For my Art Quilt Week 2 I actually did two small art doll quilts. The whole point of these was to awaken my muse and try new techniques. I decided to use one of my Art Dolls I had created in digital and bring her to life in fabric. I needed some Studio inspirations and two sayings were ringing in my head. “Be True” and “Just Breathe”. One for my muse and one for my health. LOL If you remember, I’ve been dealing with high blood pressure for months now and have taken back up meditation and yoga when I’ve feeling stressed. I thought a little reminder to breathe was a good thing. 🙂
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- Just Breathe Art Doll
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- Be True Art Doll
First thing I wanted to try was changing up that collage background I had tried with the previous art quilt. I took a bunch of my scraps of one material and cut them into squared up pieces. I laid a piece of my fusible fleece batting cut to 10″x14″ on my ironing board with fusing side up and then proceeded to lay out all the pieces taking care to make sure to overlap each so none of the fusible glue was exposed. Just for good measure, I used my pressing sheet over it to make sure I didn’t get any of that glue on my iron. Some of the edges overlapped were still loose and I didn’t like that so I used a few tiny dots of washable glue, that has a Fineline Applicator Tip for a top, to hold them in place. Ironed again. I liked it better than my previous background, but didn’t like how the edges showed through so much. It was a cheaper thinner fabric from my scraps than I use now. The only fabrics I buy now are batiks and a high thread count of 100% cottons for dyeing. I am now totally spoiled by the quality of fabric. 🙂 But hey, one of my 2016 goals is to use up all these older scraps from my stash so it’s ok. If I did this again, I think I would do this on a piece of white cotton fabric using fusible web instead of fusible fleece and that may have avoided this issue.
At this point, I decided that I wanted to make this borderless and added a backing on top and sewed 1/4″ all around the edges, leaving about 3″ or so to turn, to make my quilt sandwich and just did a pillow case enclosure. Then I turned right side out and folded in the unsewn edge 1/4″, ironed, and sewed around the entire piece about a 1/4″ in from the edge.
Steps how I did the base quilt.
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- Front side of Collage Background
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- Backside of collage background showing the fusible fleece.
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- Washable school glue is my best friend!
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- just a few tiny dots on edges and ironed dry holds better than pins IMO.
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- Right sides together layered
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- Sew edges, leave an opening to turn.
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- Cut corners to avoid bulk in corners. Trim extra material also.
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- After turning right side out, sew all the way around entire piece 1/4″ inch in from edge.
I quilted the base at this point just an all over freeform swirls. Then the fun began!
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- Choose scraps of coordinating fabrics
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- Printed out my Art Doll and wings for my templates on regular paper and then traced onto Heat’n Bond paper to make my appliqué pieces.
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- Cut apart all the pieces
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- Placed my uncut template under my pressing mat for a guide. Cut out my fused pieces (cut come edges a little larger to overlap).
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- Arranged all my pieces on top of pressing sheet so it was fused as a whole.
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- Gathered some of my Mixed Media trinkets
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- Tried different arrangements of trinkets to get to what I liked, hand wrote Just Breathe with a Sharpie Marker on fabric for my tag
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- Played around with different arrangements till I liked it. This was easier with the girl as one pieces.
From here, all that was left to do was iron on my girl, tag and sew on my buttons and trinkets. She now sits above my work area to remind me to just breathe. 🙂 Because she took me all about an hour or two to make, I made another one that day also. I did decide to use fabric letters on the 2nd one and cut them out quickly and easily using my Brother Scan N Cut. All I did was iron a piece of fusible interfacing to a piece of fabric, chose a preloaded font, then sized and arranged to fit the fabric piece. Boom! Perfectly cut letters I then ironed onto my background. I could have used this for my Doll parts too if I had thought of it. Need to find it a better home than under my cutting table. Not a big hassle to pull out to use, but also not sitting out to remind me to use more. OH New project for the Studio! Find better homes for my wide format printer and the Scan N Cut. LOL If only this room was a foot wider, many of my problems would be solved…. Sorry, I digress.
I have always loved making my art dolls in mixed media and digi and they just make me happy to look up and see them on my wall. Now I have some lovely reminders each and every day to look up at. 🙂 I hand sewed a couple paper clips onto the backs to use as hangers and I was done. Was a good afternoon. Just love when I have an idea and can actually start and finish all in one day. RARE, but was nice.
Wonder how I make my Art Dolls in Photoshop? Check out my Art Dolls class if you are interested in making your own.
Supplies Used for this Project for those with inquiring minds. These links are my Amazon affiliate links, so I do receive a small income if you use them. It doesn’t cost you any more, just helps me offset the cost of keeping up my site. I only recommend what I have tried and like and has the best prices also.
Scraps of various fabrics from my Stash
100% Cotton Connecting Threads brand of various colors
Heat’n Bond fusible interfacing
