Fusing

Oh dear, I am so engrossed with my Festival 2013 entries that I don't have time for anything else....   Even the poor dog gets neglected...  I have made peace with the way that I work - I need a deadline to really focus on a project and get working....    I tend to dream and fiddle and not really work productively if I don't have a date circled on the calendar....   I need the adrenalin rush...    I think many can relate to that....

I cannot share the work in progress at this stage as the pieces are for a competition.....   I am working on two pieces in tandem.   When I'm tired of the one, I switch over to the other one with renewed energy and focus.   Working on some pieces are physically exhausting because of the size of it and others again by the intense staring at the machine needle while stitching....   Normally I prefer to work on one piece at a time, but somehow this time I manage working on two pieces at the same time.

I have been using the fusing method for most of my pieces for the past 20 years.    It is such a versatile construction method with so much scope and I really enjoy exploring all possibilities....

At the end of last year, I redecorated our lounge and went back to the trusted neutral colour scheme of our first lounge.    Any way, what a wonderful opportunity to make new scatter cushions and by doing so, experimenting with different effects....   I used Bali fabrics, batiks, silks and some of my own Brush Rags fabrics in colours ranging from creams to rusty browns, greys and charcoal.    I sealed the raw edges of one cushion with a decorative stitch on the sewing machine, another with 3mm silk ribbon and hessian threads couched on either sides of the silk ribbon and for the other one, I stitched decorative cords on the raw edges with hessian threads on either side of the cords.     All of them were machine quilted.   The beauty of this was that I used tiny scraps for this project.     My one friend was amazed that I hardly ever throw scraps away!     I keep scraps in a container, all sorted in colours and sealed in ziploc bags, easy to to find when needed.    I have scraps from the first patchwork fabrics which I bought in 1984 and sometimes it is just the right snippet I need!

Some fused cushions made in 2012

 

I need to make a few more cushions, but I have more interesting work at the moment....!

 

Now it is back to the grindstone of making competition quilts......!    It really is hard work, but nothing beats the thrill of the creative process....