Monday, January 04, 2010

Love in the Mail

Love in the Mail

Hand dyed and commercial cottons, buttons, hand and machine quilting and embroidery, crochet, garland, beads. 12x12x1" mounted on stretched canvas $200 Sold

Open the envelope for hugs and kisses.

Garland of X's and O's to celebrate affection.


The envelope closed, holding the entire garland. The garland idea is inspired by Robin's flag bunting and Lucy's heart or star garlands. The crocheted chain made it delicate enough to fit in the small lined envelope. The secret is to use a self threading needle, that has a slitted eye. As I crocheted the chain, I threaded the needle and made a loop through the X or O, removed the needle by popping the thread out of that slit, and crocheted it into the chain. Easier to do than to explain.

Fused Frame Tutorial

Cut batting to the size of the canvas and leave enough of the composition fabric to wrap around the edge of the canvas. Notice that my fabric is fused already, since all my fabrics are pre-fused (by me of course) with Wonder-Under.

Cut away a square from each corner and fold up one edge and fuse to the canvas and wood of the frame. Hot hot iron.


I made my corners slightly larger than the length of the canvas so I could tuck in the edges. This is fussy work, but so worth it. I hope you'll give this a try.

15 comments:

  1. OMG! That is soooo cool! I have to try it right away... thanks so much for posting this, Melody!
    Judy

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  2. You've really done it now! I've put "copy Melody (again)" on my list of things to do today! LOL!

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  3. A mandala! How beautiful.

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  4. Love the new socks, though it looks very complicated. LOVE the 2 new quilts!!! Great work. The fusing technique on the gallery canvas looks great. I'll try that sometime! Thanks for sharing!

    Kristin F. in SC

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  5. Anonymous7:21 PM

    re mounting on frame . . .

    layers are:
    bottom - fused quilt
    then - batting
    then? - looks like maybe cardboard? showing?
    then - fuse to wooden frame

    Is that a layer of cardboard I see peeking up at me?

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  6. Nope, there is no cardboard at all.

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  7. Fun and gorgeous. And artist is too.

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  8. I love your creations!! Beautiful! Fun! Inspiring! Thank you!

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  9. What a great idea--I loved the post on Sunday and was wondering exactly how you attached the piece to the canvas. Thanks for sharing!

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  10. Love the latest work. I would like to do some handwork on my fused piece but can't get any needle to go through the wonder under. What dumb thing I'm I doing wrong? Thanks.

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  11. Anonymous5:59 PM

    Fabulous! I'm LOVING your expansion into the 3rd dimension! INSPIRATIONAL as always!

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  12. Pammyfay9:54 PM

    I love your lightbulb moments! This is a great look for your cheerful, bright pieces of quilt art.

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  13. Fusing to canvas is a great invention! Thanks a lot for sharing it :) I'm going to try it with a memory quilt collage right away.

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  14. This is a great idea to display small quilts.

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  15. Hi Melody,
    is it ok, if the canvas is pre-treated for painting. I haven't found any canvases that wouldn't be painted white already.

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Hello,
So nice of you to drop by. I love your comments, and if you would really like a reply, please email me at fibermania at g mail dot com