Colored Pencil with Embroidery

 I wrote back earlier this month about using colored pencils on fabric. It is a very simple way to create a design on fabric. But you don’t have to use pencil alone.  Using a colored pencil is also a great way to enhance embroidery.

I am creating a sampler quilt with very bright colors. I decided that the alternate blocks would be embroidery.  But when I put the blocks together, the embroidery which was a simple outline embroidery (similar to Redwork) faded away.  There just was not enough of color to go with the bright pieced blocks.

I didn’t want to do the blocks over in appliqué or do another design so I got out my trusty pencils. Just like with coloring in a book, I colored within the embroidery lines.

After all the coloring is done, you then add the textile medium.  Painting the medium over the embroidery will make it stiff but with some use (like cuddling under the quilt) the embroidery will soften up. 

You might be able to do the coloring first and then add the embroidery but I am not sure what the textile medium will do to the embroidery transfer lines if you use the medium on it.  It is likely to make the transfer lines permanent just as it does the coloring.

 

Think about using your colored pencils the next time you want a little more color to your embroidery.

 

©2017, 2024  Cheryl Fillion

Colored Pencils on Fabric

 There is a lot of information out about using crayons on fabric. You color a picture on fabric with crayons.  Then you take that picture place it face down on paper and iron away the wax.  And you keep ironing until there is no more transfer of color to the paper (always use clean paper each time you iron).

But did you know you can also color on fabric with colored pencils and there is no ironing involved?  I do it often.  To me it is fun and relaxing and you can do all the things you did with crayon fabric pictures.  I will admit here that you do have to use a textile medium to make the color permanent on the fabric.  I’ll talk about that later in this blog.

You might be thinking what kind of colored pencils.  Any type you would find in the art area of a craft store or paper supply section of a discount store.  I have some I use that I got at a Dollar store.  Any brand will do.  The more expensive brands might have a darker pigment.  Watercolor pencils can also be used.  You use these the same way you use watercolor paints.

What fabric can you use? Cotton fabric works the best but a polyester cotton blend might work as well.  This is where you can play and see what fabrics are the best for what you want to do.  I do recommend using white or a light cream color.  If you use any other colored fabric, the color of the fabric will show through the pencil marks. 

Now what about this textile medium?  A textile medium is a liquid put on a painting that makes the painting permanent so if you wash it, the pigment will not come off or fade.  Often times it was put on oil or acrylic paintings so they would not fade if exposed to sunlight.  It is a little thicker than water and you brush it on the coloring and let it dry. This is more likely found in an art supply store or a craft store near the art supplies or glues.

The textile medium does make the fabric a little stiff but I found that once it is washed or the more you handle the picture (I did embroidery over one colored pencil picture), the fabric softens up.  If you don’t add the medium and the picture becomes wet or it needs to be washed, the picture will fade or disappear altogether.

Here is a sample I did for a class I taught.  The top heart is how it looks colored with just the pencil.  The bottom heart is how it looks after I submerged it in water but with no detergent.  My guess is with the detergent; all the color would be gone.

 

This picture is with the textile medium added.  Same colored pencil and the same fabric was used.  Again the top heart is just with the textile medium; the bottom after submerged in water.  There was just a slight change in color.

Some textile mediums say to heat set the picture after medium is put on.  That can be done with an iron. Ironing when using crayons removes the wax but also heat sets the pigment from the crayon. I was curious if that would have the same affect with colored pencil.  So I did another heart, ironed it and then submerged it in water.  Just ironing without the textile medium did not set the color. 

When I added the textile medium and also ironed I didn’t find that it changed the color at all after being in water.  So I wonder if the ironing is really necessary.  But then again as the old saying goes, “Better to be safe than sorry.”  Remember I haven’t used any detergent with these so maybe that might make a difference.

This is a technique you can use with children.  I would stabilize the fabric a bit with either iron on interfacing or stabilizer that you can remove (if you want) or iron freezer paper to the back of the fabric.  Freezer paper can be found in some groceries in the wax paper/aluminum foil aisle. Freezer paper has a shiny/waxy coating to one side so when wrapped around meat would protect the food from freezer burn while in the freezer.

For this purpose you want the shiny side of the paper down on the fabric, move a hot iron over the paper side and it will temporarily bond to the fabric.  It helps the fabric from moving around when you color on it.

Once you have colored your picture, added the medium and let it dry, you can use that picture in anything.  I have seen entire quilts done with this technique.  From a few feet away, the quilt looked appliquéd; it wasn’t until you got up close to see if was actually colored. 

If you have some colored pencils and fabric, give it a try.  Who knows what you will create.

 

©2017. 2024 Cheryl Fillion

 

Embroidery sampler – Part 3

I finished the embroidery sampler.  I changed my original plan a bit.  Originally I was going to do all the stitching in the color of my logo.  So with the big heart, all the stitching would be done in the dark pink, and the lighter pink in the medium heart.  But I realized that all the stitching would just blend together so you couldn’t tell what stitches were what.  So having done the line or border stitches in one color, I did the individual stitches in between the lines in the color of the other heart shape.  I like it much better this way. 

I went through my embroidery books to look for some stitch ideas.  I found some I like using like the French knot and the fly stitch.  Then some I like but are challenging for me like the lazy daisy.  And then some new stitches I wanted to try. 

If you remember the little heart, I just did the seed stitch.  It wasn’t really big enough to do multiple stitches and the seed stitch is another stitch I like to use.

 

For the medium heart, I actually started with the French knot.  I like using the French knot.  It is one a lot of people have trouble with but it is just one of those stitches that you have to practice, practice, practice. 

   

One of those stitches I found in my embroidery book and thought would be fun to try.

It was the woven cross.  It starts off like a cross stitch but you repeat the same stitches weaving the last stitch in and out of the other stitches.

 

Another stitch I am seeing a lot lately in embroidery books but never tried is the sheaf stitch.    It is basically three straight stitches parallel to each other with a fourth stitch gathering the three stitches in the middle.  The do look like a sheaf of wheat.  This was a fun stitch to do.  I have seen it used a a filler but also used at the bottom of a flower right above the stem.

 

Now for the big heart I had a lot of room to fills so I did some combinations of stitches.  The fly stitch is one of my favorite.  It is a stitch like the start of feather stitch but instead of making another what I call ‘U’ stitch next to the first one, You just make a little straight stitch at the bottom to hold it in place.  So in one section I started with the fly stitch.

 

 

 But then one book had a variation I had to fill the rest of that section with.  You do the fly stitch but then add two more straight stitches on either side of the first one.  It gives it the appearance of a crown which is what this stitch is called.

 

 

 

I did something similar in another section.  Started one end with a lazy daisy stitch which is really just one link of the chain stitch (and this stitch is also know as the link stitch). 

 

 

Then on the other side I did a picot stitch (or lazy daisy with  a long tail stitch).

 

 

But then one book had a variation of the picot stitch called the tulip stitch.  You do the picot stitch but on one side of the ‘chain’ you take a stitch and bring it under the anchor stitch to the other side of the ‘chain’.  It gives it the appearance of leaves.  It was a fun stitch to try.

 

 

 

I did a simple star stitch around the little heart.  I thought it helped frame the little heart in the very light pink.

 

 

 

 

At the bottom of the big heart I did the pistil stitch which is really just a French knot with a long tail.  It is great to add to a flower design in any embroidery.  I thought it was a good match to the French knots that are at the bottom of the medium heart.

 

 

 

And then finally I did the one stitch I always wanted to try.  It is called the woven spider web.  You take any odd number of straight stitches embroidered like the spokes of a bicycle wheel and with an alternating color you weave the second thread in and out of the spokes.  You don’t want to pull the weaving too tight or the stitches tend to hide under each other.  I liked how it turned out but I think it is better with a thicker embroidery thread than the floss I used. It looks a bit like a flower so I am going to have to try that one again.

 

 

This was fun, trying new stitches and deciding where and how to display them.  Now I just have to figure out what to do with my little Heartfully Cheryl logo.  Do I frame it or make it into a quilt wall hanging (which is usually what happens with my embroidery.

  

© 2019, 2024- Cheryl E. Fillion.