Embellished Art Quilt

I am starting a wall quilt (about 3 feet x 4 feet) that will consist of six blocks (approximately 8 x 10) embellished in different ways. As it's for my hallway, the color scheme matches my house decor in yellows, reds, and  oranges. The 'theme' is hearts, and each block will incorporate the theme using different techniques. I've finished two of them -- one crazy quilted and the other 'manipulated fabric':

This one was crazy-quilted by attaching random pieces to iron-on interfacing and then doing random decorative stitches around the edges and over the entire square. The three yellow hearts were needle felted (wow -- new addiction!) and then I attached store-bought charms for the heart detail. This was fun and fast. Some were swatches from old Sawyer Brook swatch packs.  I knew I saved them for a reason!

The second block was made by 'bubbling' fabric -- again onto interfacing.  The process is to wet the fabric and then poke it through a grate -- I used a purchased kitchen item with a 3/4" wire mesh grating. Let it dry, steam to a piece of iron-on interfacing, and pull from the grate. For this particular use, I also attached muslin to the interfacting for backing. If this piece was for a garment or handbag I would have machine-stitched between each 'bubble' to hold the shape.

 

What you can't see very well is the beaded heart I did afterwards. I used size 8 sead beads in purple and gold, stitching them 'in the ditch' of the bubbles and then outlining the heart. This took some time to do -- hope it shows up well in the final quilt.

Next up -- I am waiting for my order of foiling paper to arrive so that I can do some fabric foiling. Looks like a fun and easy technique!

Welcome to 2012!

The crafter within me has re-awakened, and thus my blog will as well. I have a new commitment -- whenever something new comes into the house, it needs to REPLACE something, not just add to the growing stashes. Thus, over the holiday break I decided to attack the fabric stash so I could purchase more fabric (fabric --> garment-->toss/donate one garment-->get more fabric). Love the circular nature here!
Two projects emerged -- a dress for work, and a wall quilt. The dress is fnished (and yes, I DID donate a dress...several, actually!).

This was my first Marfy pattern, and I realized that I actually CAN sew dresses without the directions. The pattern needed alterations as I purchased the wrong size pattern, but the fit is nice. It's a soft light-weight Italian wool -- nice subtle light blue damask-type background pattern reduces the intensity of the plaid.