Discharged leaf art quilts

      In my last post, I wrote I have to work at what I do. I always had strong visual ideas. I had no art in school until high school which was was rudimentary busy work. I had no art supplies. Initially, I did not go to art school (art ed) as I was discouraged by counselors forecasting looming layoffs in teaching (it did happen). I didn't get my graphic design degree until much later and my art ed certification and masters at 42. I struggled to learn fundamental art and design concepts and skills and college did not help. Back then, art at the SUNY schools was all about feeling and abstraction and therapy and making marks. There was disdain for techniques and color/values/composition-they said it had no soul. I had to learn on my own sketching, examining, taking workshops to what was close to where I wanted to go. One of the reasons I became an art teacher was to bring children a solid art program. 
     Art is my passion in creating and finishing. Process and product are not separate for me. When I am done with a project, I want to move on.

     Since last summer, I had a bunch of fabric that I discharged leaves. Real leaves were harmed in the making of the discharged fabric. I weighted them down with pennies and sprayed the bleach/water mixture over all kinds of blacks, dark greens and other solid colors. The black worked best, but I did use the green in two border strops. 
     Everytime I took the pieces out, I had no clue. Well, now I am forced to come up with some work for shows. I made two at once because when I stuck working on one, I go to the other.
     I have this hate relationship with fusibles. When I needed leaves, I cut freezer paper leaves out and wrappd the edges of the batiks to the back and used a glue stick and dry iron. I removed the paper and then used a blind stitch on my 70's Bernina with monofilament from YLI and an 11 needle to applique them onto the backgrounds. I made a lot more leaves than I used. The sketches I made were not what it ended up like. I don't like doing applique, but sometimes, you just need it.

In process figuring made fabric border

Finished top of art quilt, 24 x 24, but not quilted

The rectangle art quilt, 24 x 30

     The mess of fabrics from making these was put away, but then the landscape quilts fabrics have spilled over also (not seen).

Experiments

      Before I left for my daughter's and baby mode, my friend Elizabeth and I experimented with discharging on solid fabrics. We used directions from Dharma and what we found on the web. We used diluted bleach in a spray bottle. I tried making a paste with cornstarch, but it liquified before very long and all I got were blobs (the rust piece). 
     We found that the solid black Elizabeth bought from the Amish in Shipshewana on a trip was the best discharge color. The leaves were ones that we preserved last fall with glycerin. We used pennies to hold down the leaves when spraying. Needless to say, we did this outdoors. The fabric was hung to dry, and then I washed it all. Big mistake- all the threads mangled up making a big ball. Lots of detangling and ironing then. These were my attempts. When I showed them at a guild meeting, some asked what we were going to use them for. I hate that question. I hope to make some art quilts out of them, but I don't know what yet. These were experiments.

Used a quilt stencil to spray through

Used a quilt stencil to spray through

Dark blue fabric, quilt stencil

Tried scribbling with paste that was dissolving

Rust fabric, blobby paste

Rust fabric. leaf outlines

Lace over rose fabric

Spray over torn cardboard edge, gave mountain look or clouds if turned upside down

Dark blue fabric

One of my favorites- a center motif

Dark green fabric

Lace over dark green fabric

Another favorite