Even though I'm usually quite the chatty gal when it comes to writing, today is about short and sweet... I really should be quilting right now to meet my Nadelwelt deadline, but not without stopping in and saying hello first.
... and like I shared last week, felt is the flavor of the month (at least for me it is), but this week it's about mixing mediums. I love combining fabric and paper, and kraft paper is usually my paper of choice - it's natural, it's simple, and it's not fussy. I love adding little decorative stitches to paper too, and this little awl has been a must in my sewing bag for quite some time now.
How about a closer look? Once I finished the applique and hand stitching, I sewed it onto the front of a simple journal... so fun, don't you think?
... and of course I just had to add a few Alison Glass sun print fabrics to give it that strong pop of color... I suppose once a color girl, always a color girl, right?
I've had several questions about how I made and finished this, and I had thought about putting together a little video series after the dust settles... how would you like to join me?
When I was a little girl, I would take a peanut butter sandwich in my school lunch everyday... and I really mean EVERY day. No jelly, just peanut butter. I suppose this went on for years, and I have to admit that I smile inwardly when my littlest asks for a cream cheese sandwich, yup, you guessed it... EVERY day.
While I no longer eat peanut butter sandwiches on a daily basis, I do notice that I have a tendency that when I get in a phase, that I stick with for a while... just like my peanut butter sandwiches. I suppose that the need to get it fully out of my system sometimes doesn't just stop with the first project. And it would appear that felt applique is the current flavor of the month.
I had shared little sneak peeks of my washing symbols project last week, but now they are finished up and ready to go to Nadelwelt. I really wanted to focus on more detailed quilting, and love the way these turned out once they were framed... see, I don't always make just pillows ; )
But as you can imagine, one project snowballs into another, and then into the next... like a potato chip, I couldn't stop with just one, right?!? I shared this sneak peak on Instagram this week of yet another felt applique project that I am working on... quilted up and ready to be turned into? what else...
... another peanut butter sandwich. You can see it coming now, can't you?
Do you have a tendency to get stuck on one favorite technique, pattern, favorite fabric pull like a favorite sandwich?
You have noticed that last week I was MIA... March has been just one big whirlwind in our family with two birthdays literally days apart, the release of my Lovbirds' Garden pattern, and Easter break sandwiched in between it all. Needless to say after all that I simply did not have the energy to write about it, but that's ok because all work and no play makes Jane a dull girl, right?
But now my focus has fully shifted towards the final push until Nadelwelt.... on my to-do list I "just" have to:
- finish quilting & bind Home Sweet Home applique sampler
- finish pattern/corrections for Home Sweet Home
- have my patterns printed out
- finish show presentations
- and too many other things that should be on my list, but I just don't know what they are yet
that's not so much... well, at least that what I keep telling myself.
Before any kind of show, I like to do a little mock set-up just to make sure that I've thought the layout through, and figure what needs to be tweaked. I've been busy finishing up a few felt applique samples for one of my classes.
I'm over the moon thrilled that Alison Glass made up two template pages that I will be sharing with my class participants... these are exclusives from her Applique book, and what I used for this first pillow.
Remember those washing symbols that I was working on a while back?... well, they were perfect little free-motion quilting practice and are all framed up. More on those later...
Keep your fingers crossed for me... so much to do, so little time. What's keeping you busy these days?
I know that I've mentioned several times over the past month, how excited I am that I will be teaching a starch applique class at the Nadelwelt in Karlsruhe, Germany in May... perhaps what I didn't mention is that I am actually teaching two classes this year!?! So, right now, I've been busy working on a few samples on how to turn favorite fabric designs into felt applique shapes.
I've always enjoyed mixing different mediums with fabric... especially paper and felt. The main thing for me is that fabric has to be included in that mix. You may remember this pillow that I started the year out with last year... well, it has been my inspiration for this second class.
There are a lot of people who might enjoy applique, but don't feel that they are "artsy" enough to draw their own motifs, and let's face it - purchasing one pattern after the next can be kind of expensive. So, my thought was why not let some of your favorite designers give you a hand?
Over the next weeks, I'll be sharing the finished versions of these, but I thought a few sneak peeks might be enough to hold you until then. You've seen this project already, but now it quilted and ready to be finished.
So, what are your favorite mixed mediums to work with?
I've always enjoyed mixing a variety of mediums... especially when one of them is fabric. I was recently inspired to re-visit a previous project of mine, and make another wool felt applique project. With using freezer paper as a template, it's an absolute dream - no marking, no slipping templates, just cut.
Since I've been working so much on pattern writing, I needed a project that I could simply retire to the couch with instead. I find that if I work too long at the computer, it's hard to then jump onto the sewing machine, so ... writing patterns by day, crafting by night is the plan.
What I love about working with felt is that you can layer the shapes with fabric. For me, this gives the project so much more depth, and I love adding all those pretty little unexpected details and accents with favorite fabrics.
It's interesting that when I work on a project, I usually have a very specific and very definite colorway that should be used. Somehow these days, a little touch of grey has been slipping into the mix, and I don't know how it happened? I love to work with a cool color palette, and grey (in a small accent form) is a nice contrast.
Any colors that "sneaked" their way into your projects that you weren't exactly expecting?
Sometimes when I work on a project, it feels natural to me that some of the same design elements within the fabric should also be incorporated into the project itself. I love applique, and I especially love to mix mediums. I actually started this project two years ago when I was inspired by Alison Glass' Applique book, and only recently pulled it back out to finish it.
I thought that adding the the bird and the bee outlines from Alison's Seventy Six fabric collection was the perfect way to complete this. Since I had a good response on Instagram concerning a tutorial, I thought I would pass on to you how I did it:
1. Start with the fabric you would like to use and make a copy of it. For the actual project I enlarged it by 115%, but here it is enlarged to 140% for better visibility. (Alison Glass Flourish, color Pomegranate for Andover fabrics)
2. With a black Sharpie, I simply outlined the shape. You can see how I started on the right side, and extended the lines that were open so as to have a closed shape. I also added an inner freehand outline on the wing, and in the body, where the fabric can peek through later.
3. Now for the best part... did someone say Freezer Paper? Trace the outline from the copy, and cut out the finished shape.
4. The beauty of Freezer Paper is that it irons onto the fabric medium that you are working with, and stays in place without slipping and sliding when cutting. Iron on and cut out entire shape as well as the inner cut out areas.
5. Select the peek-a-boo fabric that you would like behind the felt and cut it large enough so that it is hidden behind the shape. Stitch the felt shape as close to the edge as possible, starting with the outer edges, and then the inner cut out edges.
It's always fun to play around with fussy cut snippits peeking out from behind the felt, don't you think?
Sun Print 2017 fabrics from Alison Glass, to be released this January.
Linking up this week with Let's Bee Social.
