Sunday Sampler

Earlier this week I showed you a sampler I was putting together.

Last year I spent almost a full year working my way through a book about Fabric Embellishing.  The posts tracking my explorations were the beginnings of what is now Serendipity Sunday.  At the time I was making the samples I had no thought of what to do with the finished pieces.  Most of them are fairly close to the same size – with a few notable exceptions – so the task of finishing them up was mostly pairing them up and adding a finished edge.

Then I decided to bind them together in a fabric book.  Well, that will work fine, except for that one piece that is much larger!  So I’ll make it the cover!  Now I need a back cover . . .

I printed a picture of the book and the dates and added some of the leftover sashiko embroidery.  At this point I realized that this should probably be the front cover.  Unfortunately, I’ve already started binding the pages together!  Oh well.

Speaking of binding – I chose a coptic stitch to attach them all.  When done correctly, it makes a neat chain stitch along the spine.  It does, however, take some practice and benefits from a little advanced planning.  Unfortunately, PLAN is a 4-letter word and rather scarce in my vocabulary!  But it was all a learning experience!

One thing I learned is that any stitched binding is probably going to be a lot easier if all the pages have the same kind of edge finish.  You can see here that I’ve used an envelop edge, satin stitch, ricrac, embroidered edge, top-stitching, and quilt-binding.  The two threads pass through inside the page twice in each direction.  That is really hard on some of these edgings!

But, I managed somehow, and I’m pleased with the result.  Most of the pages are from pieces I’ve already posted here – you can click on SSunday or fabric embellishing in the categories list to review.  Here are a couple that you might not have seen before:

Sneak Preview

I spent most of the past week in Des Moines, Iowa, attending the AQS show.  This was my first time at a national level quilt show and all I can say is “Wow!”

I took two-and-a-half days of classes, from hand quilting to stamping on fabric. 

These two photos show some of the projects from those classes.  As I complete work on these projects over the next few days/weeks/months (!) I will show better photos and talk about what I learned. 

So, this is your preview of things to come.  Now if I can just get my brain wrapped around all the ideas and inspiration that I was bombarded with!

Silky Sunday

Here I am with the promised missing chapter . . . finally!  You might remember I had to skip ahead because I couldn’t find where I stashed the silk cocoons and rods.  I found the rods, but only one color of cocoons.  Hmmm.  I thought I ordered more, but perhaps not.  (They say the mind is the first to go!)  No matter, I got some more.  You want to see what I did?

The cocoons need to be soaked for a couple of hours so you can pull them apart.  I was able to get three layers on most of them.  They are drying out in the picture above.

While waiting for the cocoons to dry, I tackled one of the silk rods.  I separated layers by flexing and manipulating a rod until I could see multiple layers.  I found it interesting to see that the inner layers did not get very much color from the dying process.

By gathering one edge of a layer, I made these little rosettes.  There are some nice color variations here, I think. 

I kept one of the outer layers in its original form and stitched it down over some bunched fabric with beads.  A little free-form interest there!

Then I stacked cocoon “flowers” and stitched them down with beads as well.  This method has many variations and one could have an abundant garden just with cocoons!

And here is the full piece.  I’m sure you remember the infamous burning from a couple of weeks ago.  I think the silk flowers improved it at least a little!

And guess what?  This is the LAST technique in the book!!  It’s hard to believe it’s been a year since I started working my way through this book (see the first post here).  Maybe the hard-to-believe part is that I’ve stuck with it.  LOL!

So what happens next?  I still have a dozen or so pieces that need to be finished up.  I think I’ll take a short break from the Sunday Shenanigans to do that, and to contemplate what my next Sunday project will be.  Folded flowers?  Machine work?  Painting or dyeing fabric?  I’ve got a ton of books to choose from!

I’ll be back, though.  You can count on it! 

Smoky Sunday

You’ve probably guessed from the title – it was another day of burning fabric.  No ashes this time, but smoke?  Yes.

This time I used a Soldering Iron to burn through layers of chiffon.  The top layer has these silver dragonflies, so I tried to work with them in my designing.

Theoretically, it’s possible to burn through to different layers depending on how long you hold the iron to the fabric.  It takes a very light touch . . . which I do not have!  I did some free-motion stitching after I finished burning.

I have to say that this method doesn’t really excite me.  I used several layers and different colors, but I think the last two are all that really show.  I had a lot more fun setting the whole thing on fire last week!  Not so much this week.  Those funky exclamation points in the top picture are kind of cool, though.  They happened when I laid the tool at an angle rather than using just the tip.  I’ll have to keep that in mind for future projects.

Now to figure out how to get rid of the smell of burnt chiffon.  Yuk!

Sooty Sunday

If there is any way to make a mess of something, I will find it!  Although it’s usually when I’m wearing white.  Guess I lucked out today!

That mess up there is a by-product of today’s technique . . .

Edge Burning!

First I needed a quilted sandwich.  In fact, putting this together and quilting it took most of the afternoon!  Plus a bobbin refill!  Plus running out of top thread!  All that so I could . . .

set it on fire!!!  Just call me Pyro Pete.  Wow, that stuff can really burn!  I totally get the reason for fire retardant sleepwear!  Fortunately, I had a couple shop towels and plenty of water on hand.

And here is the finished piece.   Check out those cool edges!  I will probably appliqué it to a background.

Like this.  Maybe with some beads or metal accents.   I can think of several options.

Oh yeah, remember the silk cocoons and rods I mislaid?  Still haven’t found them, but I have the perfect trick to make them turn up . . . I will order more!  Yep, that oughta do it!

Sublime Sunday

Today’s topic was supposed to be silk cocoons and carrier rods.  And a few weeks ago, I ordered some so they would be ready when we reached this technique.  I carefully put them in a safe place.  Can you see where this is going?  Yup!  I can’t find them!!!

So, rather than waste time looking, I decided to skip ahead.  Today, I made Fabric Beads!

There are a couple of ways to make fabric beads.  One way is to use glue and simply wrap different widths of fabric.

That’s how I made the bead on the left.  I added beads and some glitter, so that was pretty simple.

The other way is to use different synthetics and plastic fibers and use a heat gun to fuse them together.  The other three beads above were made using that method.  I used chiffon, some angelina, some Tyvek, and some rayon thread.  The different fibers react differently to heat and you get some pretty cool shapes.

Both of these are heated and fused.  The top one has a regular cotton fabric as the base and is tied with a combination of yarns.  The yarns melted at different rates and made a pretty cool “ornament” on the bead.  The other bead has some crinkled chiffon as the base and the ends did an interesting curl and twist.

This one is cotton fabric strips rolled up.  I laid a bead of glue around the middle there and rolled it in microbeads and glitter.  I like how the green fabric is starting to fray, too.  That could be another way to go when making fabric beads. 

Every once in awhile I will see an article on making beads – from fabric, yarns, smaller beads, etc.  Today’s play time really just touched the surface.  Fun stuff!

Now, if I could just find those silk rods!  They will turn up some day.  When they do, I’ll go back to that page in the book.  I promise!

Sunday Shuffle

Today’s technique should have been quick and easy.  Um, not so much on the quick part.  Let me explain.

The subject is “plastic pockets.”  I tried three different methods for attaching small bits to fabric by using a plastic pocket to encase them.

The first one is a simple pocket to hold something that may be removed and returned . . . like a tag.  OK, so first I had to make a tag to put in there.  That was fun, although it took a lot longer to make the tag than to make its pocket!  I used Staz-On ink to stamp the flourish on the pocket for added interest.

For this pocket, I stitched three sides of the plastic down, then stuffed to goodies into it before stitching the fourth side.  That works pretty well, especially for a small pocket.

For this pocket, I stitched the plastic to a separate sheet of paper, filled it, and stitched it shut before stitching it down to the fabric.  There’s not as much give in this pocket, so the confetti has stayed bunched up in one spot.  I need to give that some thought!

On this last piece you can see evidence of the REAL problem with this technique.  You might expect the plastic to slip easily through the sewing machine, but it doesn’t.  Oh no – that would be too easy!  The plastic sticks to the presser foot and is impossible to sew.  The answer is to use a sheet of tissue to cover the plastic and the stitching will behave normally.

EXCEPT .  .  . now you have to pick all that tissue out from between the stitches.  That is not fun!!!  So much not fun, that I decided to leave it on this last pocket to provide extra “interest”!  Especially since the color matches.  I think that was an acceptable solution.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!

Back-tracking on Sunday

Since I piddled around most of Sunday, I did not have enough time to completely explore the craft foam and had to go back to it a day or two later.  Here is what I found.

Just for a quick review – these pieces of craft foam were heated by placing the foam under a sheet of parchment and holding a dry iron on it for about 20 seconds.  Then I quickly removed the parchment and pressed a stamp into the foam.  Once the pieces cooled off, I brushed acrylic paint across the surface.

On these pieces I layered the foam between two pieces of fabric and stitched the flower shapes.  I then used a heat gun and blasted each piece.  The photo above showed before heating (left) and after (right).  The foam shrinks back from the edges and will start to curl.  I bent the petals up before it cooled to give some shaping.

The red flowers and leaves were done using the same technique.  Some pieces have more shape than others, but reheating allows you to fine tune your flowers, etc.

It occurred to me that I could use the heat gun for impressing stamps, so I tried that.  Personally, I prefer doing it this way.  I found I could be more precise in heating the foam and get the stamp into it quicker.  Plus, I can sit at my worktable instead of standing at the ironing board!

I brushed a little PearlEx powder on the white star above, and rubbed the surface of the blue star with oil pastel.

The white foam I was using is 3mm thick and it occurred to me that it might behave differently if it was thinner.  So I pulled out a sheet of 2mm foam – although it looks more like half the thickness of the white.  And what I learned was that the foam doesn’t just shrink to the stitching, but it continues to shrink so that the fabric begins to puff up!  Wow!

I tried to get a photo to show that puffiness, but it’s something you’d have to see for yourself.  You may be wondering why I started trying this out on the 3mm foam if I had some thinner stuff on hand.  Because my brain gets alternate Sundays off!  Don’t you hate it when that happens?

So, here is the completed page.  I used my sewing machine to stitch down the two square pieces and the leaves.  Then I attached the flowers and stars by stitching beads in their centers.  And, yes, the thinner foam was a LOT easier to stitch through.  Duh!

If you haven’t played with craft foam (also called fun foam), I encourage you to try it out.  Definitely go for the thin stuff, though!

Sidetracked Sunday

Today was one of those dis-jointed days.  A day where I worked on a little bit of everything, yet got nothing done!  The kind of day when you are busy all day, but have nothing to show for it.  Don’t you just hate that?

Nevertheless, I did try to work on today’s embellishing technique:  using craft foam.

These pieces are the result of heating the foam and then impressing with a stamp.  I then used paint to highlight the impression.   Being quick to stamp while the foam is hot gives the best results.  You can really see which ones had started to cool.

These are foam sandwiched between layers of fabric and stitched.  There is another step involving heat before these are ready to be added to a page. 

At this point, two things occurred to tell me it was time to call it a day:  (1)  Sarge had dinner ready, and (2) my sewing machine ran out of BOTH bobbin and upper thread!  What are the odds?  So I’m hoping to get back to this in the next day or two.  I’d really like to see how heat affects these flowers.  Once I have completed the whole thing, I’ll be sure and share it here.

So stay tuned.

Scavenger Sunday

This week’s experiment was sort of the same techniques as last week.  Today I made a mixed-media collage page.  I scrounged around in my “junk” drawer and pulled together different materials to make one piece.

There are lots of pieces left over from other projects as well as things I’ve never tried using before.

In the top half, shown here, you can see a piece of metal that I pushed through a new mold I picked up recently.  There is a piece of fabric “manufactured” by stitching snippets of fabric.  And behind that is a piece of melted cellophane.  The blue piece is a washing machine dye catcher.  I don’t remember what item was that blue, but it had a lot of excess dye!

On the bottom half, you can see a piece of fusible web that has been painted.  The girl’s face is stamped onto a canvas-like fabric and colored with oil pastels.  You can just see that I used two blue hot-fix crystals in her eyes and a gold one at her ear.  Along the left edge is a line of sequins, beads, and Tyvek beads.

Not too bad for an afternoon’s work.  I had time to do some work on my wood elf sculpture and clean up my worktable!  Hmmm.  I should have taken a picture of that.  It won’t last long!!

Sandbox Sunday

Did you have a sandbox to play in when you were a kid?  I remember a big tractor tire from the farm, painted green, and filled with lovely sand, made just for building castles or tunnels and what-have-you.  Well, today’s technique, attaching ephemera, was like that – made just for play!

The book suggests making a nine-patch sampler, so I did!

Since I am one of those people who can’t seem to throw away bits and scraps, this sampler was a perfect idea for using some of it up.  Now that you’ve seen the whole piece, I’ll show you close-ups of each “patch”.

First is part of a tea packet, topped with the foil wrappers from two types of candy.  I freehand stitched a flower shape on the blue one, and beaded the pink one.

The background on this square is cut from a Kleenex tissue box.  They have such lovely designs, don’t you think?  The top layer is a piece of fusible web that I had painted and stamped some time ago.  I punched the letters out and captured them underneath when I ironed the webbing in place.

This is a piece of craft weight interfacing (Pelmet or Vilene) that had also been painted and stamped – probably at the same time as the webbing.  The flower was on an old Mother’s Day greeting card.

A square torn from an old newspaper.  Not quite yellowed, but not looking new either.  The “O” is from an opera souvenir book and it’s held on with a little square brad. 

The background piece was a hand written note I received several years ago.  It was already torn in half but I don’t remember why!  The heart is a paper towel that had been used to sop up paint at some point.  The flower is from Christmas decorations that fell apart held on with beads.  I told you I never throw anything away, didn’t I?

There’s another one of those tea packets.  This time I cut an insert from a Russell Stover’s box and stitched it on top.  The newspaper is a fragment from the same page as above, with two more of the square brads.

Almost done.  This is from the same opera souvenir book as the “O” earlier, and there is the flap from that pink tea packet.  I had a tiny scrap of some hand-painted cotton and I fringed the edges and used some free-motion stitching to attach it and the tea flap.

And lastly, this is an Ocean Current label that Sarge brought home one day to see if I wanted it.  I said yes, even though I had no idea what to do with it!  It had one grommet in the corner and I added the other one and tied it in place with red ribbon.  The blue patch was already stitched on with red zigzag.

Looking at my collection of “junque” (ephemera is the polite word, I guess) I’m guessing I could make one of these pages every day for – oh – the next twenty years?!!