Challenge update and More Pears

It's lovely to be able to share two more finished Pears for the Pear Tree Christmas decoration. Only 7 to go!

It's especially lovely to post two tiny finished items when I have spent such a lot of time and mind power on the Eight Is Great Challenge today. 

This morning I was keen to keep sewing, and start embellishing the wallhanging with fabric paint.

I started with a twinkly glitter/crystal product, and applied it with a damp paint brush on dry fabric. Oh! What a mistake! 

It dried showing the opaque medium as a cloud. You can see in this close up. As the day drew on, the clouds started to attract dust and fluff and were starting to look really dirty.

Before I finished painting the background fabric I added a bit of water to some of the fabric paint, and it went kind of milky, then the glitter spread beautifully! And it had the desired effect without the gooey clouds, glittery fabric without stiffness.. perfection! 

Wouldn't it look wonderful like this all over? I set about trying to remove the excess. It dried very quickly on the fabric in the warm climate here, but the packaging says to avoid washing it for 72 hours for a permanent fix. That gives me a small window to try to remove the excess paint blobs.

After googling how to remove fabric paint, I opened my nail technician kit and tried pure acetone, pure ethanol, dishwashing liquid and a toothbrush... no... not coming away.

Only one thing for it, complete the quilting, add the binding, then wash it. Seriously wash it. 

It is now in the washing machine on a soak cycle with sard wonder spray, biozet powder and vanish stain remover. In the morning it should be blob free, ready for a milky wash of glittery paint that dries clear without stiffness.

Isn't this what a challenge is for? Learning all the time! It's late here. Way past bedtime. I hope to share the finished item tomorrow.

Update the next day:

The glitter has all washed out leaving behind clumps of glue stuff. I have been applying pure Eucalyptus oil with a brush one one clump at a time, then using tweezers to rub the gluey stuff off. It's half done now - ooh what a sticky mess... then I will rinse it in the washing machine, and reapply glitter paint in a diluted wash.

It smells really good!