Fiber Arts Fridays - bits & pieces

It's Fiber Arts Friday! First I want to give a big thank you to my cousin Janet who made a donation to the American Cancer Society this week and acquired my art quilt Spring to Summer through the Fiberart for a Cause Collage Mania 2009 fundraiser, which ended yesterday after raising over $18,000 in three days! I had donated the piece in honor of Janet's mother, my aunt Flo, my mother's sister.

Next I have to answer my friend Michele's question posted in the comments on yesterday's Ten Two Studios Mother's Day Countdown (running through May 10!) She asked what I had used to stamp the pattern on my envelopes. It's a carved Indian printing block designed to do a repeat floral border on fabric (visible in the lower left hand corner of this photo).

In theory, it's an "antique" (or sold that way - it's at least 20 years old since my mom bought it in India in the 1980s!) so I didn't want to apply any ink or paint directly to the wood. Instead I used a "Magic Stamp" moldable foam stamp (the blue block in the photo), which can be zapped with a heat gun and then pressed against the patterned surface to make a reusable stamp! If you heat it again the texture goes away and you can repeat the process with something else. I've made stamps with delicate items like crocheted doilies, vintage buttons, and antique lace, as well as flowers and leaves from the yard. I first read about Magic Stamps in Transforming Fabric: Thirty Creative Ways to Paint, Dye and Pattern Clothby Carolyn A. Dahl, but I have yet to use them on fabric!