Monday, May 10, 2010

Technique of the Week #18 - Watercolor fusible interfacing

Project hours: 5 hours
Design and materials: 3 hours
Execution: 2 hours

Some projects are better than others, and the same goes for techniques.  I had this iron-on interfacing that you fuse your specially chosen watercolor charm squares down onto, and then you just "fold and sew" along the lines to make this easy to do watercolor effect.  The hardest part was picking out the fabrics, and I had a box of old Keepsake Quilting swatches that I used for this purpose.  The squares were one and a half inches to start, but because of how I spaced them on the interfacing I got more or less mileage, depending.
The down side was that this interfacing is so bulky at the seams when you are finished, that I really didn't want to go further and quilt it. I know this is a "needlebreaker".  It's so thick at the seams in the intersections I don't know how I will avoid them.  I ironed on my tentacles to act as my silhouetted "gate", as I knew I didn't want to do a traditional gate.  This wasn't hard to do, but having done it, I don't think I will want to revisit it.

3 comments:

Diane said...

Did you add seam allowance and use the edge of the interfacing for your seam line? It makes a big difference!

Cheryl said...

Yeah, I did use the fusible interfacing the right way, but the pieces were so small one or two of them shifted in the ironing. I also should have opened the seams and pressed them open to help with the bulk. But that's why I try these things out! :) Thank you for the comment! I appreciate it!

Unknown said...

It's a cute piece. Personally, I would fuse some Mistyfuse to a backing fabric, then just arrange the squares and fuse them down like a mosaic, and fuse the wavy gate on top of that. I'm working on a mosaic kit right now that will work similarly. I'll try to send you a pic when I have it done!