Collage Art

It's been a long while since I've posted on this blog, but I wanted to document my recent creations in fabric collage.  A few months ago, I attended a four day Fiber Art retreat taught by Deb Deaton of DJs Fiber Arts.  

Her techniques include raw edge appliqué, free motion quilting, painting the background with transparent fabric paints, and other multi media techniques (use of roving, thread, pens, pastels, etc.). I loved going down this creative "rabbit hole" so much that I have now created three art quilts in less than two months.  

The first, Saguaro, was completed mostly during the August retreat using Deb's pattern.  

My next project involved using a free pattern from Maxine Tarsey.  This one is called "Blue Tit" which is apparently a UK bird.  Maxine has a Facebook group called Fabric Collage Patterns. She has a monthly subscription plan for her collage patterns.   I've decided not to purchase it, even though it is very reasonably priced because I am more interested in creating new pieces from my original designs. Maxine's Youtube videos do provide great step by step instructions for her design process as well as the creation of specific patterns.    

Blue Tit was completed over two weeks in September and would have been done sooner but I had a four-day trip to Denver during that time.  To say I was driven to complete it and see it finished is probably accurate.  With this piece, I decided to use Lite Steam a Seam2 as my fusible as I had been a bit frustrated with the Misty fuse I used for the Saguaro piece.  There are advantages and disadvantages of different fusible products and it is clear that different quilt artists have their favorites.  I may be still trying to find mine.  

After getting some experience using prepared patterns, I was ready to try my hand at creating my own design.  I have a previous neighbor who is an excellent amateur photographer known for his bird photos.  I was excited when he granted me permission to use his photos for my collage art.  I had a hard time deciding between a couple of photos, but settled on the Rufous Hummingbird.

I used Affinity Designer II app on my IPAD (free trial and relatively inexpensive program for IPAD) to trace a drawing of the bird.  After saving it as a pdf file, I was able to use Adobe Reader on my Mac computer to print it poster sized (tiled).    See screen shot below for settings I used.  I trimmed and taped the pages together and had a full sized pattern to use for my collage.   

Selecting fabrics for the collage was the next step using the photo as a guide.  I actually headed to the quilt store for more fabrics after this photo was taken.  Batiks work best because they are tightly woven and printed on both sides.  But I also used other cotton fabrics.  

The stamens for the Bird of Paradise flowers were made by free motion quilting onto washable stabilizer using an embroidery hoop.  I tried pinning the completed stitching on a piece of styrofoam to keep it's shape while I washed away the stabilizer.  After drying, the stamens were added to the piece. 

I also used pastels, Tsukineko Fabrico pens, and Inktense pencils to embellish the design.  I also added some cheesecloth which I colored using Inktense.  Finally, I did free motion quilting around the fabric pieces and for embellishment.  The reverse of my piece ended up looking a bit like a negative:

I faced the piece and made a sleeve for hanging.   Then I used Inkjet Printing cotton sheets by Jacquard and my inkjet printer to make the label.  The first photo shows my creation with the original photo on my IPAD and below that is the finished piece, approximately 22x28" in size and ready for hanging.