Printed Fabric Bee: Architecture

It’s time for another Printed Fabric Bee giveaway!

August’s  The Printed Fabric Bee challenge topic was Architecture.  Deborah Boschert the queen bee, requested that the 12 x 12 piece contain all blues.

Before I show you the collection that will be given away, here is my piece and my process.

I chose this blue fabric I had recently dyed as the background for my piece.

This was a big challenge for me. So I started with a question: When I hear the word architecture, what comes to mind? First I think of the beautiful  Sidney Opera House. Then my mind goes to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Ennis House.

He constructed this house with concrete blocks. When asked why concrete blocks he said, “It was the cheapest and ugliest thing in the building world.” “It lived mostly in the architectural gutter as an imitation of rock-faced stone. Why not see what could be done with that gutter rat?” He created beautiful decorative blocks by repeating geometric patterns.

So I just had to use this block for this challenge. First I needed to draw this block so that I could make freezer paper stencils with my Silhouette Portrait.

Here is my progress from photo to my almost final drawing.

Now to cut the stencil. Because it was so intricate I needed to make sure I left some of the paper attached or it would end up just a pile of pieces. Once it was cut and removed it from the carrier,  I ironed the stencil to my fabric.

Then before stenciling I cut all of the joining pieces.

After cutting the joining pieces I iron the freezer paper stencils again. This piece is ready to stencil.

I mixed up the  blue, black, and white fabric paint so that I could get a lighter blue.

Then I stenciled the fabric with this paint.

After the paint was dry I peeled off the stencil. I love this part.

Here is the piece before I’ve cut it to size.

But it needs more, so I added some shadowing with a blue fabric pen to match the fabric.

And the finished piece. I decided to use just two stencils on the queen’s piece. I felt this gave her more options when using it.

And a close up.

Here is the 6 x 6 piece which is part of the giveaway.

Now for the giveaway, if you’d love to win this collection of 6 x 6 inch fabrics, just leave a comment on the Printed Fabric Bee Facebook page or Deborah’s blog.  Deadline is September 15!

 

Stop by the other members’ blogs to see how they created their pieces. Good Luck!