Block Printing a New Work In Progress

This is another studio process post. I'll walk you through the block printing on fabric process for a yasmintoo quilt top. This is a work in progress. The fabric was dyed using the Adire process. The printing will be completed tomorrow and then the fabric will air cure for 24 hours before it is heat set. Then on to quilting. 

Not quite a tutorial, but it will give you some idea of how fabric is block printed. 

Block printing begins with a block, either cut from linoleum or wood. This is an image of the lino block cut, inked and ready for printing. 

The ink is rolled out on glass with a brayer. When you hear a snapping sound the ink is ready to be rolled onto the block. I roll in an orderly fashion, turning the block clockwise and inking at least four times. When the block is fully inked you will hear the snapping sound. 

When printing  repeats, the first print off the block needs to be tested on paper or fabric. The same is true after washing the block. So keep some newsprint or old fabric on hand to run the test prints.

This block is being printed in black ink on half of an upcycled, pima cotton sateen sheet. The fabric is the second half of the piece of fabric I have been blogging about lately. The other piece received one less dye bath and has been block printed in a metallic silver harlequin pattern. 

Because this pattern is a linear repeat in the center of the fabric, I first ironed in some layout lines. Then to make sure that I was printing evenly, I used a yard stick and a level for placing the block each time I was printed. The mallet is used to print the ink from the block onto the cloth. Like inking the block, developing a regular pattern and rhythm for using the mallet produces even prints and inking on the fabric. There are three repeats in six rows. A good morning's worth of printing.

The ruler is place at the top of the fold line. The level is set perpendicular to the ruler. The block is placed ink side down parallel to the level and as close to it as possible. I made an adjustment on the placement of the prints on the left hand side to space out the number of rows I wanted to print. 

There are two parts to this "paisley" print. A separate block will be used for a border print. The background of the fabric has been dyed six or seven times in at least eight different colors. The final dye bath was an over dye in a caramel brown over the entire fabric using a low water immersion process. For this dye the wet fabric was wrung out, then scrunched up and placed in a fairly tight container with the dye. I squeezed the fabric and turned it over several times during the 24 hours period it was in the dye bath to get as much of the fabric saturated by the dye as possible. The caramel brown appears more of a gold because of all of the previous dye colors.

The block with the light print could be an issue, but when printing large pieces there is no going back so I've de-issued it. On paper and when printing a single block one time, you can just put aside bad prints. On yardage if the block has large solid areas, a paint brush or q tip dipped in ink can be used to fill in areas that didn't print. Or not. Sometimes you want the effect of unprinted areas. Being creative with outcomes is the difference between art and production. This block has too much detail to repair. 

This is a full view of the work in progress. I took these shots with the fabric hanging on a clothes line. When I post the final shots, the fabric will be mounted and the sheen of the pima cotton sateen will be more visible. Really rich fabric and I love it with the detail of the block print. The border block is much simpler. 

After the block printing is complete, the fabric will be quilted. This top quilt will be layered with a 100% cotton batting and a solid color backing. Then I will machine and hand quilt with a golden, burnt orange (could saffron be the name of the color I am search for, or it pumpkin closer?) silk thread in the open spaces using a simple repeating square motif. I had some thoughts of quilting with black thread, but decided that the golden orange would allow the block printed areas to pop out. 

We'll see.