Fabric collage for making cards and for using in quilting and other projects

 I while back I created a panel of fabric collage using a white polyester fabric substrate, fabric scraps from my stash and thinned white glue.  

I have used this piece of fabric collage to make a few cards.  After cutting it into several pieces I added fabric pieces to create my focal elements and stitched them into place using my sewing machine.  Once they were finished I stitched them to a piece of paper and then adhered them to my large cards.  I am very happy with how that process worked out.  The last piece I am testings to see if it is possible to incorporate this fabric collage in my quilting by stitching them to squares.  

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Here is the piece of fabric collage which I tested for quilting.  I stitched on a large fabric butterfly die cut adding a little piece of dark fabric for its body.  I added the antennea in the process of stitching the elements into place.  I stitched this to a piece of fabric to simulate adding it to a quilt square and laundered it along with a load.  I faired much better than I expected.  The fabric collage has held together and has very little fraying to its components.  The butterfly has very little fraying around the edges and the body is beautifully fuzzy around its edges!!  You can see from the back that there seemed to be a bit of shrinkage of the collage which once ironed was not too serious but considering that a quilt does not get ironed this technique may cause a bit of puckering in the squares to which they are stitched in a quilt.  

So in the end I have discovered that:

*solid single colour fabric collage with thinned white glue creates beautiful backgrounds to which it is very easy to stitch fabric focal elements!!

*  solid single colour fabric collage with thinned white glue creates very decent backgrounds for adding to squares which would be incorporated into quilt tops if you are willing to accept a little bit of puckering in the square.  Stitching focal elements to these backgrounds works reasonably well and only allows very little fraying of the edges of the elements.  Considering that most quilts are not likely to be washing more than once or two a year makes this technique something to consider.  The fabric collage has become softer and more pliable with being laundered which would seem to indicate that at least some of the glue has been washed out.  

Some things to consider:

*it would be worth experimenting with adding the focal elements in the process of creating the collage which would allow simply cutting apart for creating embellishments for cards.

* would it be worth washing the fabric collage before adding any embellishment to avoid the bit of shrinkage that happens.  Machine stitching of the fabric elements is much quicker than hand stitching so makes the option viable if you have a short time line.

I have been brainstorming some projects that would benefit from stiffened fabric that need not be laundered and will be experimenting with a few of those.  

Therese