Friday, August 7, 2009

Hearts for Anna Fundraiser

This is my piece for Hearts for Anna, an online fundraiser, August 12 – 16. All funds raised will go to Anna Millea an artist who is fighting breast cancer – again. Anna has been denied insurance, having been deemed uninsurable due to her “pre-existing condition.”
For more information go to: https://www.artfulhome.com/heartsforanna
I tried a new technique for this piece that I had read about in a friend's Quilting Arts magazine. You start with a layered pre washed piece of muslin or white cotton fabric and stitch your design with cotton white thread. I included InnerFuse to give the piece some stiffness. It is 5" x 7". Use acrylic paint to paint in the spaces created by the stitching, leaving the area around the stitching unpainted. I made 2, on the first I mixed a little Golden GAC 900 into the paint. For the second one, I didn’t. There was no difference between the 2.
Once painted and dried, use fine sandpaper to sand over the paint.
It will look slightly faded.
Sanding helps make it absorbent for the next step.
Make a wash using Burnt Umber mixed 1 part paint with 1 part water.
Brush over piece and quickly wipe off with a rag.
The wash fills in the white stitched spaces and creates an antique look to the whole piece.It is important to use cotton thread because it absorbs the paint. I used a thin flat brush and found it easy to not paint over the stitched areas.
For the second one I used gold metallic thread because I wanted to see how it would look knowing it would not absorb the paint in the wash. I didn't like the end result, the gold stood out too much and distracted from the whole piece. You can see the gold thread in the above picture.
To add some extra flare to the piece I went over it with Shiva Paintstiks.
I was happy with the added depth the paintstiks gave the piece.
I finished the edges with a satin stitch and painted the sides with the Burnt Umber paint.
You can check out the link below to find out more information about the event here:
The sale will be August 12 – 16

2 comments:

  1. Really nice! Thanks for the step-by-step. I thought at first it was a crazy quilt. I've been absorbed with crazy quilts lately, so this is really another way to do them. I would have thought the gold thread would have been wonderful. I'm also a 'glitz' fan. Odd because my home and clothes are really boring. Wishing you JOY on your JOURNEY, ann

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  2. I love these and will have to give this a try. Thanks for the great explanation.

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