A large colorful quilt in a Jacob’s ladder pattern held up by Michelle. It’s so big that she is standing on a higher level of the back yard, draping the quilt over a 2’ wall that drops to a lower level in the yard. She has a big grin on her face, as the quilt was just finished!

Michelle holding up the “Placket” quilt at dusk in the back yard so it made the quilt look even more glowing and magical (but it IS magical)! Made from 30 different reprinted, thrifted shirts ☺️🪡🧵
#thereprintery #textilereuse #upcycle #quiltsky #printmaking #quilting #sustainablequilting

Buddy is a black, medium hair cat w three legs. He lounges on loose quilt blocks that we have organized on a wood floor for layout options. This is a quilt block known as several names, one well-known one being Jacob’s Ladder. The fabric used are men’s Workshirts, and they are printed w polka dots, stripes and checks. The colors are bright and cheerful, pinks, yellow, orange, green, olive, lavender, red, dark purple. As Buddy took his spot to relax, as cats do on our work surfaces, he has messed up the organization of the blocks but gazes right into the camera knowing he looks cute and will never get into trouble.

Marmalade a small orange kitten in this photo, crouches on the Cubicle quilt blocks laid out on the floor. She has messed up some blocks as she jumped to this spot. The blocks finish 8” square, made up of (16) 2.5” fabric squares. And are a combination of woven stripes, plaids and chambray. This quilt shares the same printed shirts as the other quilt, but uniquely has the chambray printed blocks too.

Cats and quilts! Buddy on the “Placket” quilt and Marmalade helping with “Cubicle”, both from the Work Shirts Reworked series we showed at Portland Textile Month in 2023
www.textilex.org/galleries/vi...
#catsandquilts #thereprintery #textilereuse #sustainability #fiberart #textileart #artquilt

Charlotte stand on tiptoe on wood floor, to pin printed shirt piece to the studio wall. She wears a printmaking apron stained with years of inky use. The wall is white painted fiberboard and makes great space to pin the shirt pieces. They are yellow printed w red stripes, and also blue shirts and a dark plum all printed w red stripes in different directions. There is bright light coming in from a large window in studio, which is just shown as a sliver of window to right edge of photo.

Charlotte pinning printed shirt pieces to the studio wall. This was actually the inaugural day, the start of The Reprintery! July 4th 2023, we printed our first pattern, a stripe. #thereprintery #artquilt #textile #surfacedesign #printmaking #textilereuse #fiberart

Viewed from above, the image is divided into three sections: an ironing board is in the center or the frame, placed vertically in the frame. To the left is a thigh high bookshelf with art books on top. The title of one is visible: “pattern and flow” about paper design in the 1900’s. To the right of the frame Michelle stands and her two hands are ironing green dyed shirts on the ironing board. At the bottom of the frame you can just barely see Charlottes feet as she leans over the ironing board to take the photo

Lots of prep goes into getting our reclaimed fabric ready for print! We wash them, cut shirts from the seams, and sometimes dye them at home or in a community dye bath if we can. We then iron them and roll them on tubes so they are ready to print. #textilereuse #thereprintery #fiberart #fabricprint

A stack of printed fabric samples made from thrifted men’s work shirts. These shirts have been Reprinted (overprinted) with lavender stripes and teal polka dots.

Printed samples for the Work Shirts Reworked series. #workshirtsreworked #textileprint #sustainability #textilereuse #garmentsewing #quilting #thereprintery

A 1” polkadot carved linoleum printing plate covers the top portion of the image. It is inked w a bright grass green color. The lower portion of the image shows the 6” square of green ink rolled out, the inking brayer (roller) next to it in center, and the lower right portion is the pile of mixed ink and a small corner of the palette knife.

A polkadot carved linoleum printing plate covers the bottom portion of the image. The plate is a polkadot the size of a 1” round circle shape. It is inked w a very pale blue color. The upper portion of the image shows the 6” square of ink rolled out, as well as a pile of ink that was mixed to create the color with a palette knife. The palette that is placed on is clear glass, and this shows the table underneath which has a piece of canvas with ink and design residue from patterns printed previously.

A marigold yellowy-orange color is inked on a polkadot plate that is about 13” x 19”. It is white, made from cardboard and the dots are made from hole-punched cardboard. The dot is about 1/4”, the size of a hole punch, and they are glued in a grid pattern about 1/2” apart. It’s been sealed so it can be inked and cleaned to be used many times. There is a brayer-roller inked w the marigold color and this sits on a clear glass palette. On the edge of the photo are placed cans of Gamblin oil based reliefs printing inks as well as tubes of Cranfield oil based printing ink.

We love the simplicity of a polkadot pattern. They are such a simple graphic element, but provide a joyful element of color to everything we print! #polkadot #textileprint #textileart #sustainable #textilereuse #thereprintery

Michelle pins bastes a 21” square quilt top made up of 3” squares of printed men’s shirting. The design printed is what we call “Vermie”, as each block is printed with a meandering squiggle design matching on all 4 sides to create a continuous repeat from one 3-inch block to the next. There are neon pink, yellow and orange colors plus some dark blues and greens printed and the repurposed shirting fabrics are in different shades of blue, black and white, with ginghams, chambray, small plaids, and solid oxfords. The screen printed printed Vermie designs are made in 15 pattern variations, printed in each 3.5” block which includes a .25” seam allowance so it finishes at 3”.

Michelle Pin Bastes a Vermie Iteration. Alt text describes the details.
#textileart #quilting #garmentsewing #repurposed #textilereuse #thereprintery

Where are the people who are into creative reuse (upcycling, refashioning, etc)? I am obsessed with vintage textiles. The 80s kids sheets are a particular favorite.😍
#textilereuse #sewing #upcycle #vintagesheets