Please make sure you visit my new blog at www.Linda-Matthews.com for lots more tutorials, articles and interesting information.




Moving Blogs

23 Dec | Posted in Special Notices | By LindaM

Moving BlogsI’m in the process of reorganizing my websites and this involves moving my blog here on the Creative Textile and Quilting Arts website to my blog over at Linda-Matthews.com. I’m not sure if I’ll move all the blog posts over there just yet, but that’s where all the action will happen from now on.

Please update your subscriptions

If you’re already subscribed to my newsletter, then you don’t need to update that subscription; nothing has changed. However to catch all the latest from the blog at Linda-Matthews.com please make sure you update your rss subscriptions by signing up for the new rss feed and/or the email feed. The signup form can be found in the sidebar on the new blog and I hope to see you there soon.

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Fabric Art Necklace

17 Dec | Posted in Digital Grounds, Image Transfer, Inkjet Printing | By LindaM

It’s not often I can find time to sew for myself but I took a little time today to play around some more with digital grounds and ended up with this lovely necklace – just the thing to dress up a plain dress or jacket. I printed on a piece of fabric paper I had lying around, and it gave the image wonderful texture.

Fabric Art Necklace

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Chris Predd: Playing with Spray-On Fabric Dyes

10 Dec | Posted in Christine Predd, Guest Bloggers, Inspiration | By ChrisP

Continuing my special presentation of articles submitted by my guest bloggers.

Playing with Spray-On Fabric Dyes

by guest blogger Christine Predd (originally published 15 June 2009)

Several days ago I purchased some spray on fabric dyes at Hobby Lobby . . . I think they were sold for tie-dye projects, althogh I was planning to use them to dye some fabric for my art quilts. I live in a ranch style condo and only have a small patio, not a lot of room for serious fabric dyeing. This sounded perfect for my situation. I only bought the primary colors, hoping to create new colors as I used them.

The sun was shining today so I decided to get started. I cut two pieces of PDF fabric, 22 inches square or so. After laying one piece on a drop cloth on the patio, I proceeded to use some photo matting as my stencil and begin spraying on dyes in different places with the matting in different position. See the photos below.

Spray Dyes

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Digital Grounds Hearts Organza

08 Dec | Posted in Digital Grounds, Image Transfer, Inkjet Printing, Sheers | By LindaM

If you love printing on organza and thought that this was the best result you could get, then you are simply going to love this news … you can print even better images on organza, with 100% transparency, by using a clear tar gel acrylic skin as a backing.

I first heard about using clear tar gel as a skin for organza over on Marie Z. Johansen’s blog where’s she’s also doing some fun stuff with digital grounds, so I thought I’d give it a try as well.

Preparing an acrylic skin with clear tar gel can be a little challenging because of the thick and icky consistency of the gel, but being self-leveling, it isn’t so important to get an even coverage as with other gels or mediums because it levels itself and dries with an even and mark-free surface, and crystal clear transparency. The only thing I *really* didn’t like about this type of skin was the high gloss sheen it produced, however I found that you can tone down the gloss sheen by using a matte spray sealer.

On the upside, it does offer options for printing exceptionally vivid transparent images.

Using the same printer with the same photo settings, this is an image printed on untreated organza …

Printing on Organza

the same image printed on organza treated with digital grounds …

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Digital Grounds: All Cracked Up

05 Dec | Posted in Digital Grounds, Image Transfer, Inkjet Printing | By LindaM

I’ve been puting some strange stuff through the printer these last few weeks. This one is crackle paste on fabric. I really like both the crackle effect and the results of the image print. Crackle paste of course is usually used in mixed media applications, but I found it worked just as well on fabric. My little Geisha Girl thinks so too.

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7 Easy Ways to Increase Creativity

03 Dec | Posted in Articles, Creativity | By LindaM

Perspective
Photo courtesyXavier Fargas

Creativity, whether in art, business, or life, is the act of making new things or finding unique solutions to difficult problems. Creativity, just like writing, public speaking, or goat herding, is a skill that can be developed and improved with effort over time.

Besides being a skill anyone can learn and improve, creativity is also variable and fluid; depending on our mental energy, motivation, and circumstances, it can come and go like the ocean tide. However, by taking a few simple steps, you can develop a little more control over those tides.

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Making Fabric Paper

01 Dec | Posted in Online Classes | By LindaM

Making Fabric PaperIf you missed out on the recent free “Fabric Paper” mini-class which was held over at the Free Lunch Cafe during the month of November, you can still enjoy the lessons and learn how to make fabulous fabric for use in your art quilts or other projects!

The mini-class is now available for purchase and immediate download and you can visit the download center for full details.

For inspiration, check out my journal covers here and here, and my beautiful little treasure chest here, and my cute little art quilt “Scraps” here.

I love making fabric paper – it’s one of my favorite techniques. I’m sure you’ll love it too; it’s very addictive.

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Time Management for Creative People

30 Nov | Posted in Free Stuff, eBooks | By LindaM

Time Management

This post was originally published back in January 2009, however with the silly season quickly approaching it becomes important to find ways to reduce your stress, and finding time to be creative even when you’re running at full speed, is a great way to do this.

Finding time to be creative is sometimes a balancing act. Family, jobs and a busy lifestyle can suck up our time without us even realizing it. Or maybe you feel that taking time for yourself is selfish; that this time could be better spent tending to our families.

We all need personal time – time to reflect and to recharge our batteries, and for art quilters this usually means finding time to create our art!

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Trusting The Process

27 Nov | Posted in Art Journals, Inspiration | By LindaM

I’m still finishing off some journals and for this particular journal cover I decided to try something totally out of of my realm of comfort – working with only one color.

Letting go of old ways of doing things and allowing the process to guide you isn’t always easy and working with a simple design and only one color really challenged me to stay focused and allow the color and design to share equal space. It was very tempting to add other elements and colors as I normally would, but I resisted the temptation and I simply love the results!

I used machine embroidered fabric paper for the cover because it’s strong yet flexible, and then painted it with a burgundy red and added some gold highlights. I can’t wait to do some more!

Journal

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Katherine Sands: The Creative Journey

25 Nov | Posted in Guest Bloggers, Inspiration, Katherine Sands | By KatherineS

The Creative Journey

by guest blogger Katherine Sands (originally published 21st April 2009)

For me, the creative life is a journey…and I learn and see so many interesting things along the way!

Some artists are able to plan ahead; I love their work and their process, but that doesn’t seem to be the way I work. I am a fly-by-the-seat-0f-your-pants serendipity kind of gal. Too much planning and I would probably be bored. A case in point…since a larger, new art quilt I had done didn’t fit the size requirements for an upcoming arts council exhibit, I decided to start a new piece of art. I was on a deadline, so I decided to keep it simple. I pieced and quilted it, using simple hand dyed fabrics and one black and white screen printed fabric. I didn’t quilt it all over, but left areas that were not quilted which “poufed” a bit.

Weathered Places

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