First try with Paintstiks

As with most things in my life, the paintstiks were a family affair.  Saturday evening when we all got home from celebrating my mama's birthday and the quilt show, we busted open the packaging, I cut some muslin up, prepared the table and got to work.  We were working on my sewing table therefore it was VERY important to get everything covered and safe from the paints.

India decided she wanted to paint with her paints at her table.  She did that while Jason, Kalib, and I got our first feel of the shiva paintstiks.

Here's Kalib drawing his cat.

This is my first start.  I put down the spiral in the center and didn't know where to go from there.  So, it became a flower.  There is pink mixed in with the orange to give it a little more movement, but as I said yesterday, I really need a yellow.  I haven't done any blending yet in this photo.

Kalib blended his with a toothbrush, but he hasn't done the face yet.

Here was my stopping point on Saturday night.  It's all blended, but I still think I need a yellow to show a little more depth.  I used a small brush to blend the paints together on the fabric. Next time I am going to try a bigger brush and see if it distributes the paint a little further.  It's all about the experimentation right now and getting comfortable with them and seeing what they can and will do.

Since I was going back to the quilt show on Sunday to help with the take down (which goes crazy fast by the way) I went ahead and visited the booth with the yellow paintstiks and got one - cool thing was they also had a true red, so I also got that. As soon as I got home I set to work on my coloring - I mean painting.

I feel good about using them right now, but not good enough to paint on the quilt I'm working on yet.  I'm going to let this start drying.  I have thoughts of a background, but I don't want to get too carried away since I have other projects on the wall.

My plan over the next few days is to cut out some yellow flowers and start working on figuring out what I want to do with the paint AND how I want to paint.  Will I apply directly with the paintstiks or with a brush? 

 I still have a little more piecing to do before I can really start with the surface work, but I am so excited about where it's going I can hardly contain myself.  I love when the work pushes me and I HAVE to experiment beforehand.  I learn so much more through trial and error, but this time, the trial and error is not going to be on the surface of the quilt I'm working on. (A lesson learned the hard way.) 

I think this is the first time since I have been quilting I'm really trying to get figure it out beforehand so I don't mess up what I have already done.  Once the paint is on it doesn't come off, so this is a good time to get comfortable with figuring it out ahead of time.