Thursday, January 7, 2016

Fabric Collage Progress: Confetti



Saxifraga


Fabric collage was never on my bucket list. I admit I knew nothing about it until I came across a book explaing the techniques. You can catch up in this post. Persimmon Dreams is hosting a weekly challenge with this week's theme listed as 'confetti'.
Maybe I'm letting on that the whole process reminded me of working with itty-bitty pieces of confetti, but this whole piece is about 8.5" x 11". I spent a lot of time picking the pieces off my fingers.




This picture was my inspiration.



I wasn't far into the project before I realized it was going to be a bit tedious for me. I set my jaw, and told myself to suck it up.


Tedious became time-consuming, and add to it messy. Snip, snip, test, snip, snip, glue. I worked at home in front of the t.v., and the bits stuck to my clothes. I found them all over the house, in the shower, on the dogs, and in bed. 



At this point, feedback from the family was half-hearted. Several comments that it didn't really look like 'my kinda thing'. I stared back, and decided I could do this! It was a challenge, right?




After I'd done several flowers, I realized I would have to fill in the background before moving on. I choked. If you think it looks a bit abstract or that I was befuddled...um, I was. (I really was!) I tried to keep the direction of the light coming from the left, and checked the actual picture over and over. 

Several gals from Quilt Squad helped me go through the racks of tulle to find an overlay. It was very surprising to see the impact of such sheer color on the piece, but we unanimously agreed on a pale yellow to add a layer of sunshine.



The magic happened with the FMQ!


I started with a typical quilt sandwich of batting and backing, and didn't overthink the quilting. Several spools of Aurifil I kept on hand were perfect. The finishing touch was in adding the stems at the end.




The binding fabrics are chosen, and that's my morning project. I can hand sew it to the backing while dear daughter and I take in some t.v. time during her winter break from university. 

See you back here tomorrow for the finish.

Come on, Doxie girls.
Let's go sew.



Linking up with~
Midweek Makers--a new linky!
My Quilt Infatuation

11 comments:

Shelina (formerly known as Shasta) said...

This looks great. A confetti quilt is in my future, but it does scare me because of the challenge.

Mary said...

I love it! Very nice! I have considered doing one of these for awhile now, maybe 2016?

Susan said...

It's beautiful! And what you went through in making it, even the responses from family, sounds so familiar. But you've done a great job - consider entering it in some shows.

Sharon - IN said...

This is a lovely piece! I keep forgetting about tulle. It looks to pull the piece together and then the FMQ! Love it, and those stems!

Elise Lea said...

Beautiful, good thing you kept going or else you wouldn't have such a stunning piece! I have seen the tulle technique used before, but never thought to try other colors against my piece.

Catarina C said...

It is so cute your flower-quilt, the result of your problems was worth it!

Hugs Catarina

Angie in SoCal said...

I can't even see the tulle, but I can see the difference - amazing! Love this piece - it is gorgeous. Are you going to sell it? If so, put me at the top of the list.

Unknown said...

Oh, this is going to be fabulous. It's really pretty thank you for sharing how to do it

Ruth said...

That is looking really good and fun too!

Kate said...

It turned out beautifully! Challenges can be both fun and frustrating. Seems you got a bit of both with this one.

Linda in Calif. said...

Very pretty. Thanks for explaining the process - it was fun to watch it come together.