Gone Fishin'...

This project is the result of a class I took at Deborah's Quilt Basket shop in Venice, FL. The class was titled "Fabric Seascapes" and was taught by Debbie Jones, the originator of a fusible technique she calls "fabric decollage". It's kind of a combo of decoupage and collage, using images cut from fabric and adhered to a background. No stitching is required, as these are meant more for framing and display. However, Debbie has some examples that she has quilted if that's the direction a student wants to go. Most of our class chose to have their collages matted by Debbie's husband who is a professional framer.

The class was great fun, and Debbie is an extremely informative and organized teacher. She had abundant sealife motif and background fabrics at the ready. We cut and fused our way to making these vibrant seascapes. If you look closely at the detail photo above, you can see that she had some beautiful marbled silks she made available to use as shell fish on the ocean floor. And we used lots of glitzy fabrics and eye-lash yarn for sea grasses.


Our scissors skills really got a work out. And I learned a lot of new techniques, but foiling was one of the most fun. I was surprised to learn that not much foil gets used up with each application. The bubbles rising from the fish were made using foil and glue. Here's the foil sheet after they were completed. There's plenty left for more projects.

Of course I had to purchase some fish fabrics, because I'm sure there are going to be more projects!