For the stream I used oil pastels and stitch to add depth to the banks:

The flowers were stamps I made using craft foam and wood. I used Speedball screenprinting inks to paint them.

I found it was very easy to shade and highlight the colours as I put the paint onto the stamp, so that I can give the flowers some real depth.

These were so much fun to make! I made a stamp of braided yarn, and used fabric paint to stamp the basic shape of the fiddleheads. Then I used variegated thread, in a free motion zigzag, to add the structure and a splash of brown.

These guys were fun to do.

I took a batik fabric, and ironed on freezer paper mushrooms. I applied Presist around the freezer paper, and then removed the freezer paper when it was dry. Then I used bleach thickened with alginate to discharge the mushroom shapes. After the bleach I used a peroxide solution to neutralize it. Finally I used oil pastels to subtly shade them, and ironed to set.

For the rocks I used Stonehenge fabrics, and a free motion zigzag stitch around them. If I were to do this again, I would add trapunto to the rocks I think. And/or more shading, perhaps with oil pastels.

For this piece I used my dye concentrates. Diluted x of fuchsia in y …

I soaked the yard of fabric in a solution of:
1 cup warm water
2 tbsp soda ash
1/4 tsp sodium hexametaphosphate

when the snow had mostly melted, I warmed the fabric in the microwave (2 minutes on high) then left at room temperature for an hour.

To wash my pieces, I first let them soak in a little clean water for a couple of hours. This seems to decrease the number of washes. Then I wash in cold water, extra wash, extra rinse, with a little synthrapol lf. Then I wash in hot water with detergent for two cycles.

For the next round of dyeing, I made concentrates with:

1 cup warm water
2 tbsp urea
1/4 tsp sodium hexametaphosphate
1 tsp sodium sulfate
2 tbsp dye powder (for fuchsia and yellow; 4 or 5 tbsp for turquoise – I got interrupted while counting)

This is the design mock-up for a cubist forest quilt, the final assessment piece for my City & Guilds course.

It will be constructed from commercially printed, hand dyed, and hand painted fabrics. Most of the elements will have these fabrics developed further with surface treatments (stamped flowers, leaves, textures). Some of the elements (the stream pieces) will have multiple fabrics pieced together.