Prayer flags - fabric rectangles embellished with wax crayons

I have been wanting to make prayer flags for the yard since last year and have over the winter been doing research on line to find a way ahead.  There are all kinds out there from the Tibetan ones which hang on mountain tops to the quilted ones made by those who are looking for something special for their backyards or gardens.  I have decided to follow my instincts and use fabric rectangles embellished with wax crayons.  The fabric pieces were ones that my Mom passed on to my sister and I absconded with.  I would guess that Mom received them already cut into rectangles in a a box of fabric that was donated to her and were probably a set of curtains that had been upcycled for quilting.  They would be perfect for my project.  I decided to use them as they were and therefore did not hem them.  I will fold them over and stitch them to paracord once I have enough made for the length I have available to me.  I measured my cord today and I have enough for several different locations in the yard.  That will come later.  Prayer flags are generally put up and left until they started to disintegrate.  Once taken down, the remains should be burned as they are vessels that have held good wishes and blessings and need to be treated with respect.

I put foil on my griddle and set it to 200F.  I found it difficult to paint the fabric as it was quite soft.  I therefore used two bull clips to attach the top of the rectangle to the edge of my griddle which was much better for keeping the fabric in place and provided some stability for the addition of the wax.  I used wax crayons that have been stripped of their paper.  I did pick some up this past week in our Trash to Treasure program here in town.  Someone online was suggesting that soaking them in water helped release the paper from the crayons.  It worked for about half of them.  It was a bit messier to remove the paper once it was wet but the others simply slipped off which was great.  It did shortened the time required to remove the paper.  Not sure why it worked for some and not others as they were mostly all Crayola crayons.   I started by outlining the hearts and then filling them in using several crayons in the same colour family.  Then I worked on the outside edges and added colour all the way to the cut edges.  I tried to remember to leave a bit more space at the top to allow for the folding over and stitching to the paracord.  Once they were finished I carefully lifted them off the foil and placed them on brown paper to cool.  I managed to get ten of them made today.  They were well saturated with wax and therefore quite stiff  so I decided to iron them between layers of brown paper to remove some of the wax in hopes they would be a little more supple.  They are somewhat better so it may take a little while outside before they are flapping in the breeze the way they should to send the blessings infused in them out into the world on the wind.  I have stored them away for today and will revisit them when I have time to make a few more to see if anything further can be done for more suppleness.  I will be using the brown paper for making a few more fire starters for my 365 Project as they are already on their way to being properly waxed for them.  I love that the hearts show on them as well.   

I am very happy with how the flags turned out and how vivid the colours are.  It was a complete bonus that the fabric with its colour variations and printing provided some resistance to the wax and created wonderful texture in both the hearts and the backgrounds!!!!!!!  Better than I could have hoped for!!  

For now I will keep creating until I have enough to fill the length of my cord.               Therese

 

Fabric collage with diluted white glue

I have been playing with fabric.  I have read somewhere on line that diluted white glue can be used to prevent fabric from fraying when you are creating.  I should have taken better note when I read it because now I can no longer locate the location of the information I read.  I cannot remember if it was in relation to sewing/quilting or in the making of an art piece.  Anyway, without a way ahead except that it was diluted white glue I decided to go ahead and try to create a piece of fabric collage that will not fray when I used it as a background for cards or quilting.  I covered my work surface with plastic and spread out a long piece of polyester fabric I had on hand.  I diluted some white glue to about 50-50 and applied some of it at one end of my fabric.  I then laid small pieces of white fabric over it and covered them with my glue solution and then overlapped more over them and covered them with my solution.  I continued this process for about a couple of feet ensuring that everything was well saturated with my glue solution.  It was very wet so I knew it would take quite a while to dry so I put it outside in the sun to hasten the process.  After it was dry, I checked it out and found that some of the edges were not secure so I decided to add some machine stitching to ensure that my piece would remain intact when I used it.  I used a shimmery thread on the top and regular white thread in my bobbin.  I worked very well and I am very happy with the result.  I have been brainstorming some ways to use it.  I expect it will be perfect as a background for some cards and I will certainly try at least one piece as a background for a quilt square and do some applique and then wash it to see if it holds up to washing.  I am not sure if white glue will wash out after it has been dried into a surface.  We shall see!!                Therese