Spring Fabric Collage...



"Branches, Buds, and Blossoms" is my class project from an online fabric collage class taught by fiber artist Deborah Boschert. Hers is one of many workshops available once you sign up for Alma Stoller's STITCHED, an online video workshop. The workshops are self-paced, many have accompanying pdf files of info, and you can take any or all of them... there are more than 20! I've found the selection to be worth every penny of the registration fee, and have completed about six of the workshops to date.

This collage project is small, about 12" x 15". But it contains a wide variety of design exercises and techniques. The first of these is the hand-printed fabric in the background. Lots of different fabrics are combined in the piece, including home dec fabric bits, batiks, and commercial prints. The budding branch was added by painting through a freezer paper stencil. I could stand some improvement in using this technique, but I enjoy building new skills and I'm sure I'll progress. This photo shows the piece before it was trimmed and before the final machine quilting and hand embroidery stitches were added. I learned a lot in Deborah's class, and I'm sure I'll incorporate what I learned in future art quilts. Every step of the project was fun and satisfying, from pulling the fabrics together (there's even a strip of selvage in there), to embroidering the accents. Check out STITCHED if you get a chance... it won't disappoint!