Hopefully, I am going to get more regular with this - each week I hope.
Today's collage is inspired by Melanie Testa and Deborah Boschert, as was the last one, here.
I started with a piece of textured furnishing fabric as my foundation, layered on some non woven stabiliser. I get lots of my fabrics for collage at recycling places, as samples.
I collected up some chiffon, lace and other little bits.
Then arranged them to form my background collage. As you can see I am using a purple/green colourway, which is one of my favourites.
I stitched them all down free motion, using a green rayon thread. The stitching is very simple on this one, just fastening the pieces down.
Then I took some lilac coloured sheer chiffon for the applique.
And stitched a leaf silhouette on it.
Then trimmed back around it to create a raw edge applique. Don't cut too close, or you will be sorry - more about that later.
Then I started embellishing.
I did some seed stitching in the large green chiffon square with gold metallic thread, and added a little dragonfly made from knitted wire tube and some beads. (hopefully I will do a tutorial on these later).
I also did some chain stitch curves and a spiral with a variegated perle thread. I blanket stitched the edge with the same thread.
Now I hear you saying, what about cutting the applique too close? I did cut too close in places and when I was doing the seed stitch, the applique came out of the stitches in places. I repaired it with a little fusible tape, ironed under the loose bits, but the fusible was visible. That was when I decided to add the dragonfly and the chain stitch. They covered up my mistakes and finished the piece. Yes!
And here is the finished piece. It is about 8x10in. Of course I could have kept embellishing forever, but doing a weekly video makes me keep it simple, which is probably a good thing.
"Once upon a time there was a Little House way out in the country.
She
was a pretty Little House and she was strong and well built."
So begins
Virginia Lee Burton's classic The Little House, winner of the prestigious Caldecott Medal in 1943.
This ATC was stitched with wool on water soluble stabiliser and then needlefelted, this was from an article by Jan beaney and Jean Littlejohn, the stitching queens in " fabric from cloth" Quilting arts 48 and also here.
I used my prompt cards for this one and they were
Use heavy stitching
Add a charm
I had recently read the article in QA and decided this was a great way to use heavy stitching. I selected a little charm of a house, which inspired the design ( but forgot to add it in the photo.
Here it is with the charm added with a brad.
Remember this digital projection of a piece I started using prompts?
Well I have done a little bit of work on it after a lot of thinking. My work often takes a lot of that before I find what I want to do with it.
Here is where I am at the moment. I was inspired by Melanie Testa "Inspired to quilt" and using sheers, to add a sheer layer and as I was about to stitch it, I thought of using some black sheer and reverse applique to outline the butterfly. I like the effect, however I couldn't solder the edges of the black because I already had a sheer beneath it, so I have a few problems with the black sheer fraying as a result. I have stabilised it, but it looks terrible close up, so I am bow going to do double sided blanket stitch around it to make it look better, I will do some free motion embroidery over the sheer, then I will create sheer flower silhouettes with the soldering iron and sew them down.
Well, this has taken me all day! but the video is finally uploading. In the video I will be making a journal cover using a fibre entrapment technique to create a gorgeous surface.
As this is my first video, I hope you will excuse the fact that I accidentally clicked stop when I was supposed to click go and lost the second half of the binding section. So I have embedded a you tube video about binding below to assist if you need it.
If you want to make your own butterbox journal, you can find the tutorial here on Gwen Diehn's blog, although I heard about it from Melanie Testa.
I can honestly say that this was not my best sewing and next week's tutorial will be a little simpler (sigh) and use a better camera. My web cam is OK for face to face and hands on stuff, but not for sewing and tiny stuff, so I have glossed over the sewing bits.
Zippered Journal
Materials
Journal - all measurements depend on your journal, so make sure you have it handy before you start
A piece of fabric and a piece of tulle at least 2 inches larger on all sides than the opened out journal for the background
As you can just see here, the opened out book has been traced in chalk on the background
A piece of heavy interfacing at least 1 inch larger on all sides than the opened out journal
Double fold bias binding (this was left over from quilting) and a length of zipper by the meter
And of course lots of yummy embellishing thread I have used a selection of black, white and silver is varying textures)
Adding fibres
Back your Background with the interfacing. (because we are going to free motion over the tulle, we need a firm foundation so we don't need to use a hoop.)
Add your fibres, I added a light amount of feathered merino tops first.
Finish by layering and pinning the tulle over the top (pin outside the main area of the background)
The tulle is not strictly neccessary, but it will make the journal more durable. Free Motion
Set up your machine for free motion, with the feed dogs down, a darning foot on and any other tools you use. I use a silicone mat to help with slip during free motion. Just remember to take it off when you put the feed dogs up, or the dogs will not work!
Take your time and just sew swirls and circles all over the tulle until the threads are anchored
Cutting
Next, cut your fabric to an half an inch larger all around than the opened out book
Also cut two pieces half the size of your fabric and fold them in about a third on the long side
these will form the inside of the front and back. Place them with the fold to the centre and raw edge underneath and staystitch
Adding Zipper
After making this a few times, I think it would be easier to put the binding on first, then the zip, however, in the video I did it the other way around.
Using a zipper foot, start stitching the zip at the top right of the spine, and follow around, snipping at the corners to fit. Stitch only half way around, to the bottom right of the spine.
Unzip the zip, leaving the two sides in place and flip the unsewn half to the other side of the cover. Sew in place the same way
Slide the zipper head back into place, and bar tack each end of the zipper. Binding
Open the zipper out again and sew the binding tape to the inside edge of the cover, folding to form a mitre at the corners
fold and overlap the ends before stitching down.
Open out the cover and fold the binding to the front
Secure either by hand or using a straight stitch, folding the corners into mitres as you go
Add a journal, zip it up and off you go!
I have not had time to write detailed notes and put a PDF together for you, but will during the next week. I just hope my friend, whom this was made for likes it. It is her birthday today!
Without further adieu, here is the tutorial
And here is a short video on binding to help you if you need it.
This is from daystyle designs which is an excellent site.
Don't forget to check in tomorrow for how to use up all those scraps of thread and get some new fabric out of it!
