Pattern repeat

Printing with a flour resist and colouring with thickened procion dye is one my favourite ways of producing my own fabrics.

As well as using commercial stencils ( as above) , blocks or printing tools l often like to use everyday domestic items.  One of my favourite is the humble potato masher, indeed I had a bit of a reputation in local charity shops for my constant search for 'the one'.  And what is 'the one' I hear you ask? It's one that gives this pattern:

The first time I used this masher to make a print I was hooked, only trouble was it wasn't mine to have, it belonged to a student and no matter how much I pestered her husband wouldn't give it up, despite my promise of a state of the art (!) new one in replacement.  Not to be defeated I decided that I would take a print of the mark and send it off with all the sizes etc to Fiona at The Stitching Post to see if her block carver would make me a set. He could, so I then 'had' to book a trip to India so I could go and collect them ( naturally...)

Long story short ( or hop over to http://justtotheleftofthemoon.blogspot.co.uk to read about the resulting trip) the blocks weren't ready when we visited, so they were mailed to me when ready.

And here they are....I just love the way everything is sewn into Calico parcels and then sealed with wax.

I couldn't wait to open the parcel to see my blocks, but was a bit puzzled by the size of the parcel...

Puzzle solved - look at the size of the finished blocks - they're huge.  I sent the measurement in metric, but they were make in inches!  So my 4cm X 7 cm became 4 inches X 7 inches. Hummmmm!  

On the other hand, just look at how they were packed....wrapped in off-cuts of silk sari fabric...yum,yum,yum!

But how do they print?  Take a look

Aren't they fabulous?  Only tried them out using a flour resist so far, but I'm thrilled with the results, and do you know what?   The size is just perfect, after all look what I was given last week!

So now I have a whole set of ultimate printing tools!