Thursday, July 8, 2010

FiberFusion Embellished Collage Film Canister

Another collection here at the studio, are vintage Hollywood film canisters. They are the perfect container to fill with fabric/paper/emphemera/ribbon gifts and I use them to display ribbons and trims at trade shows. I also use them as sewing cases. I have a magnet sheet on the inside of the lid to hold small scissors and needles. The canisters are deep enough to hold fabrics and embellishments.

This film canister is embellished with FiberFusion.
What an easy method for making wet-felted fabric. Making FiberFusion is a workshop that I  teach and everyone loves the fabrics they make in class.

 A complete kit is  $12.95. All the fibers are hand-dyed here at the studio. For this piece I used shades of rust, moss green, and mustard yellow. Spread the fibers onto freezer paper, glossy side up. Drizzle water and textile medium onto the fibers. Sprinkle in gold leaf, small pieces of fabrics, lace, paper bits. Place the freezer paper sheet in the sun and let dry. In 30 minutes peel off the fabric from the freezer paper. This fabric also has gold metallic paint spritzed onto the fabric surface. Use the ragged edges of the FiberFusion as a design element. A needle glides through the fabric; so I took a few tucks with a needle to add dimension; added in a gathered 2" strip of velvet from our Velvet Assortment Pack, tacked that into place and then using our hand-dyed rayon tape, made a small gathered ribbon spray and tacked that to the FiberFusion. In one corner, I added a small gathered piece of metallic lace from one of our fabric packs. Glue the embellished piece of FiberFusion to the canister. Using E6000, I glued in old bits of jewelry and a brass finding. 30 minutes to create an attractive collage!

Friday, July 2, 2010

English Cottage Crazy Quilt Block - Beginner Basics

This is a Beginner Basics Crazy Quilt Block that I offer as a workshop and will be teaching next week. Making 35 kits took longer than creating the block! 

It's a perfect little project  for beginner silk ribbon enthusiasts. And this block is a breeze to piece. I use silk doupioni from the RibbonSmyth doupioni assortment packs. Give a seasonal block a bit of contrast by using apricot and plum fabrics together. Always a great combination and I don't often see the colors used together.

 Once the block is pieced, fuse the vintage cottage image into place. That's what I love about the RibbonSmyth fusible vintage images. Never a pucker and no time wasted stitching the image to the fabric.

A great way to use up that floss in your stash, make a tree! I've been teaching the "tree" technique for years and it's an enhancement to the cottage image by continuing the landscape. Add silk ribbon French knots to the foreground for dimension.

 Add a bit of RibbonSmyth leaf garland and sprinkle Silk French knots and gold beads among the garland. Did you know in New York the garland sells for $7.50 at  a popular trim store? We sell it for $1.75 a yard. You can embellish quite a few pieces with a yard of leaf garland.

Add a few more simple silk ribbon blooms and a glass butterfly for added dimension. The Czech luster glass butterflys are 6 pieces for 99 cents.

Turn this piece into a block for a wall-hanging and use a different cottage image for each block. The 9"x9" block will be a small cushion complete with fringe. A great shabby chic statement for a guest bed or a small love seat. I will add the finished cushion once I can make up my mind on which fringe to use!