Wow the month of April has flown by and I find myself writing this as the month draws to a close. Hector made trips to the UK over Easter and to Dubai last week making deliveries, all of which I’m sure have added to the speed of April.
Easter seems such a long time ago now but we had a great time in the UK celebrating with family. The bunny butt cake we all made went down a storm – complete with bunny droppings on the flower!
It’s great to take presents home when we visit and my latest make was block printed Easter Rabbit tea towels.
Fabric has traditionally been printed very successfully in India using wooden blocks. I’d had a go previously but hadn’t been so successful! I’d seen at Christmas, at a market in the UK, some ladies printing with these blocks. I queried with the vendors why I wasn’t getting the same results. Having been advised about the correct techniques to use, I purchased more blocks. (No crafter can ever have enough supplies).
Now what to print and what to print on…. I selected the rabbit and a flower and thought they’d suit something simple for the kitchen. Tea towels seemed to be the obvious answer.
The fabric paint is applied to the block with a sponge and the item you are printing onto is placed on a foam mat.
Build up the layers of paint to get the result desired.
Once complete, heat set the fabric paint with an iron.
I packaged my gifts up with a bit of ribbon to give a professional and ‘made with love’ finish.
This is the same printing technique I used on my vegetable bags last month.
Next month sees the start of Ramadan in Bahrain and we’ll take a look at an activity you can do indoors to avoid the rising temperatures.