Fabric Collage

I follow Frieda Oxenham's blog on a fairly regular basis because I love the fabric art she creates and she is also very prolific! If just a little bit of time goes by, I am sure to find something new on her site. : ) Frieda often writes about how she created a smaller piece - an ATC, or a postcard - from a larger 'fabric collage' she made. Frieda created many beautiful ATCs for my Summer Garden swap with this process -- and you can view them here. I thought Frieda might be layering bits of paper and paper napkins together on a fabric base to make a fabric collage “sheet” to cut up for various projects, but I wasn't sure. I asked her if she would mind explaining her process to me?? Frieda graciously replied:

"Hi Lenna,

Yes, I tend to make large collages and then cut them up for various projects. I start with a piece of muslin (called calico here in the U.K. but definitely muslin in US speak) and watered down PVA glue (about 1 part PVA to 5 parts water). I saturate the muslin with that and then lay down things like vinage paper pictures, torn pages from old books and dictionaries, music sheets etc. and saturate them with the mixture as well. Then I add napkins (only the top thin layer) and/or coloured tissue paper, and again wet it well with the PVA mix. Finally I squirt Dye-na-Flow dyes on the empty (i.e.) white spaces and because the piece is really wet, the paint flows out in a lovely manner. Give it a try!!"

Wow! thank you so much, Frieda! I went ahead and did a variation of this using fabric remants & paper bits, tissue paper, paper napkins and matte medium instead of PVA, which I did not have. I collaged these things onto a piece of muslin (called 'calico' in the UK!) and sent pictures to Frieda already as I was so excited. I did not use Dye-Na-Flow this time, but that's a good idea and I'll try it in the future. I think Frieda sometimes copies her collages onto fabric so it's one smooth piece . . . I may use the one I made as is, or maybe copy onto fabric - do a little of both! What fun, thank you so much Frieda. Here are some views of my piece - click on them for more details:

Mine looks very different from Frieda's, but I like the process and the results very much! I am going to definitely use this collage piece to create a journal quilt (or two or three) - as I have not created one of my weekly journal quilts for 2 weeks now. It seems I have been busy & caught up doing other things and I let it slide . . . but I will get back to doing this and share a new JQ soon! I have created 23 so far this year and that is just about 1/2 of my goal of 50, not bad!

Again, many, many thanks to Frieda for her inspiration and generous sharing spirit . . . creatively yours, lenna