Faux Batik and a Fabric Peek

Whew!  I finally slowed down long enough to blog.  Above is the fabric I'm GIVING AWAY along with a signed copy of my book.  Just comment to any of my entries through Monday, October 6, 12 midnight CDT and you'll be in the random drawing.  Aren't these gorgeous?  They're just right for a fall project.

Yesterday, I worked on my version of a faux batik.  Instead of wax, I used a washable school glue to "draw" the image on PFD (prepared for dying) fabric.  I hung the piece on my deck to dry for a few hours.

Instead of dye, I used permanent fabric marker to color in the image.  Seemed like a good idea, and it worked...to a certain extent.  I heat set the marker with my iron, thinking this would help set the color into the fabric.  Next I dipped the fabric in a bowl of warm water and swished it around to rinse out the glue.

The only problem was that some of the color washed out, too.  I guess "permanent" doesn't mean the same thing I thought it did!  Luckily, only some yellow washed out.  The other colors stayed pretty true.  I laid the piece out flat to dry and helped it along with an iron when I started getting impatient.  Then I colored in the areas that had washed out for the second time!

I wanted a bit more definition, so I used a black gel fabric pen to outline different areas.

Then it was time for quilting.  But now for some unknown and not understood computer reason, I'm having trouble posting the photo of the finished piece!  So check back later - I'll try to get the picture up.

Gotta run.  My younger daughter just arrived home from college for Fall Break!