Yarn Scrumbling - A Textural Sunday Fill'r Up

On this last day of March - as the birds seem never to sleep and days are trying bit by bit to hold on to warmth I wanted to leave you with a fun textural idea.

It is not something new, but it certainly something that is fun -
especially if you LOVE yarn!

In my quilts I use yarn for couching -- and my yarn collection runs just behind my fabric collection in size, so several years ago my friend Susan convinced me that I should take a 'scrumbling' workshop with her.

Hmm, just what was this scrumbling thing?
Knowing me all too well, Susan described it as crocheting without rules.

The 'no rules' thing got me, and we had a great time learning to scrumble, but note that you did kind of have to learn the rules -- in order to break them. The result is fun - free formed yarn play.

Hope you enjoy this final textural treat!

Rusted Fabric Quilt - A Thursday Treat

Since I started writing about my rusting fabric experimenting I have heard from many of you.
It is such a fun and enticing way to manipulate fabric!

Kathy from out in California had snapped the quilt here while attending the Foothill Guild Show. We both love it and went out to the maker....Linda Waddle, to ask permission to share the quilt.
She agreed, and even supplied me with information about how she created it.
Hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

Linda Waddle - Iron Galaxy I

My husband has a large stash of rusting metal, my yard is full of rusted metal wheels, gears, etc., so it was natural that I try rusting with these objects. This piece began with rusted gears, washers and a grate laid on a vinegar water soaked commercial fabric, covered with plastic and left to do its thing. I check on the rust process every three days or so, sprayed more vinegar water on the fabric if necessary and moved the objects if they had produced an image. By the time this process was completed, the wetness of the fabric provided a wash of rust color over most of the piece.
When it was rusted to my satisfaction, it was dried, cured for a few days and then rinsed and ironed. The same gears that provided the rusting were used as stamps with metallic turquoise paint. The same paint was used to scatter some dots for extra background texture. The gears were also used as templates for some of the stitching. Metallic thread, poly thread and fluorescent threads were used in the quilting. Copper metal discs were heat treated to change the color and secured to the quilt with a single bead.
Now a question for those who are rusting on fabric, how do you neutralize the rusting? I have just heard that the fabric should be rinsed in a baking soda solution. Any comments?

Amazing quilt, Linda!
As for your question about neutralizing or stopping the rust...
the rusting really never stops, and baking soda (2 TB per gallon of water)is considered one of the best ways to slow down disintegration.

There is information about using vinegar or salt, since this is used on metal to deter rusting, but these materials help deter it by causing a layer of rusting that can be removed. Not what we want with our fabric, so I think the baking soda is a good option.

I try to leave the fabric in contact or actively rusting for as short a period as possible.

Then wash it with a mild, color free, phbalanced soap.

Let it dry then rinse in the baking soda water.

Let it dry again and rinse with clear water.

Are you ready to give this a try?

Can't wait to see your Rusted Fabric!

Rusting On
~Rose

Rusting Fabric - Getting Started Tutorial

I started gathering some fun stuff to try rusting with, but had a couple of questions since this is my first time trying this in my new home in Paducah, KY. Here the lows have been in the 20's and I was not sure if I could get quick results in the cold.

I also heard thru a friend of a friend that they used salt water rather than my vinegar water.

So, here are the steps and and my overnight results

took fabric, cut it to a working size
and cut garbage bag to size just larger; 2 piece (1under/1over)

prepared 2 spray bottles
1 with 1part vinegar-1 part water
other with 1 part salt-1 part water (make sure salt is disolved)

got some large nails

outside I prepared 4 samples
1. vinegar with bubble wrap layer
2. just vinegar solution
3. just salt solution
4. salt solution with additional salt
for each I spray base layer of liquid, laid fabric, sprayed
then added nails, sprayed again
closed up with plastic bag and held it in place with small rocks

overnight with the vinegar solution over bubble-wrap

overnight with salt solution & extra salt

 

I left the salt solution to keep going,
but moved the nails over on the vinegar samples to keep the
design moving overall.

Happily, the vinegar worked really well overnight and even moving the nails once again later on today,
I should be able to wash it all by tomorrow and figure out just what I want to do with it next.

Have a great day!

Rusting On!
~Rose

Out-of-Studio

today, I'm out seeking fun stuff to get rusted...
have you found some materials to try this out for yourself?

more tomorrow...

Rusting Fabric-The Gathering A Monday Artify Opp

Oh, this is going to be a fun week.
Though there is tons for me to catch up on, there is still enough time to gather up the supplies needed to create a bit of rusty fabric and maybe even some paper.

I hope you'll join in.
You'll need some basic supplies -
fabric (old t-shirts are good for this), an empty spray bottle, white vinegar, plastic bags or drop cloths

Then you'll want to start looking about and gathering metal things that we'll RUST!
These may include...

washers - nuts & bolts

nails - screws

keys of all sorts and shapes

old yard art works incredibly well, too!

I'll be gathering my stuff and sharing with you the how-to's on Wed!
Until then I would love to hear what you find to rust with...

Rust=Texture - Inspiration Filler' Up Sunday -

Hi All-
It's been way too long since I had reliable WIFI!
But, I used that time away from you well.
OK, there was feet in the sand, and sooooo much sunshine and gorgeous blue water
--- but, I was never far from collecting textures!

I was thrilled to be able to teach on a Caribbean cruise -- and in between workshop days there was time to discover, play and of course take pictures.

You may know, that given enough time, water, salt air will cause rust on just about any metal.
People try to hold off the corrosion with paint, but if left to the elements rust will set in. If not stopped what once was decays away.

In the pictures I am sharing today take close look at the texture all this rusting causes.
Bubbly, gritty, spotty... 
but look again and note the lines and shapes, and how the rust colors it all.

What colors do you see?

Have you ever purposely caused rust?
Later this week I'm going to rust up some fabric
and try a bit of paper - just to see what happens.
Join me!

trying for textures 2

the video did not appear...til I can get it working here are a few examples