This is part of my occasional series on guild programs, with the hope that it will help others who need to come up with program ideas.
Our modern guild has no money to hire speakers, so we are taking turns sharing our talents. One of our members recently volunteered to teach us block printing on fabric, and she furnished all the materials herself!
Suzanne brought a beautiful print she had made as an example
A few of us had done block printing in the past, but these blocks were much easier to carve. Apparently the block medium is now made of soft rubber rather than linoleum–a big improvement for the hands and wrists.
Some people carved abstract designs, using the whole block
Everyone got a square of rubber to carve. Some people carved a design on the square using the entire thing. Some carved an object and then cut out around the object so that it could be glued to a board backing for easier handling.
It was fun to see what everyone did.
Then we were given ink and encouraged to mix the colors, either to produce a variegated print or to produce a secondary color.
The prints were amazing and fun.
I didn’t get a picture of the block used for these fish, but they were very successful.
Our challenge for next month is to use the printed fabric in a project. Can’t wait to see what everyone does!
Zippy Quilts 
I see a lot of possibilities with this project: in quilting, cushions, card making, home décor…. What fun.
In fact, I would rather print on paper. There is no shortage of good commercial printed fabric
Wow! I love this! What type of fabric was used?
People just brought 8” squares of whatever, though I favor PFD on the theory that it will hold the ink better.
Thanks
This would be a lot of fun. I took a block printing class a year ago — 2 classes, actually. We used both hard linoleum blocks and the soft rubber ones. Potatoes are also a good option. I’d love to spend a lot more time experimenting with that. I’ve also realized that paper cutting, another thing I want to work with, is very similar to block printing. And incorporating these into quilting… so many possibilities!
Indeed, the problem is that EVERYTHING has so many possibilities!
Some fun prints came out of this! Good idea!
The best part was that everyone seemed to enjoy it 😃
👍
Surface design! Fabric printing! I have been too a couple workshops on this and I made my own stamp😀. Your guild sounds awesome on how to be educational on a tight budget!
Luckily we have lots of talented members 😀
Such wonderful ideas! Thanks for the suggestions!
Thanks for commenting 😀
So neat! Artwork on fabric. I would love to see what everyone makes with theirs.
The fish are so fun!
Good point! I need to take my camera to the next guild meeting 😀