Poppyprint(ing)

I promise never to take my daughter for granted. She is, and I believe always will be, the energizer bunny of our family; she's got endless enthusiasm and willingness to try new things. Ever since our giant poppies bloomed, she has been asking me "when are we going to print the poppies and make our own fabric?" Believe me, it's been on my mind for weeks, but other stuff just keeps getting in the way.

Well, yesterday at 5:00 p.m., I could postpone no longer. The seed pods are drying out rapidly in this heat and once the tops flip up, they are useless for printing because the velvety raised patterns are all hard and won't accept the ink. We set up outside on the deck got busy.

We worked with four ink colours: gold, white, red and brown. I pulled 4 solids from my stash: Kona snow, black and red and an Essex linen/cotton blend in lime green.

The Stampers:

The Process:

We used stamp pad ink that is colourfast for fabric (after you iron it) to print our fabric free-hand. I put a double thickness of towel under the fabric for two reasons; to absorb excess ink and to provide a soft surface to better complete the stamps because some of the pods have slightly rounded (convex) tops.

The Results:

I've said it before and I'll say it again...the symmetry in nature is astounding. These are some of the most beautiful, unique shapes and they please my eyes tremendously!

If you are new to Poppyprint, now you know how this blog got it's name! This is our first effort on fabric, but it won't be our last. I have to send a thanks out to my dear friend L3 who made a special effort to save the small-sized stampers from her garden and bring them all the way over from Victoria!