For our quilt squares this month our theme was Thankful. The kids could draw anything for which they are thankful.
If you haven’t caught our directions before, here is a quick run down on the Glue Batik process.
First I cut out 10″ white muslin squares. The kids draw their outlines in pencil (the younger two often skip this part).
We cover the pencil with the Blue Gel Elmer’s glue.
Once the glue dries completely, we paint over the entire square with acrylic paints. We have played with different levels of paint to water ratio. The less you water down the paints the more brilliant the colors turn out. The fabric does become a little bit stiffer though.
Once the paint dries completely, wash away the glue with warm water and tada… easy batik!
You can also check out our previous month’s quilt squares from September and October. I will be making a quilt from all the squares at the end of the school year.
Every month we are each making a quilt square that show cases something we have learned about recently. At the end of the year I will make a quilt out of all the squares. I had thought about using a different fabric technique every month but when it came down to the wire we did another set of Glue Batik squares since I already had all the supplies on hand. So I am now planning to make the entire quilt with Batik squares. This process is so much fun and we have had wonderful results. I think it will make for a fun quilt.
Here is a quick run down of the steps…
Draw your design with pencil on your fabric.
Trace the pencil drawing with Elmer’s Blue Gel Glue. Let the glue dry completely.
Paint over the entire piece of fabric with watered down acrylic paints (you can use the paint without watering it down if you want brighter colors). Let the paint dry completely. Wash off the glue in warm water.
Once a month we are going to be making quilt squares to highlight some of the fun things we are learning about this year. We will each be making one 10″ x 10″ square every month and then at the end of the school year we will sew them all into a memory quilt.
This month we used a Glue Batik Fabric Painting method to highlight our recent apple studies. I stumbled across this idea on That Artist Woman‘s blog and knew we had to try it (check out her site for detailed directions). It was a really easy project for any age child but it does take a couple days to complete due to drying times.
First I cut out 10″ squares of white muslin. Then we drew a design on the fabric with pencils.
After we had our designs ready, we traced them with the Blue Gel Elmer’s School Glue. Then the fabric had to dry over night.
The next day we used water down acrylic paints to cover the entire square of fabric.
Once that dried we washed out the glue with hot water and a little dish soap. I hung the squares to dry and then ironed them flat.
A few notes: The next time we do this (and oh yes… I imagine we will be doing this many more times) I will encourage everyone to get more detailed – or at least cover more surface area with the glue. I also think I watered down my paints too much. I would have like brighter colors… they ended up drying a lot lighter than they originally looked but I had been afraid of the fabric ending up really stiff.