Printing Your Own Fabrics and Making Whole Cloth Quilts from Your Own Images!!!

You may recognize this mandala from a previous posting.  I used it as an experiment in printing a repeating pattern. 

Here I grouped four copies together.

Then I collaged four of the combined blocks together and had it printed on cloth using an Epson 9900 so that this image is now 36 inches by 36 inches. It was an experiment.

I had a fantastic day at fellow RAFA member Julie Brandon's office located in her home.  She runs Red-dog Enterprises which is a printing service like Spoonflower only you get a much more individualized attention. Walking up to her house is a treat has beautiful landscaping including a pond with different colored water lilies.  Of course she did all the landscaping herself as she is a talented designer in her own right!  Together we printed six yards of fabric with my images from my marbling days, mandalas and some bird pictures I have taken.   I have been meaning to do this forever and it was soooo much fun!!  Being able to take  your own images and alter the colors, saturation and size is amazing.  I had several marbled pieces that I had done a few  years ago that I have not used because I really liked them and didn't want to cut them up!  They look even better printed and enlarged!!

This had always been one of my favorite images I had marbled.  The original is below and is only 18 x about 24 inches while this one  is 36 inches x 44 inches!

Of course it is turned above!  I really think the copies look better than the original!  The color is certainly true!

This is another one that I had blown up to the large size.  There is so much detail in these marbled pieces, the larger size showcases it better.  

We filled up the whole 36 inch x 44 inch area with images.  Above is one of a Tri-colored Heron which is about 14 x 28 inches.

Here is a picture of a great egret which is 36 inches high and we inserted three of the mandalas on the side.  I have already got some threads together to start the machine quilting which will take courage but I can always print another image if I screw it up -- now how freeing is that!

Here is another copy of my favorite marbled fabric and a Little Green Heron.  You can see how much you can get on a yard of fabric.  

Of course, then I had to come home and look through all my images for my next bunch!!  I think maybe some of my New Zealand pictures....  I think my bird images will do double duty as I can take tracings of these larger images and maybe also draft them into pieced quilts.