Tuesday 23 September 2014

Printing Christmas Trees

The Hue group are exhibiting at the Knitting and Stitch Show this year and I have been working on three pieces for the exhibition. Finally, finally, I have finished all the stitching! One piece has been stretched and I hope to collect the other two pieces after stretching this week. 

So having finished the stitching, it was nice to have a relaxing day block printing with Jamie Maldon from Coloricious at the local branch of the Embroiderers' Guild. I have done a fair bit of printing but I haven't really used block printing in my work and to be honest, I haven't had much success when I have tried it previously.

Jamie's Christmas blocks had just arrived and so we learnt the printing techniques by printing on an apron. I look quite proud of mine don't I? Jamie's simple instructions and tips were very useful and I'm definitely more likely to include block printing in my work now. 

I'm rather fond of Christmas Trees but as there were so many blocks to choose from and as I'm a little indecisive, I printed a number of them side by side to make choosing easier.


Printing Christmas trees on fabric gives lots of opportunities to embellish with stitching and beading (think tinsel and baubles) and I took a shine to this tree - lots of room for things to dangle from these branches. This one was printed on upholstery fabric but I should have used more ink.


This one was printed on some green fabric and looks a little...well green...but I think that the addition of beading could bring it to life.


But this was my favourite one and most closely resembles my usual work. I used the tree block to print a background pattern in light blue and silver paint and then overprinted the tree. This was the block I wanted to come home with.


But whilst I was waiting to pay, I noticed another tree block that I had completely missed and I couldn't resist this one either.


So now I'm the proud owner of two Christmas Tree blocks but I haven't used the block on the right yet and I am looking forward to printing with it. Before I do use it though, I need to work out how I'm going to package my work for the Knitting and Stitch show. When I decided to include 3D elements on my work, I didn't think about how difficult it would be to ensure that it travelled between venues unscathed. I'll think about it next time!

4 comments:

  1. I missed that tree too! It'll make a great all over background print, like your grey and green one x

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  2. It sounds as though you all had a wonderful day. I love both your tree blocks and especially your print with the printed background (if that makes sense?)

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  3. Well done on three new finished pieces. I'm looking forward to seeing Hue at Ally Pally.

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