Friday, October 16, 2009

Discharged Fabrics

I love the wild look to discharged fabrics. Seeing Pat Pauly's fabrics in her Iron Quilter quilt made me move to try this after wanting to for months. I used hydrogen peroxide with water as a stop to the bleaching. I had Target Cleaner with Bleach in the cupboard so I used this. The cheap gel bleach pen was not so good. Maybe the pricier one would work better? Snow fencing + Solid Black fabric + Solid Brown fabric + Spray Bleach Cleaner = COOL!
Here is the brown fabric. It obviously has some sort of dye issue so the bleach took differently in 2 striped area's. (When it's cut up you will never know this.) This fabric discharged color quicker than the black.

I really love this pattern. This is the black fabric. The variations in bleaching represent how much I sprayed on it. I want to do a yard piece like this. I can't wait to use this...soon.


I used a $ store gel stain remover bleach pen to write some Bruce Springsteen lyrics (The River). I learned much! While I don't mind how this looks, I would like it to be blob-less and legible. Using a small tip bottle would do it. Can think of so many possibilities for this process.
I am wondering how navy, burgundy, red etc would discharge! I may try them. As I was driving from job to job today idea's were running through my mind....making stencils from freezer paper, using kids bubble wand paddle thingy, dish tray pad with all the little circles in it.....looking around at things that would leave great graphic.



Here is a closer look at Colleen's CQ RR block...tried to catch the blue metallic..I love it.
I am so happy that Jody is joining our CQRR on CQI!
I learned:
  1. Jon & Kate.....don't get it. Why the interest? Troubling really.
  2. 9.6 lbs off!
  3. Registered for class with Nancy Crow at next summer's Quilting By the Lake! But will I get in?






2 comments:

Pat Pauly said...

Hey -- love that you were inspired to try some discharge, but you really do have to use something other than water to stop the action of the bleach. I use "anti-chlor" available from Pro-Chem via the net, and it will neutralize the action of the chlorine. Its really inexpensive, and you can then relax knowing that the bleach is not going to rot away your masterpiece. Cheers, Pat Pauly

NickiLee said...

You continue to amaze me with all the things you get your hands into! I love the bleach pen idea and think I'll try it out as I would still like to find a way in incorporate a few ideas into my AF Journal... seems everyday I change my mind - don't you?