‘Touchy-Feely’ a mini artwork – 2021.02.14

Here is my initial fabric pull for a small piece for SAQA Western Canada regional trunk show titled Touch. Each piece in the trunk show will be 8″ x 10″ and will be mounted to an 8 ½” x 11″ black backing board but will be uncovered for display and viewing. The mounting will help protect the pieces from excessive handling and soiling but viewers will be able to see and visually touch the art without a screen of plastic film.

Given that viewers will be able to touch the artwork, I wanted to make a piece that would invite touching, with physical as well as visual texture.

I started with some shot cotton fabrics, which have beautiful fringy selvedges.  The saffron and berry shades of the shot cottons set the tone for my color palette, to which I added shades of orange. 

My design concept was to create a grid of colourful texture on a black background, with a partial frame of selvedges.

I used a variety of textured fabrics –  felt, open weave, netting, shiny-glittery fabrics – layered into little squares and arranged in a grid.  Some of the fabrics were fraying and leaving fluff and threads on the black background, so I fused Mistyfuse to the back to control the fraying. Each square has 2 or 3 fabric layers and is topped with a button to add even more texture.

I spent a couple of hours arranging – and rearranging – the fabrics in a grid. Once I had finalized the arrangement, I carefully removed all but the base layers. I fused each base layer in place with a bit of fusible web in the center, leaving the edges un-fused. For each square, I added the other fabrics and the button, then tied them in place by threading embroidery floss through the button, the layers of fabric, and tying the floss to the back.

Here is the finished artwork. Its title is ‘Touchy-Feely’ – suggested by my husband.

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

• Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday
• Can I get a Whoop Whoop? by Confessions of a Fabric Addict
• Love Laugh Quilt Monday Making
• Quilt Fabrication Midweek Makers
• WIP Wednesday @ The Needle & Thread Network