New Linens with Text on Them!

After doing lots of quilting art, I’m back in the studio, printing more vintage linens with text and other vintage linens. The photo above is to show the detail of the embroidery done by the original owner. This one also has a quote on it, it says,

“Textile fragments hold their histories, stories, and power,”
– Betsy Greer”

Betsy is also known as the Craftivista and coined the term craftivism. She’s also the author of the book, Craftivism: the Art of Craft and Activism.

I saw the quote above on her Instagram and made a note of it, to print later. My first attempt didn’t work – I have a new UV light box and there were some hiccups. (If you know UV light boxes, this will confuse you, as they are incredibly simple things, but the manufacture of this one added a layer of unnecessary stuff, while also not explaining that, at all, anywhere.) Here’s a view of the whole hankie:

Light reactive dye print by Elaine Luther on vintage handkerchief, of text and a vintage, handmade doily. April 2025

These look like cyanotypes, which I also make, but these are made with Jacquard’s Solar Fast Dye.

Here’s another one:

Light reactive dye print by Elaine Luther with a quote on it from the Centre Pompadour. April 2025.

The Centre Pompadour is a feminist artist residency in France. They have some terrific statements on their website.

The next step for these is to wrap a canvas with fabric and stitch the linen down to it, so that they can be hung in a gallery that has a gallery wire/bar system.

I also love to show these in galleries by pinning them directly to the wall, like so:

Two Gallery Walls at Ghost Prints and Shadow Work by Elaine Luther. Two runners and many printed handkerchiefs, napkins and placemats.
Each one is a photogram. Photo by Dulce Rodriguez.

Here’s what they look like when stitched to canvas:

“Shadow work is work that you do that someone else used to get paid for.” Blue light reactive dye printed doily, stitched to 12″ x 12″ canvas, wrapped with gingham cotton fabric. Copyright Elaine Luther 2023.

If you’re interested in learning cyanotype or working with Solar Fast, I have a blog post on cyanotype here, with lots of resources on getting started.

The manufacturer, Jacquard, has excellent videos and tutorials on how to work with Solar Fast, which is generally not available in stores, you’d need to order it.

I’ve printed lots and lots of these since 2022, enough to fill two whole solo shows – one of mostly hankies and placemats and napkins with prints of doilies, collars and dried plants, and one show with mostly doilies with words on them.

After doing lots of quilting in 2024, (and I’m still quilting), I’m happy to get back to the printing section of the studio, to make more of these. These are fun because they’re stand alone objects that are completed in a couple of hours, vs. the weeks and weeks to make a quilt!

My plan is to make at least one print a week.

If you love these prints, I’ve turned some of them into fabric, with technical assistance from Becka Rahn.

Digital mock up of a tablecloth by Elaine Luther on Spoonflower.com

And here’s the real thing:

Stack of fabrics by Elaine Luther, printed by Spoonflower.com

I had that printed on quilting cotton, plus a fat quarter of it on a sheer fabric.

You can visit my Spoonflower shop here. What is Spoonflower? It’s a digital print on demand company that prints high quality fabric on a white range of types of fabric. Get on their mailing list to be notified of sales. The fabric washes up wonderfully, it’s good stuff!

If you use some of my fabric, please tag me when you post your work, I’d love to see it!

From another company, I’ve ordered a silk scarf for myself with this pattern! I’ll be wearing that to my next art opening.

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This post was originally published here, on ElaineLutherArt.com, on April 22, 2025.