Results of Embossing Bamboo Batting

Sue Anne used her embossed batting to make appliques for this bright and springy piece. The batting was embossed before she colored it. After cutting out the shapes, she painted the edges to eliminate the uncolored batting. The background uses raw-edge applique, quilting and stamping to add layers of interest. Sue Anne used a number of embroidery stitches and beading to attach her appliques.

Jamie's piece is a combination of textures:  pieced and quilted background, embossed and painted batting, thread painted olives and leaves, and smooth wallpaper bottles. The bamboo batting was embossed lightly and misted with several colors of paint.

Sue's batting was embossed purposely with a tree shape. She built her texture plate using old silk flower stems and cording. The background around the trees was painted with a golden brown paint and set into the blue background. Believe it or not, the tree looks like it was made to fit the background branches, but wasn't! The beading represents leaves and bluebirds.

Gelatin Plate Printing Results

This is Jamie's finished piece using gelatin plate printing and reverse applique. Squares of white fabric were printed with paint sponged onto the gelatin plate. Amounts of orange and yellow paint were used in varying amounts. The black fabric was backed with fusible interfacing before cutting out the shape of the nectarine. After fusing the black fabric over the printed fabric, the squares were skewed and sewn together with the green background strips. The entire piece was machine quilted. Jamie then added watercolor crayon and Shiva paintstiks highlights.

Sue's piece was very well planned and sketched out before starting in order to combine the gelatin plate printing and the reverse applique. The orange and green colored areas were printed on the gelatin plate. But before printing, Sue ironed a freezer paper pattern to the white fabric so that the trunks were masked to prevent being painted. The black fabric was fused to the painted background after removing the three large areas. She then "connected" her tree trunks by painting the black fabric white. By using the brown thread painting she tied it all together so that it appears that the birches are appliqued over the entire piece.

Results of Bedazzling Beads

Susan added her beads as an icicle embellishment to her snowflake scene. After piecing the background, she used a Cedar Canyon stencil and a silver Paintstik to add snowflakes to lower part of the piece and the upper right corner. The sky area is covered with an embroidered organza that she embellished with silver thread by machine. The white snowflakes were made by her mother though Susan added glitter and a few glass beads. Her silver icicles in the upper left corner were made with netting and organza and melted. In the photo you don't see the last snowflake which hangs below the quilted piece.

Sue has altered gold netting for her little piece. The background squares behind the beads are red netting that she painted and embossed with gold powder, giving them a metallic look. The same red netting has been rolled and melted to make the beads. She also used red organza to make additional beads, which have been coordinated with glass beads for the background texture.

Sue Anne created a grid of squares, text, and beads over a hand-painted background to make a quilt describing marriage. She has used lutradure and Tyvek to make the narrow beads and Kunin felt for the larger ones. All have been embossed with gold or copper embossing powder. Many of the beads have been embellished with small commercial beads. The text was taken from an old book and adhered with matte gel medium. The quilting was done as the last step.

Jamie's quilt is the "M" in her series of Fruits and Vegetables; although Morel Mushrooms are neither, nor did she use beads! Instead of rolling the Kunin felt and organza, she sewed these fabrics to a background of black felt in a random pattern. She then melted the felt and organza between the stitching to give the illusion of depth. The mushrooms were attached once the background was quilted.

Painted fusible web results:

Sue Anne's piece uses many different layers and materials. She started with a rejected sunprint which she painted. On it she layered the velvet squares and rectangles. Several have been embossed, others covered with decorative thread. A piece of fusible web was painted and then fused over the entire top. Before the web cooled, she pulled it off, leaving pieces adhering unevenly. A small amount of foil was fused to the web. Finally a piece of an old chiffon scarf was laid over the previous layers. With a heat gun, she melt away portions of the scarf, leaving a multi-dimensional piece that is very interesting. You see something new each time you look at it.



Jamie's lemons were a perfect fit for painted fusible web. The lemon slices are a white on white fabric fused with a yellow Pearl Ex powder-colored Misty Fuse, giving the slice a translucent feel. The rinds are painted fusible over the wrong side of a yellow fabric.



Susan painted Wonder Under a silver color and when it had dried, removed the paper backing and tore it into strips. These strips were fused to a painted canvas background, giving the illusion of a plaid fabric. The other design elements are sewn over the colored background.

Covered Cording Results

Jamie used fabric strips, twisted and zigzagged, to form the stems on her kohlrabi. The cords are attached to the bulb and caught in the border seam and so give a dimensional texture to the quilt.

Susan has combined a past project into this one featuring ribbon cords. The smaller quilt in the foreground was made for her shibori project. She knew that it wasn't finished yet and this larger piece was just the right combination. Decorative ribbon is crotcheted and couched on the left side, alternated with the same ribbon strung with beads at regular intervals. The beaded ribbon has been also added to the diagonal strips in the smaller quilt. The gold circles are painted washers surrounded with beads, a design element that repeats the print in the background fabric.

Sue's small piece takes its inspiration from a tree in her backyard. The tree trunk is beaded cording to look like a birch tree. The leaves are a dyed pellon product that she has handstitched to the background. Detailing has been provided by machine stitching. A closeup of the beaded cording is shown below.

Sue Anne has transformed a curtain fabric into a most colorful background. The original circle fabric did not have blue circles. She used blue glue gel to edge a gray circle in order to paint it with blue dynaflow. A beaded cord rests on a silk hanky which was machine felted to a piece of hand-dyed wool. She has embellished the piece with emboidery floss, letters, painted leaves, and beads. A closeup of her beaded cording follows below.

Silk Paper Results

Susan used her silk paper as an abstract background over a fabric woven quilt. It is layered over hand dyed felted wool with black tulle. Susan sewed a variety of beaded elements to add interest to the surface.
Sue created her silk paper with leaves in mind, incorporating many different types of texture into the paper. She then cut out the leaves and appliqued them to her pieced background. The shadows behind the leaves are painted dryer sheets. Thread embroidery adds texture and highlights to the branch.

Sue Anne's silk paper has been used to add texture and shape to her journal cover. She has embellished the silk paper with beads and painted paper squares finished with charms.

Jamie's silk paper sheet has been hand-stitched to a quilted background with the jalapeno pepper appliqued on top. Sequins glued in the corners add sparkle.

Texted Collage Results

Sue used old sheet music, musical notes, and writing in and around her happy flowers to create this collage. The background was dyed and texted. The flower edges were painted with Dyn-a-flo, and she carved her musical note stamps. The musical staffs in the background were free-motioned quilted.

Sue Anne painted the canvas behind the spool of thread with dye, wrote a thesis on thread and decoupaged tissue paper over the top. The "wooden" spool is used shopping bags with the top oval covered with an old pattern tissue. Once the spool was appliqued to the background, she thread painted the flower. The canvas is stitched to a piece of dyed cotton batting. The piece has been embellished with buttons and a card of floss.

Jamie's quilt is a collage relating to Iceberg lettuce. The text is a description of iceberg lettuce and the collage includes magazine cutouts as well as printed Extravorganza, all of which have been decoupaged with diluted Elmer's glue. The entire quilt was machine quilted. The half head of lettuce is a photo printed on inkjet cotton and appliqued to the top.