"Made Fabric" Wallhanging

 After making the paisley wallhanging from the last post, I was hooked. 

One of those quilters who likes to save bits and pieces of fabric left over from other projects, I have done many projects in the past using those scraps. The more different pieces of fabric in a project, the better I like it. 

So, for this project I dug through my scrap bin and pulled out lots of neutrals, sewed them together here and there, then cut, turned and sewed some more.  I wish I had taken photos before I did the line work but I didn't. Sometime in the near future, I'll put together a tutorial on "made fabric" and give more details.

This project was done in a different order than the last one. The great thing about the Fabridoodle method is that the end is the same, but the steps can be easily rearranged.

Before I painted this piece, I put the "made" fabric on the Gammill and, using several different fill stitches in different areas of the fabric, quilted the heck out of the whole piece.  I used A&E 40 wt. cotton thread, left over cotton batting and scrapy backing; next time I would use a polyester thread and batting because the cotton content wicks the Neocolor II pigment causing a bit of bleed. 

Next I chose a piece of commercially available fabric I liked, then cut a piece of freezer paper about the same size as the quit Sandwich. Using a pencil I laid the shiny side down on the commercial fabric,then traced my chosen motifs on the dull side.

Next, the shiny side of the "pattern" (pencil drawing on freezer paper) was ironed to the "made" fabric using a cotton setting and no steam. 

Using a straight stitch on my domestic sewing machine, I stitched three passes of black embroidery thread on every segment of every motif.  That created the main outline on the project.  The stitch length was shortened to 2.0 so that it would help the freezer paper to tear away.  Some of the stitching was done with the feed dogs up, some I did with the feed dogs down.  My decision depended on which method worked best at the time.  And no, I didn't change the foot on the machine.

After I tore the freezer paper away (or rather all of the large pieces and most of the small bits), I began to choose my colors.  Of note is that, since my stitching is fairly organic, meaning I wasn't concerned if I sewed exactly over the other lines during the three passes, I may be picking small bits out for a very long time.  It may sound crazy but that doesn't bother me. 

I loosely chose the colors I used on the fabric because the translucent nature of the Neocolor II artists crayons means that they won't look exactly the same as the subject fabric, especially using them on the neutral prints.  Again, that doesn't bother me; I love the look of the fabric through the artwork.  It is the see-through nature of this pigment that I like the most. 

Most of the newly outlined motifs were painted using at least two coats, if not three or four, of the Neocolor II, worked carefully into the fabric with a Derwent water brush, dried, then outlined with Faber Castel Pitt markers.   Of note is that I usually start with the lighter color I am using, then shade with the darker.

When the pigments were dry and I was happy with the outcome, I trimmed the edges of the work and used 2" binding to finish the piece.  

I am also planning a tutorial that gives more detail in the near future.  The process is an absolute blast, especially since I can rearrange the steps anytime I choose to!