Paper Quilts - a Play Date...!

 Sunday afternoon i had the pleasure of spending time with three creative ladies, two of whom are expert FABRIC quilters.  We each created (or started) a paper quilt.  What is a paper quilt, you might ask?  Well, it can be many things - a combination of fabrics and papers or just paper, sewn or glued into shapes and arranged in a pleasing manner.  Here i created 9-8" squares each with 4 concentric circles, in my increasingly predictable robin's egg blue and sepia colour story.  I used scrapbook paper, wrapping paper, painted deli paper, tissue paper, book pages and vintage ephemera to create all the textural interest.  I lightly glued the circles to the square then cut them in half down the middle.  Then i rearranged the halves to spread out the blues and beiges across the piece.  Then i sewed each half together with a zigzag stich on the sewing machine.  Then i sewed rough (very rough!) circles along the edge of each paper circle.  Let all the loose threads stay!  Up to that is the "easy" part.  Then i had to sew the squares together.  This is where the heavier weight papers held up nicely, but the thinner papers kind of let me down.  They slipped, or tore or puckered.  But hey - it turned out really cool and you can't even tell from the picture!  The next step, according to the workshop that my friends took, is to further embellish with beads and buttons, etc - to create even more texture.  That will REALLY help cover up the mistakes!!

 This beautiful quilt (unfinished) is Dorothy's. She first ironed fabric to freezer paper for stability.  Then she layered on her paper circles.  Whereas i cut my circles in half - Dorothy's were cut into quarters.  This allows more variation of the pattern and colours.  Notice she even used paper doilies!! Next month i'll get a picture of her finished paper/fabric quilt.

And here are Shelley's luscious squares.  She used a blend of neutrals and metallic papers to create very uniform almost coin-like components for her paper quilt.  she will cut some in half or quarters, and leave some whole when she arranges her quilt.  Possibly on a muslin backing with spaces in between.  Stay tuned for pictures of the finished quilts, along with Karen's (sorry no photo yet) our master quilter.  Her larger circle/squares were in rich neutrals with a lot of strong geometric black designs.
You have got to try this!