in a can.” Once the stencils are sprayed, they stay where you put them and don’t move around as you are painting.

If you are using your own designs cut from freezer paper, do not spray them with 404. Use the information in the Design Magic book for alignment tips and adhere the stencils to your fabric by pressing with a warm iron.

Step 3 – Paint DesignMagic images on focus fabric

Place your focus fabric right side up on a Grip-n-Grip mat (if you have one.) The mat will keep your fabric from moving around while you paint.

Remove the film from the end of your paintstik, rub the paint on a piece of freezer paper, and load the paint onto a stencil brush. For more information on stenciling, visit the Learning Center and download the document on Stenciling.

To paint the first image, position Stencil-A so that two alignment guides are even with the registration marks on the fabric. Paint the fist images using paintstik color and a stencil brush.

Lift the stencil from the fabric. Place the stencil on scrap fabric and gently wipe away any excess paint before using the stencil again. (I don’t usually worry about wiping my stencils unless it’s very messy or if I’m using several colors and don’t want to muddy them up when I paint the next image.)

To paint the second image, position Stencil-B next to the fist painted image. Rotate the stencil until th eimages on the stencil match up with the painted image from the previous step. Use the alignment guides and the registration marks to make sure the stencil is in the right place. Paint the image, lift the stencil, and clean the stencil if necessary.

Continue painting images, alternating between Stencil-A and Stencil-B until you have painted 8 DesignMagic images on the focus fabric.

Step 4 – Allow paint to dry and heat set paint

Allow the paint to dry for 24 hours and then heat set the paint to make it permanent. To heat set, place the painted fabric on an ironing board, right side up. Cover the painted fabric with a piece of muslin or scrap fabric. Preheat a dray iron to the appropriate temperature for the fabric. Press each section of the fabric for 10-15 seconds.

I usually heat set paint by placing the fabric paint-side down on parchment paper and pressing from the back. But in this case, I’ve already fused interfacing to the back, and I think it’s better to press from the top with a pressing cloth.

Step 5 – Assemble Magic Mat

Use a 1/2″ seam allowance for all seams on this project.

Align the long edge of the painted fabric with one 17″ edge of the border fabric, right sides together. Pin as needed and stitch the full length of the seam with a 1/2″ seam allowance. I don’t have a good 1/2″ seam guide, so I actually marked the 1/2″ line on the back side of my painted fabric.

Open the fabric and check to see that there the seam allowance covers the unpainted portion of the fabric. You can always make an extra wide seam allowance if you have unpainted portions of the focus fabric showing at the seam. Press the seam allowance toward the border fabric.

Fold the remaining 17″ edge of the border/backing fabric 1/2″ to the back side a press. After pressing, open the fold for the next step.

Align the second long edge of the painted fabric with the remaining 17″ edge of the border/backing fabric, right sides together. The fabric should form a tube. Pin as needed and mark the seam allowance 3″ from each side. (See red arrow in photo above.)

Stitch a short 3″ seam from each end, leaving the middle of the seam open. You will turn the Magic Mats through this opening later.

Here’s what your Magic Mat should look like so far. The two pieces should form a tube, and there should be an opening in one of the seam.

With the tube wrong side out, flatten the tube so one of the long seams is 1.75″ from the folded edge. Do NOT press the tube flat while it is wrong side out – we’ll press it flat after turning it right side out.

Pin the ends of the tube together and stitch a seam along each end using a 1/2″ seam allowance. Peek inside the mat to make sure unpainted portions of the focus fabric do not show at the side seams. Trim the side seams to 1/4″ if desired.

Gently turn the Magic Mat through the opening in the seam. Use an awl to pus the corners out for nice square corners.

Flatten the placemat and give it a good pressing.

After the mat is pressed flat, top-stitch along the edge of the focus fabric to secure the layers together and to close the opening in the mat. I also top-stitched along the grid lines in the painted fabric. The stitching gives the illusion that the fabric is pieced, but is far less work.

Enjoy your Magic Mats!

Magic Mats really are easy to make, and they are a fantastic way to play with DesignMagic images. They are big enough to show off the repeating designs, and small enough that they can be done quickly. It takes me about 25 minutes to paint one of the panels and less than an hour to assemble a mat. Now that’s what I call magic!

Make Magic Mats for your own home – or make gifts for your friends and family. If you prefer runners to placemats, simply make a longer version of this project. It’s easy!

Download a free copy of the Magic Mats pattern

Visit the Learning Center on our website to download a free, printer-friendly version of the Magic Mats pattern. The pattern is posted on the Design Magic Resources page. You are welcome to make copies for your friends.

Learn more about Design Magic

If you like making Magic Mats, you’ll love Design Magic for Paintstiks on Fabric. Learn to make your own designs, turn them into stencils, and transfer the images to fabric. With Design Magic, you really can design your own fabric!

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Posted in "How To" Information, Design Magic, Free Project Tutorial, Paintstik Projects | 1 Comment »

Design Magic: On Safari with Margo!

Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010

After much holding of breath and saying of prayers, the first copies of Design Magic arrived in my office just a few days before Spring Quilt Market. I felt totally blessed that the book arrived in time — and that Spring Market was held in Minneapolis this year. We’re just a few hours away from the Twin Cities, so I didn’t even have to drive as far as the airport.

Once the book arrived and everything was packed, I decided to take a few hours to make something special for myself using the cover fabric from the book. I’ve already worn out the Primrose tote that started my Design Magic adventure, so I decided to make the new Margo bag from my good friend Joan Hawley at Lazy Girl Designs.

Margo is a delightful bag with a zipper at the top — and leave it to Joan to figure out such an easy method for adding a zipper! Margo is a little bigger than I would normally make for a purse (I like them SMALL so I don’t carry too much junk…) but she is going to be perfect once my iPad arrives.

I used the Safari design and a Grape (matte color) paintstik to paint this beautiful piece of hand-dyed fabric. As soon as I finished, I knew it was perfect for the the cover of the book, and I have to say that it made a fabulous bag as well. I had a hard time cutting into this piece of fabric to make something I’m sure to wear out, but hey –  what good is beautiful fabric if it just sits in the closet? If I wear it out, I’ll just have to make a new one!

More about the Safari Design

Matthew Mills, my very talented graphic designer, created the Safari design for me when I was working on the book, and I have to say it is one of my favorite designs. The design is printed in the book so you can make freezer paper stencils from it, or you can purchase our pre-cut mylar Safari stencils. The mylar stencils have several advantages — they are already cut (of course!), you can see through the mylar, and all the alignment guides are etched into the stencils to make your life easier as you paint the images on fabric. Here is a picture of the Safari stencils. (You can see all the new stencils on our New Products page.)

And here a closer look at the Safari design on a piece of the Gradations fabric from Benartex.

I used this set of stencils to make the On Safari quilt project that is included in the Design Magic book.

On Safari is a super-simple quilt. The 4 large panels are painted on fat quarters that are then trimmed to size for insertion in the quilt top. I just quilted in the grid lines. I was surprised how many people at spring market thought it was appliqued or pieced.

At any rate, you can go on your own Safari Design Magic adventure. Make a Margo bag, make a quilt, you decide! Whatever you choose, it will be lots of fun.

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Posted in Design Magic, New Products, Paintstik Projects, Stencils | 3 Comments »

Deisgn Magic: Primrose Projects

Tuesday, May 11th, 2010

In my last post, I introduced my new Design Magic book. It’s due in from the printer any day now, so you can imagine that I’m waiting on pins and needles! Did I mention that I hate waiting??? In the mean time, I want to tell you more about the book.

Design Magic is a really great way to make your own designs, turn them into freezer paper stencils, and add the designs to fabric by stenciling with paintstiks.

Freezer paper stencils? Yes, freezer paper stencils. While they don’t last forever, freezer paper stencils are much more durable than you think — I really pushed one set and used it more than 50 times before it was really worn out. As a matter of fact, I used freezer paper stencils to make most of the samples in the book, including the queen-size Woodland Flowers Quilt.

And as much as I love freezer paper stencils, there is an outer limit to how long they last, and that means you have to make multiple sets of stencils for a very large project. I like making stencils (it’s really quite easy), but even I was a little annoyed after making the 4th set of stencils for my big quilt. I decided there had to be a better way.

It took a few months and a series of samples from my very patient and understanding stencil company, but I figured out a way to make pre-cut mylar stencils from Design Magic designs. And I liked them so well that I decided to include one set in the Design Magic book. (I chose the Primrose set for the book because I used it for the big quilt — and that was the design I was working with when I figured out how to make the Design Magic process work.)

So, you get the best of both worlds. If you like the idea of designing your own fabric, the Design Magic book gives you a neat method for making your own designs, creating stencils, and transferring your designs to fabric.

If you just want to paint, you get a set of pre-cut mylar stencils that can be used to make any of the projects in the book — as well as any that you can dream up — without the work of making stencils. Here’s a photo of the Primrose Stencils.

And here are a couple of Primrose images stenciled on a piece of Gradations fabric.

As you can see, the Primrose stencils form a stylized floral motif when they are painted in a repeating pattern. They can be painted in a single color or multiple colors. I really like painting on the Benartex Gradations fabric with a single paintstik. I used a blue/turquoise variation of this fabric to make my Primrose Tote. (Confession: The book does not include instructions for this tote. I used some very basic instructions from an old magazine article and re-sized the bag to fit my painted fabric. You could do the same using your favorite tote bag pattern.)

If the fabric is not changing color, I like painting with multiple colors. Here’s a piece in progress that I was painting with bright colors.

This bright and cheerful fabric will make a wonderful wall quilt or pillow cover for a room that needs a splash of color!

As you can see, there are plenty of wonderful possibilities for the Primrose design that comes with each copy of the Design Magic book. In the next post, I’ll introduce you to additional Design Magic stencils.

As always, happy painting!

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Posted in Design Magic, New Products, Paintstik Projects, Stencils | 1 Comment »

Got rubbing plates? Make patchwork!

Monday, August 3rd, 2009

I’ve been busy this summer working on a new pattern called Paintstik Patches. It started off to be a holiday quilt, but it’s really more than that, so I changed the name. (I just love being able to do that!)  The pattern came back from the printer last week, and we’ve been busy shipping orders off to our distributors. It’s always a thrill to see new patterns going out the door as soon as they come in!

Paintstik Patches Pattern

Paintstik Patches is all about making rubbing plate “portraits” and putting them together to make a quilt, table runner, pillow cover — you name it. You can use any set of Cedar Canyon rubbing plates, or mix and match from various sets. I’m enjoying my time in the garden this summer, and I think I’ll make another quilt mixing Garden Flowers and Leaves. Or just use the Leaves plates and warm colors for a beautiful autumn table runner. (I’d better quit before I make too long a list or I’ll never get anything done…

Stay tuned for more on rubbing plate portraits. I have some great tips for working with this pattern.

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Posted in New Products, Paintstik Projects, Quilt Market, Quilting Arts TV, Rubbing Plates | 6 Comments »

Easy Paintstik Placemats

Wednesday, July 1st, 2009

Welcome to Day 10 of the Minnesota Designer’s Blog Hop. I’m so glad you stopped by to join the fun.

ShellyShellyI’m Shelly Stokes, and I’m the owner of Cedar Canyon Textiles. Most people know me as the “paintstik lady.” I discovered this wonderful paint product about 10 years ago in a book from the UK. You can read more about my adventure with paintstiks by clicking over to the “About” page on our website.

I’m back from the big Bernina University event in San Francisco and ready to serve up some serious paintstik fun! (At least now that I’ve recovered from that red-eye flight… it seemed like a great idea when I booked the flight, but I’m not at all sure I’ll do that again!)

Leave a comment today to tell me how you will use your placemats or who will receive them as a gift. From all the comments today, we’ll choose a lucky winner for a Paintstik Starter Pack. You’ll get a set of iridescent painstiks, a copy of Painstiks on Fabric, and one set of our rubbing plates. Now, let’s get started!

Easy Paintstiks Placemats

You can download the free pattern from the Learning Center. While you are there, download the Top Tips for Great Rubbings that were discussed in an earlier post on the blog as you will need the instructions from Top Tips for painting your placemat fabrics.

As with all paintstik projects, you need to have a “paint day” and a “sewing day” to make Easy Paintstik Placemats. If you plan them a week apart, the paint will have plenty of time to dry. Plan for at least 3 days to avoid issues with wet paint — trust me — you really do have to let the paint dry for a couple of days or you’ll be making a mess!

Materials for Easy Paintstik PlacematsI chose Gradations fabric from Benartex for this project because the graduated color changes adds a wonderful effect to the finished project. I especially like the Rainbow versions of this fabric because the color changes happen faster than they do with the other variations. If you don’t have Gradations fabric handy, just choose a nice fabric from your stash that is not an obvious print — because you’ll be making your own!

Here is a quick overview of the sequence for making the placemats. The complete instructions are in the pattern on the Learning Center.

Work Day 1: Paint your fabric

Paint FabricFirst, paint about half of each placemat “top” using your favorite set of Cedar Canyon rubbing plates. I made up fabric for 6 placemats, one from each of the Curves plates. To make “piled up” rubbings like this, I put my fabric over the rubbing plate and paint a part of the image. Then I move the fabric a bit and paint the next partial image, overlapping it a bit with the first image. You can read more about this technique in the Top Tips document you downloaded from the Learning Center.

After you finish painting, set the fabric aside for at least 3 days to allow the paint to dry. Allow 5 – 7 days if you live in a really humid area. After the paint is dry, you can heat set the paint by tossing the fabric in the clothes dryer on the hottest setting for 30-40 minutes. (Don’t even think if putting the fabric in your dryer until it dries for at least 3 days — and if you do, don’t call me!)

Work Day 2: Stitch Placemats

2_cut_strips

The assembly for the placemats is really fast and easy. First, cut the painted fabric in 3″ strips.

3_reverse_strips1Then, reverse the strips so the painted end of the strips alternates between one end and the other. Number the strips 1 through 5.

4_add_stripsThe placemats are assembled with a sew-and-flip method. Layer your backing and batting, and mark a line 8″ from one long edge of the batting. Put strip 3 face up next to this line, add strip 4 face down on top of strip 3, then stitch with a quarter inch seam. Flip strip 4 open and press. Add the remaining strips using the same sew-and-flip method.

Placemat with bindingAfter you add all the strips, trim the placemats to get a nice finished edge, add binding, and you have an Easy Paintstik Placemat!

Bonus – Make a matching Table Runner

You can make a table runner to coordinate with your placemats by simply starting with a wider piece of fabric. Rather than starting with a 16 x 19 piece of fabric, start with 16 x 36 — or the width of the fabric if you have a big table. Again, paint half of your fabric with rubbings, leaving the other half plain. Use the same assembly steps that you used for the placemats and you’ll have a matching ensemble for your table.

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Posted in Minnesota Designer's Blog Hop, Paintstik Projects, Rubbing Plates | 452 Comments »

Fixing mistakes, Using multiple colors

Monday, March 23rd, 2009

I got the first set of plates from our new Happy Holidays set at the end of last week, so I had a good excuse to push all the paperwork aside and pull out my paints. (I love days when I have a good excuse to ignore all that “office” work!) I remembered to grab some fabric as I was leaving home, so I was ready to give the new plates a good workout.

When I get a new set of plates, the first thing I do is to simply paint each plate with a single color. This helps me figure out where the challenges are with each design. With the holidays plates, I immediately discovered that I needed to peel open the side of my paintstiks rather than the end because of the large open spaces in the design.  (I really like those open spaces, but they force me to change my painting ways so I don’t keep running off the side of a design…)

Fixing the “oops”

Since I’m sure that I’m not the only person that runs off the side of a design, I thought I should share a method for fixing the “oops” factor (or at least making it less obvious!) Here’s the plan:

Rubbing with "oops"Here’s a single color rubbing of the holiday lights with an “oops” – you can see where I went off the edge of the design on the top right. Now that’s more of a “design element” than I would be happy with, so I’ll use a piece of masking tape to see if I can pick up the paint.

fix_oops_2I put a piece of masking tape over the excess paint and rubbed it with my fingernail to really grab the paint.

Pick up paint with masking tapeWhen I peeled up the masking tape, most of the paint came with it! I repeated the process and now my “oops” is barely visible and certainly not distracting.

Working with multiple colors

I liked the string of lights, but I wanted more than one color. Of course! I know, I’m chronically allergic to using a single color of paint, so bear with me.

When I have a design like the lights, I find it almost impossible to paint the lights and then paint the string a different color. So I start by painting the entire design using the color I want for the string and then going back to fill in the other colors. If I don’t lay down a heavy coat of paint with the 1st pass, it’s pretty easy to cover it up with a 2nd pass.

multicolor_1Here’s the design with one bulb painted blue. I still find it easier to use the side of the paint rather than the end to get nice, even coverage.

multicolors_2And here’s an image with lots of colors.

Enjoy your paints!  ~Shelly

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Posted in General, Paintstik Projects, Rubbing Plates | 4 Comments »

Coneflowers will be blooming!

Monday, March 23rd, 2009

In spite of the weather, it has been feeling a bit like spring for the past couple of weeks here in the office as we put the finishing touches on a new Coneflower pattern by designer Nancy Kazlauckas. I have a perfect place in my office to hang these quilts – and then it will be spring year-round! (Just don’t tell Nancy – she thinks she’s going to get one of them back…)

Coneflower in warm colors

Nancy’s latest creation is a 27 1/2″ x 38″ whole cloth quilt. That’s right – it’s all paint and no piecing! I actually sat down and painted several of the shadow boxes on the left side of the quilt to finish up the photography, and I can vouch for the fact that it’s easier than it looks. Nancy has a super easy method for putting those shadow boxes together. It really works!

Not just a pattern…

This is our first Pattern Plus. In past patterns, all the stencils were traced and cut from freezer paper, but this time we tried something different. You cut the big coneflower stencil from freezer paper, but we’ve made mylar stencils for the smaller images. This will save you a ton of time – and you can use the stencils again and again for other great projects. Given the price of stencils these days, our retail price of $14.95 for pattern plus stencils is a real deal.

Coneflower Pattern & Stencils

Here’s an alternate colorway for those who prefer cool colors. They are both beautiful, so you’ll have to choose. Or pick your own colors!

Coneflower in cool colors

Speaking of colors, the warm color quilt was created with matte paintstik colors. Nancy used Azo Yellow, Peach, Azo Orange, Napthol Red, Alizarin Crimson and Burnt Seinna.

The cool color quilt was created with iridescent paintstik colors: Iridescent Pink, Purple, Turquoise, Dark Blue and Leaf Green.

We expect to begin shipping Nancy’s new pattern by April 6.

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Posted in New Products, Paintstik Projects | 7 Comments »

Paintstik Patina

Friday, February 20th, 2009

Believe it or not, paintstiks are not just for fabric. While painting on fabric is my passion, paintstiks have been around almost as long as I have, and they have most often been used on anything but fabric.

Paintstiks will adhere to any porous surface such as canvas (think fine art painting), metal, wood, paper – you name it, you can probably paint it. People have used paintstik colors to stencil images on walls, ceiling, and floor for decades, and they are still popular in the decorative painting world. Skip the glass (unless it it etched) the glazed ceramics and stainless steel – there is nothing on these shiny surfaces for the paint to grab onto.

Given their versatility, paintstiks are really a mixed media tool. You can use them to add color and wonderful finishes to found objects, metal washers, wood, chipboard, paper and that very cool stuff called Grungeboard.

Great for Grungeboard

I used grungeboard letters for the latest Cedar Canyon ad. It’s in the new Cloth Paper Scissors magazine and will show up in Quilting Arts and Studios as well. Before I get 389 e-mail messages with the same question, here’s a quick lesson on painting grungeboard.

Paintstik Patina

First, I know at least a few of you are thinking “what in the world is grungeboard?” According to the package, grungeboard is a compressed, flexible sheet of dingy material with a debossed texture tha can be painted, inked, sanded, hammered or grunged. (Whatever that means…) Grungeboard is from Tim Holtz and you can click here for a YouTube video. You may have seen it referenced in Cloth Paper Scissors or Quilting Arts. It’s big in the paper market and I found a package of grungeboard alphabets at my local scrap booking store. There is one sheet for each letter. Here is the letter S.

grungeboard1

Paintstiks on Grungeboard

Painting these letters was an exercise in finger painting more than anything else. I pulled on a pair of latex gloves to protect my hands, peeled the film off my paintstiks and got to work. The letters are textured, so I rubbed the paint directly on the letters and then worked the color around with my fingers. (Using a brush was too slow – can you say ad deadline?) I also wanted to make sure the edges of the letters were painted. Since grungeboard is flexible, I just bent the letters and smeared paint on with my fingers.

grungeboard2

After I got a good coat of paint on a letter, I usually added a second color by dragging a paintsitk across the raised portion of the letter.

grungeboard3

Now here’s the real test – you have to let it dry.  Being the impatient person that I am, I wanted to finish my little experiment the very next day. (Did I mention that I had an ad deadline looming?) All the time I was stitching my letters to the fabric, I had paint coming off on my fingers. Not a lot, but the paint definitely was not dry after just 24 hours. I finished the piece without making a big mess, and decided to check the sample every day to see how long it took the letters to dry completely. After 3 days, the letters were dry – and I was really happy with my little paintstik patina adventure!

Before I forget, one quick warning about trying to stitch through grungeboard… It’s very easy to stitch through this material by machine, but I found it very challenging to stitch by hand. The needle just did not want to slide through the grungeboard. To make this easier, I un-threaded my sewing machine and took the foot off. I used the machine needle to punch holes in the letters and then stitched by hand. My fingers were pretty sore by the time I finished, but I was happy with the results. And yes, I got the ad done on time.

Happy painting!

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Posted in General, Paintstik Projects | 4 Comments »

A visit to Checker Distributors

Thursday, September 4th, 2008

I haven’t done much traveling for a while due to health issues (which are much better now, thank you!). And frankly, air travel just isn’t much fun any more. So when I have the opportunity to take care of 2 big events in one trip, I’m a pretty happy camper. The last week of August, I headed off to Ohio for the Checker Distributors Anniversary Open House and to do some more filming for Quilting Arts TV.

I flew into Cleveland and drove to Maumee, home of Checker Distributors. It’s pretty amazing to see how they transformed a part of the HUGE warehouse into a really nice space for authors and vendors to visit with the shops owners that came in for the day. If you want to see more about the open house, go to the Checker Newsletter and search for “Open House Review”

I was stationed next to Rayna Gillman, author of Create Your Own Hand-Printed cloth. We had a great time making a mess as we showed the shoppers how to transform fabric with paintstiks, liquid paints, rubbing plates, stencils, masking tape, and miscellaneous other stuff. (How’s that for a technical term!) Near the end of the day, a nice tall gentleman took a photo of us. Hard to believe we were still smiling after being on our feet each day, but it really was lots of fun. There were about 200 shops at the event, so we had LOTS of people to talk to.

In addition to the usual paintstik demo, I was showing people how to use paintstik color to paint zippers, velcro, and Handy Tabs from Lazy Girl Designs. I’ll share more about this in another post, but Joan (chief Lazy Girl) and I had a good time sending customers back and forth. I used Joan’s Handy Tabs to hold the handles on my new Bosa Nova Bags, and Joan sent people over to me to see how they could paint the tabs if they need a different color. We’re all in this together, so we may as well help promote each other’s businesses.

Here’s a sneak peek at the new Bosa Nova Bags. No, the pattern has not gone to the printer yet, but yes, it will be ready for fall Quilt Market at the end of October. You’ll just have to wait! The Handy Tabs are just wonderful because 1) you just pull them out of the bag and stitch them right into a seam when you need to hold a handle or drawstring (or whatever) and 2) there is no added bulk. If you make your own tabs, you always wind up with some lumps from the extra seam allowances (and it takes time to make them and I am learning to be very LAZY!) Visit the Lazy Girl Designs site for more good information on these neat little tabs.

A big thank you to the wonderful staff at Checker for taking good care of us during our visit to Maumee. If we needed any thing, we just flagged down anyone in a blue Checker shirt, and they got it done. Things should always be so easy!

After a welcome night of rest, it was off to Cleveland again for Quilting Arts TV… but more on that later.

Posted in General, Paintstik Projects | No Comments »

Sassy Stripes

Wednesday, March 12th, 2008

I just got a few lovely photos from Mary Brandt, my trusy trade-show companion and special projects go-to gal. Mary loves to play with the paintstiks and try out new things, especially when she has a new pattern to work with. Mary got a copy of the Sassy Bag pattern from Lazy Girl Designs and just could not wait to put one together. Visit the Lazy Girl Designs website for more information and to see a video on the Sassy Bag.

Sassy Bag with soft stripes

Mary used our paintstiks to create the irregular stripes on the turquoise fabric for the bag flap. The light fabric on the bottom of the bag is a batik from her stash. This is a truly quick and easy technique that you will want to try for yourself, so here’s how it works:

Apply Paint to Palette

Load Paint on Brush Painting a Soft Stripe

  1. Choose a relatively plain piece of fabric from your stash. Press to remove any wrinkles.
  2. Tape your fabric to a work surface, or use a Grip-n-Grip mat under your fabric to keep it from moving around while you work.
  3. Tear a piece of paper to create an uneven edge.
  4. Lay the paper on your fabric, leaving about an inch of fabric exposed.
  5. Apply paintstik color to a palette surface and load the paint onto a stiff brush.
  6. Brush the color off the edge of the paper and onto the fabric.
  7. Move the paper over about an inch, and continue to add stripes until you have enough painted fabric for your project.
  8. Heat set your paint and get started!

OK. the official instructions are to let the paint dry and then heat set before moving on with a project, but there really is not much paint on your fabric when you make these soft stripes, so here is the “heat in a hurry” tip — Just put your fabric between 2 pieces of parchment paper (look in your kitchen for baking parchment) and press for 10-15 seconds over each part of the fabric. The paint will be dry enough to continue working without getting paint on your hands or sewing machine.

Mary tells me the Sassy Bag goes together very quickly. I may have to try one out myself. She was having so much fun that she painted another piece of fabric for a checkbook cover, and then finished off the set with a Wonder Wallet. That seems like way too much for one day.

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Happy painting!

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