Tree Fabric Collage - How to

I created this fabric collage of a tree and thought I would provide a bit of information for anyone who might be inspired to make one themselves.

I started with a floral bed sheet!!!  I cut two 9" squares from it and then cut a piece of batting just slightly smaller.

I laid the fabric on a piece of plastic and applied acrylic paint colour washes in blues and greens to create a landscape back ground for my tree.  Once the fabric was dry I used a hot iron to heat set the paint.  I do not expect this piece will ever be washed but I thought it would be best to do it anyway.  I painted both pieces similarly though there is only one in the photo.

 I found a piece of brown fabric in my stash and cut out a tree trunk, pinned it to my front piece and used my sewing machine with brown thread to sew it in place.

 Next, I dug out scraps of green and brown fabric and cut out, by hand, LOTS of leaves - really just pointy ended ovals about 1.5" long.  I used a glue stick - yes the kind you use for paper - to glue all the leaves in place making sure that I distributed the different colours through out the tree.

Once they were all in place I used my sewing machine with green thread and sewed down the center of each leaf to securely attach them all to my fabric.  Next, I created the little quilt by placing my back over my tree with the right side facing down and positioned my batting over that.  I sewed around the perimeter using a half inch seam allowance and left a 2.5" opening in the seam. I then turned it right sides out and pressed it.  I hand stitched the opening closed and then top stitched about 1/8" all the way around the edge of the piece in green thread.
I began the process of adding stitching and beads with the trunk and then did all the leaves.  I used what I had in my stash of beads - mostly round seed beads and a few longer thin ones.  I mixed the colours and tried to coordinate them with the leaf colour.  I used brown, green and blue embroidery floss to stitch on my beads.

You can check out the final project here.   It was a really fun project and I expect I will be making a few more!!  If you are inspired I hope you will give it a go!!

Therese

Fabric collage - a beautiful tree!

 On AFTCM, I joined a fabric collage swap!!  I was very excited about the possibilities because I have been enjoying making these little quilties inspired by Teesha Moore and a bigger piece just seemed like it would be more fun!!!  It is 8" x 8" and features hand painted fabric, fabric leaves, floss and beads!!!  I sewed the foundation together and then embellished it by adding hand stitching and beads.  Here are some close ups of the beading!!

I download some embroidery stitching instructions off the internet which was very helpful in figuring out how to get the beads on as I was stitching.  It was totally fun and I love how it turned out!!  I believe there will be a few more of these stitched projects in my future.
Check out my next post to see how I created this piece!!

Therese

Birthday card - hand decorated background

Was cruising Splitcoast Stampers for some inspiration the other day and found several with hand decorated backgrounds so I dug out this painted background and thought I would embellish it a bit for my card.  I lightly brushed white acrylic paint through an all over circle stencil using a foam brush to add dots which I liked very much. One person had cut up her background into three pieces so I decided to do that as well.  I first punched out the flowers and then used scissors to cut a line through the holes.  I really like how it turned out!!  I punched out "BIRTHDAY" on the bottom edge of the bottom piece and punched "HAPPY" out of black cardstock and glued it above the holes.  I glued all three pieces to a layer of black cardstock and then mounted that to my green card front!!  I added shimmery white punchies to the inside of the flowers.  Pretty good!!  It still needed a "bit of something" so I added the little dots using a fine tip Sharpie marker and three little black butterfly punchies which I attached with tiny black brads.  That was much better!!
It is amazing that creating it such a multileveled process!!  I can certainly see me using more techniques for adding more dimension to my own hand decorated papers!!

Therese