On my design wall – 2014.09.03 – playing with a new technique

Later this month I’ll be attending the annual retreat of the Fibre Art Network (FAN).  As usual we will have an art exchange, size 8.5 by 11 inches.  The theme this year is ‘stepping out of your comfort zone’.

I’ve always admired fibre art where the edges of the fabrics are not sewn or fused – generally referred to as raw-edge collage. But I’ve always found it difficult to go with this free-and-easy approach on my own work – I seem to need to control my edges with fusible web and stitching.

So I decided to try a technique I haven’t used before.  I drew my subject matter (a bowl of fruit because I could include some bright colors) on a sheet of leave-in stabilizer. I numbered the elements in the order I wanted to sew them. After piecing the background I basted the stabilizer to the back of the fabric. I positioned the first piece of fabric by holding the whole thing up to the light then sewed from the back with black thread.   No glue. No fusible. No pins for most of the pieces.   Then I flipped it over and trimmed fairly close to the stitching.  Here’s where I reverted to my compulsive preciseness.  I should try this again where I roughly cut the pieces ahead, then sew them from the back and just leave them as is, even if the stitching goes off the fabric – for a looser, more abstract look.

Drawing on stabilizer and rough cut fabric pieces

Fruit and bowl sewn from the back

After all the pieces were sewn from the back and trimmed from the front. I added a few smaller pieces (leaves and lighter grapes) with fusible web and stitched them from the front.

Then I layered and quilted with more black thread around each element.

Thanks for stopping by.  Today, I’m linking up with these blogs – click on the links below, where you’ll find many other creative projects.