Relief Printmaking: explorations on paper and fabric

Recently, I spent a week immersed in a relief printmaking workshop with Nick Osetek at the John C. Campbell Folk School. It brought back fond memories of my undergrad and graduate studies in graphic arts, printing and publishing, as well as my early career working in commercial printing. 

Two of my hand-carved linoleum blocks printed on 100% cotton fabric.

Printmaking: engaging all the senses 

The printmaking process in this workshop was an experience in creating art by hand—drawing designs, tracing them onto linoleum blocks, and hand carving the blocks— but it also engaged the other senses. 

Design traced onto the linoleum block. Ready for carving.

That distinctive scent of the printing ink; 

Relief printing inks.

the perfect ink-to-brayer sound as the brayer rolls back and forth to achieve the precise viscosity of the ink; 

Preparing the ink.

the slow, steady cranking of the press flywheel; 

The block and paper is put through the press. The blanket is lifted for the reveal.

and finally, the anticipation of lifting the paper to reveal a first printed impression… 

The print on fabric.

all became part of the creative rhythm of the week.

Experimentation and discoveries

Nick, our instructor, started the week with demonstrations of the basics of relief printmaking—carving tools, types of blocks we’d work with, safety, and the unique and signature qualities of hand-carved printed images. “Don’t sweat the chatter,” he would remind the class. It’s part of the human process that adds to the quality of hand printmaking. 

Nick demonstrates wetting the rice paper before tearing.

My classmates and I had opportunities to try various printing techniques such as ghost prints, chine collé, encaustic, embossing, coloring/staining the paper, and myriad post-print embellishing techniques.

Nick worked with classmate, Christie, on chine collé.

As the students in the class got their footing with tools and materials, Nick also encouraged and allowed for experimentation and discovery if a student chose to pursue other ideas. Once he mentioned that our class supplies included a few pieces of fabric, well, I knew the path I wanted to explore! 

Placing fabric over the inked block.

I used several sketchbooks from past 100 Day Projects as inspiration for my block designs.

I used my sketchbooks for inspiration.

After several proof prints on paper, I made the move to fabric, with exciting results and future possibilities.

Spooky Week at the Folk School

The majority of the class participants—including our talented instructor—participated in a surprise group project which was unveiled mid-week. It was “Spooky Week” at the Folk School, so an unexpected printing project was right in line with the other activities happening on campus. (Ever play Spooky Bingo? We did!) The group printing project, based on the exquisite corpse concept, was a spooky-cool group exercise and lots of fun.

Spooky kitty. A dual-block print on paper.

The week on campus

The campus at the Folk School is always beautiful. Despite it being early November, the weather was quite mild, with only one mid-week day of drizzly rain. 

View outside the Little House, where my room was.

I was excited to be in one of the other studios—the Book and Paper Arts studio—this time. This studio was spacious and equipped with a variety of printing presses, lead type, and other printmaking tools and equipment.

Book and Paper Arts Studio at John C. Campbell Folk School.

Spending the week hand carving blocks, experimenting with different substrates, and discovering the endless possibilities of relief printmaking was a wonderful experience. 

The drying rack was full of prints at the end of the week.

I have renewed my deep appreciation and fondness for the art of printmaking—with ink on paper, and ink on fabric!

End-of-week prints on paper and fabric.

 

Create Daily Tracker: 10 months of making

Ten months into the year, my Create Daily Tracker offers an interesting snapshot of my creative life in 2026. I’ve been knitting, quilting, slow stitching, making art, and have sewn a couple of garments. 

Create Daily Tracker, October 31, 2026

Here’s the breakdown of my creative activities so far this year: 

• 39% Knitting 
• 22% Patchwork 
• 20% Slow stitching 
• 12% Art making 
•   5% Free-motion quilting 
•   2% Garment sewing 

Below is the analysis of the percentages.

Knitting: One prompt, lots of mittens! 

Knitting—at 39%—accounts for nearly two-fifths of my creative activity this year. No big surprise here as the response to my Make Nine “Yarn” prompt has evolved into a year-long mitten-knitting charity project that started in January during the Winter of Care and Repair challenge.

Knitted mittens. Make Nine “yarn” prompt.

My mitten knitting is a project with a purpose! It’s wonderfully portable and easy to pick up whenever I have a few spare moments. I’ve worked several mitten patterns (thanks, Ravelry!) enough times that I’ve got the basic construction down and only refer to the patterns for hand decrease techniques or row counts for thumbs. Knitting a few rows here and there keeps this project moving… no matter where I happen to be.

Patchwork and free-motion quilting 

Patchwork (22%) and free-motion quilting (5%) remains a significant part of my creative practice, accounting for a total of 27%, the second-largest time-spent category. Projects contributing to the quilt-making activity have been multiple charity quilts for my guild’s community service project and for local animal centers. I’ve been able to take a few on-line quilting workshops for myself, and I’ve also taught two quilting workshops at the Folk School. These classes contribute to my time spent quiltmaking.

Charity quilts for the animals.

Slow stitching and my 100 Day Project  

Slow stitching comes in at 20%, nearly matching patchwork. A significant part of this activity is my 2026 100 Day Project, a fabric Stitch Book. Mending also falls into this category.

The 100 Day Project this year was a sustainable stitch project that used stash fabric as well as yarn and fabric scraps. It provided time for mindfulness and slowing down, and offered opportunities for experimentation with fabric bits, threads, and stitches.

Pages from my 100 Day Project Stitch Book, 2026.

Like knitting, slow stitching is portable. It’s another valuable companion while traveling. I hadn’t necessarily planned for knitting and slow stitching to account for such a large proportion of my creative time, but their portability is undoubtedly part of the explanation. These projects don’t require a lot of materials, tools, or space, making them easy to pack.

Together, handwork represents 59% of my tracked creative activity.

Art Making: to keep exploring 

Junk journals for 2026.

Art making accounts for 12% of my time. This category includes slow drawing, book arts, and the Junk Journal challenges (January and July). I enjoy experimenting with collage, hand lettering, drawing, and painting in junk journals. These activities use different materials—paper, paint, glue, ephemera, and interesting art supplies—which complement the time spent creating with fabric and thread.

Garment Sewing: wanting “something new” to wear 

Cottage Shirt, a Make Nine “Wild Card” project.

Garment sewing accounts for 2% of my tracked activity. A Make Nine “Wild Card” prompt was fulfilled with two colorful tops: a Wiksten top and a Cottage Shirt. I wanted something new and fun to wear while teaching my Intro to Improv Quilting class at the Folk School, and they were made from stash fabrics and two go-to patterns. Also sustainable projects. 

Wiksten top, a Make Nine “Wild Card” prompt project.

These tops were quick makes, supported concepts in my Improv course curriculum, and received several comments from my students and the Folk School staff. A winning effort all around!

Do the numbers tell me something?

The numbers don’t imply whether I should spend more or less time on any specific activity. They simply show me which creative practices shaped my year.

Overall, it appears that knitting, patchwork, and slow stitching accounted for 81% of my creative activity. The prominence of knitting and slow stitching had specific projects behind them, and both are easy to take along when I travel. My tracker reflects not only what I enjoy making but also how I fit time for a little creativity into my schedule.

Work in progress: a scrappy patchwork quilt.

The activities with smaller percentages aren’t necessarily signs of neglected interests. Art making and garment sewing still have a place in my creative practice. I suspect the art-making and book arts category will increase with a holiday card-making project on the horizon.

The numbers also remind me that a single prompt can have a surprisingly large influence on how my creative time is spent. My Make Nine “Yarn” prompt has become an ongoing project that will continue up until the holiday season.

Finishing out the year 

With two months left in the year, these percentages may shift slightly. But the real value of my Create Daily Tracker—which I’ve used since 2020—is that it keeps me accountable to my practice. Yes, it’s a record of what I’ve done, and I can notice the connections between topics I’m interested in and how I fit them into a my practice. 

A page my 2026 Junk Journal July.

The Create Daily Tracker, as well as my annual Make Nine challenge, helps me find ways to include creativity, and making things with my hands, into daily life.

One quilt makes me think, the other lets me sew

Lately, I’ve been working on two very different quilt projects at the same time: an improv quilt using abstraction and curved piecing (an assignment for a workshop I’m taking with Maria Shell), and a scrappy quilt made with blocks in a classic grid layout. 

Improv piecing and half-square triangle units.

At first glance, these two projects might seem to have very little in common. The improv quilt is all about experimentation, curves, and creating an abstract composition. The scrappy quilt follows a more structured approach, with half-square triangle units coming together to form Broken Dishes blocks.

Working on both simultaneously, however, has turned out to be quite a compatible combination. 

Two quilt tops, two ways of thinking

For my improv quilt, I’m working from a sketch. 

Working from a sketch and determining the piecing sequence.

This means I have to figure out how to cut the fabrics (ruler-free) to construct the shapes, and also reverse engineer the piecing sequence in a way that it can actually be sewn together. It’s taking a lot of brain power to assemble the sections!

The second project is a totally different story. It’s a scrappy patchwork quilt made with half-square triangles and novelty prints that are pieced into blocks and set into a traditional block-based layout (possibly with a sashing). These pieces are a UFO [unfinished object] of my mother-in-law’s.

Half-square triangles made into Broken Dishes blocks.

Over the years, I’ve made half-square triangles a gazillion times (give or take), so the process is pretty much second nature. I can chain piece ’til the cows come home without having to give every step much thought. 

Sometimes your brain needs a break!

To keep my sanity, the familiar HST [half-square triangle] patchwork has become a very welcome break from the improv project. 

Making a pile of scrappy two-at-a-time half-square triangles.

After I’ve spent time figuring out how to construct a complicated combination of abstract shapes, it’s refreshing to switch gears and work on something I know how to do—almost without thinking. When your brain needs a break, let your hands intuitively take the wheel and drive for a while!

The two projects require different kinds of attention. One challenges me to solve problems and think through the process, while the other lets me settle into and enjoy a familiar routine. Both are good exercises in patchwork, for different reasons. 

Leaders and enders: like a double feature for the price of one ticket

This is where the two projects really work together. In using the familiar chain piecing technique, I’m piecing both of these projects at the same time. I use the half-square triangle units as leaders and enders while I piece the curved units for the improv quilt.

Half-square triangle units used for leaders and enders.

Rather than stopping to sew a scrap of fabric at the beginning or end of a seam, I feed in a HST unit. It’s a great way to make use of those little stretches between seams, with the bonus of making progress on both projects at the same time.

While the improv project gets my concentrated attention, the half-square triangles quietly accumulate in the background. By the time I’ve worked through several curved seams, I’ve made a number of units for the block-based quilt, too.

Two-at-a-time half-square triangles from novelty prints.
Revisiting a UFO.

For quilters who already use leaders and enders, this probably sounds familiar. Using leaders and enders is a simple way to keep another project moving along without having to devote a separate sewing session to it. And if you’re working on something that requires a lot of concentration—like my improv project—having a more straightforward project waiting alongside it can be especially satisfying… as well as efficient and productive.

Half-square triangle units and a Broken Dishes block beside my improv curved piecing.

So, for now, I’m moving between two very different kinds of patchwork projects. One asks me to study a sketch and solve construction dilemmas. The other lets me settle into an easy, familiar rhythm… one half-square triangle at a time.

It’s Minion Mitten time!

Sometimes, the best projects we make are the ones that just make you smile! Here is my most recent pair of mittens for my charity knitting project—Minions. 

Minion mittens. Size: child 6-9 yrs.
8” length, 6” hand circumference.

I found a pattern for these adorable little guys on Ravelry and decided it was perfect for my stash-busting mitten-knitting endeavor. With the bright yellow and blue color palette, hand-stitched details, and playful Minion-inspired look, who wouldn’t want a pair of Minions keeping their hands warm??

Added details make the Minions come alive

These mittens required a little more time to make because of the attached eyeballs and the stitched details (mouths and hair). The mitten pattern included directions for knitting the eyeballs, but it was quicker and easier for me to use crochet. The extra time and effort crocheting the eyeballs, hand stitching them to the mitten base, and adding the embroidered details was worth it. Ya gotta love this ridiculously cute pair of handmade Minion goodness!

Minion mitten supplies.

I think these mittens turned out so cute and I hope they bring as much happiness to the little person receiving them. The pattern includes two smaller sizes (2-3 year-old, and 4-6 year-old) and one larger size (10-13 year-old). With the remaining yarn, I might have to knit up another pair. 

Sometimes, a little handmade silliness is exactly what we need these days!