Surface Design Workshop with Jane Davila

I am lucky enough to live close enough to Jane Davila, to take workshops in her studio (yeah me!).  So in March I took her Surface Design Workshop which teaches techniques to enhance your quilt top.....  I know this post is a little late, but better later than never is my motto :-). 

Jane used some of her pieces to talk to us about various techniques...  

Then we had the opportunity to play.  There were 4 of us and we had a ball trying out some of the basic techniques.

We played with Shiva Stiks.

This one was made by Donna Chambers....

The next one was done by me...

We used scratch pads and then one or more Shiva Stiks of different colors.

We also played with shaving cream to create our own marble fabric.  That's right shaving cream.  It is a technique that Jane created that allows the inks to be suspended on a medium, in this case, shaving cream and then transferred onto fabric.  We used plain white fabric, but the same technique could be done with any type of fabric.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take out my camera when we were creating our marble fabric.

We also played with water color pencils.  Real cool, just like drawing when you were a kid, but now you can do more than just hang it on the refrigerator :-). 

Once you make your line drawing, all you have to do is go over it with a wet paint brush and before you know it, you have a water color painting on fabric.  Add some batting and backing and some free motion quilting and you have a great little quilted piece.  This is a great way to incorporate your child's artwork amongst your own to make a quilt together!

Donna Chambers kept adding to her basic water color design...she added depth using Ink Pens for highlighting and then gold paint on the mesh from Wonder Under to add texture.   Once painted the 'glue' mesh from Womder Under can be ironed onto your top, creating great texture to your piece, especially if you use some of the wonderful iridescent paints we got to play with.

The day flew by so fast, we ran way over the allotted time.  Jane gave us a tour of her husband, Carlos's studio space and of course we got to purchase some cool stuff :-).  Now to make sure I actually use it...  wait I have used the Fusible Thread and I already have plans for the Fusible Powder....  both provide a great way to add accents to your quilt tops.

If you are ever in the same place where Jane is teaching, make sure to sign-up for one of her classes.  I can guarantee you won't be disappointed!