Tuesday, September 29, 2015

A Lesson on Canvas

As I was cogitating the future of the Phoenix, I looked into using canvas as the stabilizer for thread painting.  I knew that some quilt artists use "light weight" canvas and thought I might try it.  I checked the Web and learned just enough to be dangerous.

Duck cloth is a canvas.  The word comes from the Dutch "doek" meaning "linen canvas."  It is labelled according to its weight, i.e. #1 to #12 with #12 being the lightest weight.  Interesting, but it doesn't give me much to go on so I didn't want to order it sight unseen.

Next I stopped at Joann's and found the canvas aisle.  Some was colored, some was natural and some was primed, but not a one noted the weight.  Not much to go on there either so I came away empty handed.

Finally I found Big Duck Canvas where the various types of canvas are described.  They say that duck cloth/canvas and canvas are two names for the same thing.  There are two types that are separated by weave (single fill and double fill).  This is so well explained on that website that I am not going to redo it here.  The numbered canvas is double fill and is a more tightly woven and stronger product than single fill.  The single fill canvas is labelled by ounces/square yard and is softer and not as strong as the double fill.

I decided that the "light weight" canvas used for stabilizing is probably the single fill type and I ordered one yard of 7 oz canvas.  It is nice, but even the pre-shrunk variety will shrink.  I washed it, decided to use the original bird and packed the canvas away for the next project.  Sorry, I can't tell you how it works....yet.

Who wants to waste a photo on a piece of canvas?  Not I.  Our mountains are exploding with the Fall color of aspen leaves.  Here are a couple of photos I took the other day while hiking through the gold mine of beauty.  Lovely palette for a quilt.

Bear Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park


Otis and Hallett peaks, Rocky Mountain National Park
TIP:  Take advantage of a beautiful day and go out exploring.  You will come home ready to sit down and sew.  You may come home with inspiration and/or solutions to incorporate into your quilting.

Sew a happy seam this week (and take a nice long walk outdoors!).

5 comments:

  1. Gorgeous place for a hike. You remind me that I need to get out there now that the air is cooling a bit.

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  2. Oh, I can just see a little cabin tucked into the trees overlooking the lake - simply gorgeous!!! If they'll let me build a little log cabin, I could totally retire right there!!!

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  3. Thanks for the tip about using duck cloth as a canvas. Can't wait to hear the results of your experiments.

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  4. Interesting post. I went to the duck site and never knew there was such a wide variety. I wonder if you can sew thru the primed artist canvas. That way you could use just the canvas, paint on it and then thread paint - or just thread paint. I see they will send a free sample pack of swatches. Might be worth a look . Thank you for the tip and I'll look forward to seeing what you come up with.

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