 I finally managed to get a chickadee wall hanging kit made! I've been trying for years, but chickadees are tricky, as they have all three values in them. It makes it harder to find a good background fabric! This has my usual hand dyed fabrics from Starr Designs, I feel like they almost glow, especially in these jewel tones!
Happy sewing! Beret
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 In my 100 Days of Quilted Greeting cards series this week, the theme is cards that are dependent on a specific fabric. Sometimes it’s a mini panel, and sometimes it’s a motif cut out of a repeating pattern. One of my favorite art quilting tips is to make the fabric do some of the work, and look at fabric maybe a little differently than you are used to! For example, there are fabrics with landscapey items printed on them, like rocks, clouds, grass, etc. I don’t really love using those, although I do use tree fabrics, usually to fussy cut the trees out to put on a different background. (But I often make my own trees too.) But it’s fun to look for fabrics that give the impression of something like rocks, sky, water, tree bark, and lots more. I think this is one reason I like the Starr hand dyed fabrics so much. Their texture could be many different things found in nature!
Of course, I always love the hand painty looking fabrics for backgrounds. They do so much of the work!
Here are a couple that give the impression of snow, without being actual snowflakes.
Batiks are another good place to look. The first one looks like it could be a fall forest in the background, and the second has swirls in the sky, which I love 😀
And panels without a lot of foreground are often a good option for backgrounds too.
In the first photo below, the two fabrics are very similar. But because of the color, the blue looks like water, and the brown would look like tree bark if it was turned the other way. What do you see in the fabrics in the second photo? I think it's cool that there are so many repeated motifs in nature, it shows they were all made by the same Artist! Rivers, veins, and tree branches all look similar, or bubbles, rocks, and fish skin! I hope you will look at fabric with different eyes, and let it help you do some of the work! However, I have a huge caution here: Value and colors are still the most important. If a fabric looks like tree bark, but the coloring really doesn't go with the rest of your project, you are better off finding one that is a better color. Look at them from a bit of distance to see if they are all playing well together. Happy sewing! Beret
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Beret Nelson's On The Trail Creations Blog Page
Beret NelsonI am a homeschooling mom of three fun kids, who are now old enough that I have a little time to pursue my passion for sewing! After several years of making quilted cards and art quilts, I'm now designing kits and patterns. Some of my designs have been in Keepsake Quilting and Art Quilting Studios magazine! I teach classes online, and am starting to do more traveling and teaching. I also have many tutorials, including some on YouTube. I am blessed to live in Alaska where I am surrounded by the inspiration provided by the beauty of God's creation! Free mini art quilt workshop for new subscribers!
"Like" my facebook page!I am also an independent distributor for Plexus supplements, since I credit them with enabling me to be healthy enough to do all these fun things! They target blood sugar and gut health, which are at the root of so many modern health issues. E-mail me for more info, or check out my website! I am as passionate about getting people healthy as I am about getting people creating :-)
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June 2024
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