A TECHNIQUE DRIVEN Blog dedicated to mastery of surface design techniques. First we dye, overdye, paint, stitch, resist, tie, fold, silk screen, stamp, thermofax, batik, bejewel, stretch, shrink, sprinkle, Smooch, fuse, slice, dice, AND then we set it on fire using a variety of heat tools.

Friday, June 26, 2015

Collaged Background Step 1

These fabric collage pieces all begin with some kind of background or support. Using Valerie Goodwin's technique, I'll show you how I began with fabrics from My Pink House, seen in my last post.

Selecting my fabrics for this technique is pretty easy and a lot of fun because any bloopers blend in so well in the later stages. I generally start with a range of lights, mediums, and darks in the color or colors I have in mind for my finished piece. It is easiest to assemble the collage if the pieces are cut into smallish rectangles, although with a little experience you can use any shapes you want, as raw edges ARE allowed. Above, I assembled my cut fabrics on the crinoline to which I will attach them. (Crinoline was discussed in a past post this month - nice firm backing and easy to stitch through by hand later in the process.)

 I start by stitching one fabric piece to the crinoline by machine, then adding the others, folding each piece over the seam. I often press the pieces down as I go but that's not essential.



 Once my fabrics are stitched onto the background, I begin stitching on the surface to ensure that each edge is surely attached. Decorative stitches can be fun and/or helpful here. Use any color you wish. We used black top stitching in Valerie's class and it looked great.


To finish this stage, I trim the edges.

Next step - making all those different colors and patterns look unified.

2 comments:

  1. I love this technique! Sort of like crazy quilting or piecing but with all the same color family. Looking forward to seeing what you do with it:-)

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  2. I do like the colour palette

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