Collage sampler

After watching Laura Wasilowski and Frieda Anderson on Sewing with Nancy (here)the other day, I was inspired to do a few small collages.  In one of the segments, Laura made up a pattern sampler of nine small squares.  I started out making patterns with strips and such,

But it was not long before my little squares started to be pictures instead of patterns, lol.

Here are all the little squares up on a felt board.  I have a range of these felt boards, which are just a timber frame like for a stretched canvas, only I have lots of different sizes covered in felt for viewing work on before I make finishing decisions  I call them preview boards.  Sometimes, a black border can give you an idea of what a finished piece will look like.  In any case, I tend to mount my work on stretched canvas when it is finished, so it works for me.

Above, the boards range in size from 8 to 24" square and lots of rectangles in between.
Anyhow, back to the work at hand.
I will just go through each block and show you what I did whilst I was playing.

This one was pretty similar to one of LH's in the video,only I cut some bias strips with my curvy rotary cutter blade and put them in the centre of each leaf.  It looks pretty effective.

This was the next one and it started out as the purple rays on a green background, but I decided it was a bit boring, so I played around with splitting and layering the leaf shapes.

In this one I used bias strips to curve and make wavy lines.  As I was doing it, I thought about how it might look if I put little knots in like in tree bark.

After I cut the bits for the leaf centres earlier, I had a little triangle left with curvy edges.  I decided it looked like a sunflower petal, so I made some more, only this time I used the larger wave blade.

My next experiment was to use the curvy blades to make some water by layering different colours.  Then I added some grass and reeds.

Next, I thought I would make a tree.  A very bloody tree!  At this stage I cut myself with the rotary cutter - as you do!  I did not realise how much my finger was bleeding until I dripped it all over my tree! Yuk!  OH well, a bit of paint or embellishment will fix it.  And for easy identification 50 years from now, it has my DNA.
After a little break, I played with the wave blade and got these cute little leaves by lining up the blade so that the last cut met the first cut and did not stay an equal distance away (like in the leaf centres)  It took a while to get it right, but I had fun with it.

Then, I remembered that I had a scallop template in my quilting templates and I thought - "I wonder if I can make big leaves the same way, and guess what - I did, aren't they cute?

Whilst I was cutting the big leaves, I noticed the patterns the strips of leaves made as I cut them and so I made that pattern, too.  There are actually two patterns on this square.

While I was thinking about what to put in the last square, I happened to look at the scraps left from the tree's leaves and noticed how two of them together made a pine tree, so that became my last square for the sampler.
As you see, it doesn't take me long to get back to playing after a big day doing boring stuff.
Now on to lots of stitching and embellishment.

Fusing

The other day when I was putting together a leaf collage. I noticed that my fused fabric box was not up to scratch.

It did not have any sheets of fused fabric and most of it was little tiny scraps of colours that I don't use very often.
Also, I was watching Laura Wasilowski and Frieda Anderson on Sewing with Nancy (here) and was inspired to do a few small collages.  My collages can't really be called whimsical like theirs can, but the technique is basically the same, with a few different fabrics and other additions.  I do like to put hand embellishments on, like Laura, and machine embroider, like Frieda, but generally my colour sense is a bit more subdued.  Probably because I am, too.
So, I decided to embark upon a day (and night) fusing fabric to build my stock back up and also to use up a roll of fusible that I hate at the same time (Then I can buy a nicer roll to replace it!)

First, I chose my fabrics, a lot of textures and solids, not too many prints, which is also different from LW and FA.

Here is a first batch of greens, ready to fuse on the sheet below them.  I fuse about a metre square at a time.

And the greens all laid out ready to fuse.  I tack the pieces down lightly with the tip of the iron, and deal with any creases first.

Then I cover with release paper and iron more fully. (In the case of this terrible fusible batch, this means a fair bit of ironing to fuse it)

When cool, (I usually leave it overnight), I peel back the whole sheet.  The longer you leave it before peeling, the less likely it is for it to stick to itself.

After I am done, which in this case was ten and a half metres later, I am left with lots of large release sheets to use.  This is only half of them, since the rest are still curing underneath.  If I need small pieces for release paper, I use Silicone coated baking paper from the supermarket (in Australia), rather than cutting up the big sheets, which are very useful.

Of course, the main reason for doing this is to end up with lots and lots of fused fabric, like this.

And to fill up my fused fabric box, of course.  It looks much more healthy now!
Perfect for me to get into and cut up into pieces for new collages, lol.

Sometimes, to be creative requires a bit of preparation

Sea and sky

I have been suffering with a dose of flu , and been very lazy, but I have been experimenting with sea and sky effects.
First my final cloud samples before actually making the real thing for....a project.

In the picture above I have used pale blue satin as a foundation.  The cloud on the left is cotton wool.  No, it is not a cotton wool looking cloud it is actually needlefelted with cotton wool - from the supermarket.  I actually liked the effect it had better than the marino tops/roving which is on the right.  I have used the cotton wool in a very, very secret project.

Whilst I was experimenting with needlefelting on the satin, I accidentally scorched some satin with a too hot iron.... and I liked it.  It reminded meof the surface of ripples in a pool of water.  I thought about how the pebbles at the bottom would show through and then I decided to repeat this with some organza which is more transparent.  In the samples below I have put a printout of pebbles under a range of scorched organza samples to see how it looks.

This first white organza bubbled up reallynicely and I felt it would form a nice clear edge for a pond.

The next white organza was a bit more grainy in texture and looked alittle more frothy.

In the sample above, which is a pale blue,  I went a bit far with the iron,  but I liked the ripple effect.  Every piece of organza had a different heat tolerance even if they were from the same batch but different colours.

This one is a deeper dark blue that would be good to use in the deeper part of the pool.

This pale blue green sample buckled in a very tight grid.

And this final sample of very dark blue was very touchy about temperature and time and even with several goes I could not catch it at the bubbling stage.  More experimentation needed here.

Then I went on to some samples to look like the ocean.  I have been dilly dallying with organza of different shades of blue and overlapping them to create the effect of waves.  I came up with this idea.

Here is the initial layer. I used organza with fusible behind.   It is important to keep fusing periodically so the little snips of water don't get moved or accidentally turned over, however you need to keep the heat to a minimum as well or else the organzas will start to melt.  They won't really buckle like in my above experiment, because the fusible stops the shrinkage, but they will melt and look a little glassy.

Here is a final sample after many layers have been fused and overlapped over each other.  I found as I went on that the squiggly shape was not really neccessary and that it took a long time to fill in areas due to it's shape.
So there we are I think I have found the texture I want for ocean waves.

Thread painting for spring

I decided that we will continue with these little thread paintings, and cover a few techniques with each one.
I have got a few ideas for different types of landscapes, but since it is spring over in the northern hemisphere, I thought we might begin with a daffodil.

Above is my pattern, which you can find here.The pattern size is 6x4 inches or A6 size.

 Obviously, with this pattern, it is important to trace the pattern backwards because when we fuse it it will be a mirror image, This is because the picture is not symmetrical.  Above you see my paper backed fused fabrics.  What I do is take the paper off, trace the pattern pieces and re-fuse the paper BACKWARDS, in other words I place the pencil next to the fabric.

 

And here they are cut apart.  I remove the papers and rearrange them in the backing.  Using my own judgement.

Above, the pieces are arranged in a pleasing way, so

I fuse them down inside the line marked from the pattern.

Here is a close up, showing the colours more clearly.  There are two colours for the petals and trumpet.  The two back petals and the underneath part of the trumpet are a  darket colour.

We will start defining the flower next week, so get your green and yellow threads ready!

Easter basket

 WOW!  and I really mean WOW or Workshop on the Web.  I won!  Workshop on the web is a quarterly english online magazine that I joined a while ago.  It puts out really professional tutorials by some of the best and well-known fibre artists in the UK and elsewhere - and I have won some yummy goodies and a book and entry to an online group for the book.  The book is called Mixed Media: New Studio Techniques by Isobel Hall and Maggie Davies.  You can click on their names to see the great work they do and I know you will agree that this win is perfect for me.


With easter looming, I thought a little project for kiddies might be the go.
This is a small easter basket, which can be as simple or as elegant as you like.
Start with the fabric (or paper, or card) you  wish to use.  I have decided to make mine using the plastic collage  of fusible web I did a few weeks ago

You will need a square.  I chose nine inches, since it can be divided easily by three.  I actually cut my fusible collage a bit bigger to allow for shrinkage during ironing.  I ironed it on to an aqua piece of cotton.  You will need a reasonably stiff piece of fabric, or one which has been stabilised well

Remember to use parchment paper if you are using webbing as I am.

Once ironed, I trimmed the piece to it's final size

My piece shrank a little more than I wanted, so I am using an old tradesman's trick to easily divide into thirds (leave me a comment if you want to know more)

Mark lines, dividing the fabric into thirds left to right and top to bottom (like a nine-patch)

 Sew ribbon, or cording or yarn along the two horizontal lines.  I have used a flat knitting tape which was variegated in all the colours on the other side.  I attached it with straight stitch.

Do the same along the vertical lines, making a grid.  (make sure you leave enough free at each end to tie a bow)

I ran a line of clear nail polish around the edge of the fabric to seal it and stop it fraying.  If you wish you could use fray stop, or you could bind the edge, or do satin stitch, or blanket stitch.  It is all up to you.

Grab two adjacent ribbons, (if you look at the pic above, I mean the two ribbons that come out on each side of a corner, like the two on which the bottle is sitting) and tie them in a bow.

Fold over the little bunny ear you create after tying to show the inside fabric

Repeat this for all four corners

The finished basket.  You  might need to tweak the bottom corners a little to make them sit square.

Because you have made a two sided fabric, you can decide which side is out and change it to suit yourself

There are a myriad of options to assemble your box. You can sew ribbons on as I outlined above, you can sew a button and loop on or you can simply sew up the side seams, you can use grommets and ribbon, similar to the cardboard idea below.  You can quilt the fabric, you can free machine embroider, add embellishments

As I said, this is a simple little basket, and in fact, with a little assistance, you could have kids making their own out of card.  Instead of sewing ribbon on (which you could still do), punch holes in the corners to thread ribbon through.

I know kids would love to make these for their easter eggs, but perhaps not big enough?   This can be made as big as you like, I have been thinking of trying a huge one, quilted, to make a picnic basket and as a rug when unfolded, but more thought is needed.

Enjoy your baskets.

Once you open the creative door, ideas are plenty, whilst time is short.  

Choose to do what you love and it will shine.