Block Printed & Stitched Nymph Friends: Agalia

As I was wrapping up my first series of Block Printed & Stitched grid and mandala quilts, I considered creating a new series of block-printed faces and/or masks. I got started by carving a pair of eyes, gathering some books on facial expressions, and started a Pinterest board for inspiration.

And that is about as far as I got, as I was uncertain as to how best to proceed. Thankfully, this year's SAQA Benefit Auction deadline provided the perfect boost of motivation to revisit this concept. 

My first step was to create mastersheets of all and any blocks that might create facial features and/or embellishments, both realistic and abstract. After filling 7-8 pages, each page was photocopied and cut apart to create paper tiles that I could mix, match, and move around to create a variety of faces. A set of trays was used to contain all the tiles with each tray corresponding to a different body part: eyes, mouths/noses, hair, and accessories.

Starting with a 12" square background (as required by all Benefit Auction submissions), I drafted a large circle and several guidelines using the proportions outlined in the Drawing & Painting Expressive Little Faces book by Amarilys Henderson.

For this first session, I challenged myself to create 5 unique faces using different combinations of paper tiles. To help me not overthink this task, I set my cube timer for 5 minutes and worked quickly to create a new face in that time frame. Thankfully by the time the timer went off, I was well on my way to creating a new face...although more time was usually needed to refine some of the elements and/or photocopy/cut more repeat tiles. These sessions were fast, furious, and super FUN!

After two consecutive evenings, a variety of fun block-printed characters was drafted, each rocking a different combination of hair styling, facial features, and accessories.

These were a great start, but they reminded me of the Wooly Willy kids toy, Fred Face plate for kids, and Mr. Potato Head. My original vision was to create original abstract and primitive mask designs while being respectful of indiginous cultures and taking care to avoid any form of cultural appropriation. So I chose more abstract stamps for the eyes and once again set out to create a variety of fast faces. I even involved a friend who helped me to explore new design combinations!

The next step was mixing ProChem Pro Silk & Fabric paints and watered down DecoArts Extreme Sheen Metallic acrylic craft paints to faux dye several squares of Evolon CR Non-Woven for use as backgrounds. The Evolon soaks up a lot of liquid paint but the painted squares were dry within an hour of laying flat on plastic corrugated boards placed outside in the bright, warm sun. They even picked up a bit of the striped patterning from the corrugated plastic!

Once the squares were dry, I placed them within a parchment paper sandwich and heat set the paint with a hot dry iron. My next step was to figure out how to add the block printing without the marked guidelines for reference. Once again, those paper tiles were helpful in laying out my design onto the Evolon square and serving as placeholders for the printing process. Using a large acrylic ruler, I could finetune the position of the tiles as needed to fit within the 12" dimensions. 

It was easy to remove one tile at a time and fill in the space with a stamp using VersaFine Claire ink. When I went to print, one of the cheeks had a small smudge and some of the eye lashes were a bit too close to the eyes. Thankfully, I had spare squares and  the printing went much smoother on my second printing session which I recorded and posted here.

This newly printed square was heat set and fused onto a square of batting in preparation for the next transformation: Stitching! A large assortment of hand embroidery threads were gathered including 8wt perle cotton, sea grass, chenile, and more! 

Each night I set out to stitch one or more elements starting with the leaves, followed by the eye lashes. I confess that early into the stitching, I started to have some doubts about my choices. After taking a day off, I resumed progress hoping that more would be more. After a few more meditative stitching sessions, the block printed face was transformed with color, line, and incredible textures as you can see in the clockwise progression below!

The last of the hand embroidery was finished the morning of the submission deadline day! So it was pedal to the metal to complete the machine quilting and finishing. I started free-motion quilting with a slightly arched zig zag meander in the bottom left corner but quickly shifted back to my tried and true zig zag meander around each of the elements and background. I was not worried about that first corner as I planned to crop the face to create a mask. 

Using a clear acrylic board, I drafted 2 outline options before cutting out a paper frame to use as a template. Using loops of blue painter's tape, I positioned the frame in place and outline stitched just inside the paper frame. Next I backed it with a square Pellon's 70 Peltex® Sew-In Ultra Firm Stabilizer and completed another pass of outline stitching. Now I could carefully trim away the excess background and paint the edges with Tulip dimensional fabric paint aka Puffy Paint and prop up on a bucket to air dry.

While the painted edges were drying outside, I got to work preparing a background. I found this incredible swatch of interior designer fabric from Fabmo which was just barely 12.5" square--just big enough for finishing with a faced edge. I decided to add a bit more stitched texture by filling in some of the shapes with a dense zig zag fill. Using the paper mask template as a placeholder for the real mask, I then used small bits of blue painter's tape to mark which shapes to stitch using a light orange thread. I absolutely love this transformation!

Once the puffy paint was dry, I centered and stitched it onto the background square before finishing the faced edges. 

Introducing, Agalia, a happy nymph-like character filled merriment! Created through a whimsical combination of hand-carved block prints, she is magically transformed through joyful layers of hand embroidery and free-motion quilting. The colorful stitching captures her cheerful disposition. Agalia paves the way for more delightful block-printed and stitched nymph friends to follow.  

Agalia, Finishes 12" x 12"

Agalia is a female greek name which means Happy. Can you tell I was in my happy place using all these blocks, inks, and threads to create her!?!

I absolutely love revisiting the magical transformation from the plain white Evolon through faux dyeing, block printing, stitching, and finishing touches to yield this mystical character!

"Agalia" will be one or many 12" x 12" art quilts available for purchase with this year's SAQA's Benefit Auction, the organization's premier fundraising event! All proceeds help support SAQA's exhibition programs, publications, and education outreach. Plus, your purchase helps increase the recognition for art quilts and the artists who make them. Mark your calendars as this year's auction will take place online from September 13 through October 6.

Watch for more block printed and stitched nymph characters to follow!