The Blue Tea Party How to's & colour washing from Rosie Mac Q

Colour washing on calico is very quick, easy to do & adds another dimension to embroider. Its a great way for you who are just starting to stitch to make your work look alot more sofisticated with a few simple stitches.
Colour washing can only be done on UNWASHED calico. The natural sizing in the fabric stops the washing from bleeding through the weave so its very easy to stay inside the lines you draw.The more sizing the better. A medium priced calico seems to be the best. The more expensive ones have more cotton & less sizing. The too cheap ones have sizing like a board & less cotton.....so you need to look for the most cotton with the most sizing.
A simple test is to draw a circle with anything on the corner of the calico you intend to use. Fill the circle with tinted water. Make sure it goes to the edge of the line. If the colour doesn't bleed past the line you are good to go.
I like to use a .05 pure brown Zig Writer to trace the designs onto the calico. This make a good fine line that doesnt disappear when you add the watery wash & is easy to embroider over.
Use a light box to trace the images.
To make a wash.....simply add water to pigment until you have the consistency of ink. You can see from the palette I use the amounts of colour required. To these I add the water to make the washes.
I like to use Jo Sonya Acrylic colour for my tints. I do not add any mediums to hold the colour as I have found over the years that the colour stains very well & doesnt require any help.
Jo Sonya is widely avaible in Australia used by most craft people for a wide range of work. It is a very useful medium to have in your cupboard but in the end just about any colour that stains will do the job.
The brushed I use for this work are called Rounds. I have a variety of sizes dependinging on the area I am colouring.
Simple rule......little areas, little brushes big areas, big brushes. If you have a couple of No. 3 or 4's a couple of 6 to 8
& a 10 you have most things covered.
The brushed have lovely pointy ends & you can use them like colouring pencils so dont leave them point down in your water or you will loose the bit of the brush that makes this work easy.
I generally use a couple of palettes at the same time. one for the colours & the other to mix the washes. The cheap & cheerful ones are good. I have found that if I add a couple of drops of water to the top of the capful of acrylic colour it wont dry out so quickly & I can continue to use it for a few hours. Use glad wrap (plastic cling film ) over the top of the palette if you want to continue using it the next day.
The only other thing you need to remember is to let each area dry completely before moving on to the next bit. If you dont, your colours will run into each other.
The only time you will use colour together wet is for the shading as this needs to blend.
Colours cannot be redone. Calico is very cheap. If its not right throw it in the bin & start again. This is quicker & much less stressful in the long run
If you work is streaky add more water to the wash or use a larger brush.
If your work is uncontrollably runny use less water & a smaller brush.
The how to's of the colourwashing techniques below are for two of the patterns taken from the Blue Tea Party from Rosie Mac Q for Teddyworks.I hope these will be of assistance to you.


The Plate of Biscuits is the second pattern of the Blue Tea Party Block.

The image on the left has been colour washed & stitched
As you browse down the photos below its easy to see how much difference the stitching makes to the finished work.
All the outlines have been stem stitched
The smarties on the edge of the plate have been satin stitched
The iced biscuit is covered with lots of french knots that resemble hundreds & thousands
The stripes on the chocolate biscuit has been finished with lines of buttonhole stitch
The table cloth has lines of running stitch between the checks.


Here is the list of the Jo Sonya Acrylic colours used for this pattern:
Titanium White, Oxide Yellow, Turners Yellow, Sapphire blue, Cobalt blue Hue,
Raw Sienna, Brown Earth, Napthol Crimson & Cadmium Scarlet.



Starting with the checkered tablecloth under the plate of biscuits is the best way to practice this technique & have something well on the way to being finished
Start with the blue checks.
Mix a pale blue wash using the Sapphire blue & the Cobalt Blue Hue together with Titanium White
Make a second cream wash using the Titanium White with a little of the Turners Yellow & the Oxide Yellow. It only needs a touch to take away the coldness of the white. You will need to make a reasonnable amount of this as its a useful carrier
for other colours.
Because I want my tablecloth to look well loved I have used very uneven colour.
Working with every second square I mostly fill the space with the cream wash & then go around the edges with the pale blue & a smaller brush. Add enough of the blue so only the centres of the squares are left cream. Dont be to even as it will spoill the look. Add extra blue to the side of the plate to create a shadow.

Note.....I have cut these two pieces of work to size on my computer. The shots were taken on a gray day so I needed to take of the edges. You need the edges for your embroidery
All cutting to size is done after all the embellishments have been added.
When the blue squares are completely dry, colour the light squares with the cream wash. You can add the faintest softest amounts of Yellow Oxide to some of the corners of the squares.
Use Raw Sienna at the edges of the plate to keep the shadow going.
Colour the inside bowl of the plate with the cream wash. Its the bit the biscuits are sitting in & is divided roughly into three.
With the smallest brush add a little Raw Sienna shading under the edges of the biscuits & the egde bowl where it starts to flatten out. if the brown looks alittle harsh soften with a wipe of a clean brush.
When this has dried colour the edge of the plate with the same cream wash. Leave the smarties blank.


The diagram here shows the first two biscuits with their washes.
Start with the one with the cherry. mix a little Oxide Yellow & Turners Yellow together. Cover the biscuit leaving the cherry blank
Use the same mix for the corner of the second (pink ) biscuit where the icing hasnt quite covered.
Shade around the edge of the hole for the cherry & the outside edges with a little Raw Sienna.
To make pink I mix a the tiniest amounts of both the dark & mid reds with some white. The reds are fairly strong so it only takes the minutest amounts of pigment
to give you the tint you need.
Use the cream wash in the centre of the second bicuit.
Shade around the edges with the pink. Remember....shading is never even.
Make the pink a little deeper beside the other two biscuits.

Tint the cherry in the middle of the 1st biscuit with a light wash of the Cadmium Red. A little Napthol Crimson is added around the edge.
Use a slash of white to catch the light in the centre,
The 3rd biscuit has been coloured with a wash of Raw Sienna. To shade around the edges of the biscuit & into the corners between the icing, mix a little Brown Earth to Raw Sienna. This will make a darker richer more chocolatey brown
When this has all dried & has been pressed with a hot steam iron you are ready to stitch.
Because you have already done most of the work with your background washes the stitching can be as minimal as you like.
Mostly, because of time constraints, I just do a quick stem stitch on the lines that were drawn. Remember to use only a single strand of cotton otherwise the stitching will look thick & chunky.

The teacup is the next how to.
The colours I have used for this piece are as follows:
Jo Sonya Acrylic Colour...... Titanium White, Yellow Oxide, Turners Yellow,
Sapphire Blue, Cobalt Blue Hue, Raw Sienna, Cadmuim Scarlet & Napthol Crimson.
For most of the work on the cup stick to the smallest brushes.
No. 3/4 rounds
Use the bigger sizes for the background stripes.
I have only given instructions for the fiddley bits.
If you start with the plate of biscuits first, you will find this one much easier to do.
Once all the work is finished, simply stitch over the lines with a single strand of embroidery cotton a couple of shades darker than your wash using a small neat stem stitch. Satin stitch the buttons.


The cup requires a little more patience than the biscuits but it is not difficult.
Its best to use the smallest brushes for this piece.
I have made a pale blue wash using a little Sapphire Blue & Cobalt Blue Hue
with Titanuim White. For the deeper shading I have mixed the two blues together.
Start with a cream wash on the inside top of the cup. With the pale blue wash, work into the corners leaving the rim edge blank. (dont worry- there are lots of diagrams in the pattern to help you )
Add a small amount of the stronger blue right into the corners to make the shadow deeper.
Move down to the front of the cup. The pants have a flap which you need to colour first with the cream wash. (Keep the wash on the inside of the lines of the flap) Use the pale blue to shade down the sides & across the bottom.
Add the darker blue to the under sides of the buttons.
Colour the inside of the pockets with the pale blue. Use the darker blue at the edge of the pockets & at the top of the sides.

When this is almost dry, continue the pale blue wash around the sides of the pants. Leave a very fine line blank between the front flap & the sides of the pants This will help prevent any bleeding when you add the darker shading.
Colour the top of the handle with the cream wash & the lower part with the pale blue. Add a little of the darker blue to the under sides of the top & bottom.
Use the cream wash to fill the rim around the top
When the cup has completely dried, colour the buttons with the red.







Use the smallest brush to colour the stripes on the socks. Fill every second stripe with pale blue. Add a spot of darker blue to the sides. This will give the top of the foot a rounder look.




When these have completely dried, colour the alternate stripes cream with a dot of Raw Sienna at the sides to keep the shadow going.
Again, wait until the stripes have dried.
Colour the shoes with a wash of Cadmium Scarlet (A mid red)
With the littlest brush add some shading down the sides & across the bottom of the front using Napthol Crimson (dark red ) Add a slash of white to the centre front.