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Art quilting disguised as fusible applique

Turquoise coneflowers

My first day in Paducah, I taught an evening 3-hour class called “Chunk and Jigsaw Fusible Applique.” This class is actually a portion of my Fabric Postcards all-day class which teaches various art quilting and embellishing techniques. I teach how to make up a small stash of fused fabrics ready for a quick project using leftovers from other projects (placed on the fusible web like a jigsaw) or small chunks of fabric…say 5×7 to 10×10 inches or so…. Then, we make a few postcards. For most students in these classes, it is their first time trying to design something, so I provide eight patterns. What is interesting, once I started providing a selection of patterns, the students didn’t use them! HOORAY! It meant the variety of ideas was enough to get them going on their own… mo’ bettah! Here are some of the results–the one above is one I would have loved to fly home with me… imagine, turquoise coneflowers…. glorious!

Note: if you were in my class and made one of these, PLEASE let me know and I’d love to include your name in this post! The class was so short that I wasn’t able to get names attached to each postcard for sharing here, but I did ask in the class if it was OK to share them. Michele E in Alabama… I’ll not share your wonderful birdie because I know you wanted to finish him/her before “going public!” but I adore him/her!

This student was game, despite never having designed something like a scenic card… I love how she placed the shapes, added the cut-out leaves, and used color. See how she cut out motifs from a batik to create the waterplants?

Beach and bird

I love Love LOVE the swoopy roofline on this house! She had found some cool “postcard foundations”, in the YLI booth I think. They were dyed/painted, creating the cool colors and textures in the background… I’ll have to look for them! Also love how she used the circles in a Kaffe Fassett print (do ALL of us have this fabric in our stash?) for the window and doorknob.

House

Notice the cool not-quilting-cotton fabrics in the houses here?

Different fabrics

Another student worked on a slightly larger background that the 4×6 peltex cards I included in the kit, using her awesome selection of sheers (which I wouldn’t have minded if they flew home with me, either). Her first piece was squares, in progress:

Sheers checkerboard, beginning

and fused up:

Sheers checkerboard

Then she made this totally wonderful sun scene:

sheers scene

One student with a completely different sense of color and composition than I have used the prints in her fabrics SO effectively:

Baroque swirls

The combination of soft batiks creates a soothing landscape:

Mountain scene

And here’s another landscape under construction:

Another landscape, in progress

Despite the hour of the class– 5:30 to 8:30 pm — the students seemed to have fun, and I know I did. And the peanut M&Ms and Milky Way bars I brought to share helped!

2 Responses to “Art quilting disguised as fusible applique”

  1. Brandy Davis Says:

    I am green with envy! Your class looks like lots of fun! My fav is the sunset.

  2. How to Hand Applique Says:

    Applique Designs…

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