Create Your Own Fabric

Did you know it is very easy to create your own fabric. I am making a quilt using a fabric book panel which I decided to turn into a quilt/wall hanging rather than a book. I stitched the story pages side the by and around a central picture which was on the panel. This story picture had a big version of the picture with the words written beside it and then the instructions on how to put it together below. I wanted to use this story and the picture in the centre of my quilt so I had to fuse something over the instructions bit that was showing on my panel. Here is what I did

See the stones along the bottom of the block - they are fused using Vliesofix over the bottom of the panel so you cannot see where the intructions on how to make the book are. If you want to do this you need to lay a piece of tracing paper over the panel and trace the area you want to cover and then you have to place this upside down on the paper backing of the fusible to copy it, because if you lay it right sides facing up your fusible piece will be back- to- front. I think this turned out really well. The next photo shows how I put a frame around each story block. I used 3 colours and repeated them alternately.The green (scales) frame around the centre story block is fabric from the panel, that I cut out and resewed here.

I laid them out so you can read the story blocks from left to right around the centre panel. Now I wanted a fabric to frame around the centre panel but I didn't have just the right stripe. Sooooo... I made one. Here is a piece of white on white stripe fabric with fabric felt pens used on each alternate stripe.

Doesn't that look good! I used blue, pink, yellow and green fabric felt pens and drew them on each alternate stripe making sure I had a white stripe between. I think it looks great. Now I have to make enough to join it all together. Just sit down and play with the pens. Obviously you have to draw carefully and make sure you stay within the lines.Because these are fabric felt pens they are permanent and won't wash out. Yay! I hope this inspires some of you to try this yourself, have fun creating.
Dianne
PS I am so glad Blogger has fixed the photo uploading problem.