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!

A Little Inspiration...

I went out for breakfast and a stroll in South Pasadena on Saturday. I spent a few minutes in Zinnia a wonderful little crafts and more store on Mission st. Among the papers and doodads and art i found little packets of printed napkins.  I am a sucker for a kit of any kind - i just love the mix of patterns.  I bought 4 packets and took them home to play with.  I intermingled them with some from my own collection of bird and butterfly napkins.

While i was there i got to see these beautiful pieces of art in person - they were done by Tamara Tolkin the owner of the store.

I first saw these on Paul Murray's blog. Be sure to check out his wonderful artwork and photography. Paul teaches a decoupage class and has some amazing examples here and here.

So i decided i would like to try to make a decoupage canvas along the lines of Tamara's artwork above.

Here is the "before" - a nice thick 30" by 40" blank canvas.

I figured out the dimensions of the "squares" that would fill the background.  6" by 6 1/2" pieces of ephemera, book pages and wrapping paper in cream and black.  I needed 5 across and 6 down - 30 in total.

I watered down some matte gel medium to use as glue.It worked great - and made it last longer.

I did the border first then filled in the middle.

Here is the canvas completed - well just step one!

Next i cut the napkins into squares - along the fold lines - about 6". I tried to make a balance of colours and patterns - in a predominantly green and golden colour scheme.

Next i cut out circles.  I made a template - but i was not going for perfection!

Here are the squares -  "step 2"  - laid out on the background.  I spent a lot of time on this trying to achieve perfectly random looking organization!

Here they are glued down with gel matte medium.  I applied the glue to the base and used a foam brush roller to smooth them out.  too much glue and they can tear.

Next i laid out the circles on top of the coloured napkins - "step 3".

This is the effect i was hoping for - where the writing/words from "step one" would show through the napkins.

Here is the almost finished piece hanging on the wall. The last and final step will have to wait until it is fully dry.  I will be adding paint to highlight the circles and squares - rough borders, like in the inspiration works above from Tamara.


Stay tuned....!