faewyck montage

faewyck montage

Saturday, December 14, 2013

Who will I be?

I just finished this head based on my Henley the House Gnome pattern. I modified it quite a bit while needlesculpting. Until he speaks to me about just what he wants as far as a body and costuming, he's on hold. Wish he would hurry up coz he's a gift and I have to get moving on it!

   
Meanwhile, I've been working on more fabric bottles. They are a lot of fun to make. The one on the left is heat distressed.




Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Fabric marking pen

The Frixion pen by Pilot is marketed as an erasable ink ballpoint pen. The "eraser" is actually the hard plastic ball at the bottom of the pen. It supplies the necessary friction to erase the ink and works quite well on paper. 
Available at Office supply stores.
3 pack for $6.99 at Office Max

                             BUT...

it also works very well on fabric as a marking tool. 
It creates a thin, black, very smooth, and easily visible line and is especially useful for marking quilt tops.
If working on a white or very light fabric, you can draw or trace designs with minute detail and no worries of any ink lines remaining visible on the finished piece

                            BECAUSE...

you lightly press the quilt top when finished. The heat from your iron provides the friction to erase the lines and practically no pressure is needed. You don't need to smash the batting or actually "iron". Awesome tool to have when a light pencil line just won't do.

I tested it on several fabrics but use caution on colored fabric. It probably contains a bleaching agent because on SOME of the samples, the black lines disappeared, but left faint white lines in their place. It didn't do this on all colored fabrics - just some. I recommend it for white or light colored backgrounds - especially prints. Test on brightly colored fabric first.


Marked sample
After quilting




After lightly pressing with iron. Look Ma!...no ink lines