Painting With Pieces

Well maybe fabric collaging is more accurate but  this is way fun and feels mighty creative.  I just finished   an art quilt top using this method.  I was working on a very short deadline for a gallery exhibition so I didn't follow my norm plan of documenting as I go.  So I'll show the process now as I create a small sample of the process.
First.. where are we going? Isn't this bird on a wire fun?  This exhibit challenged out of one's normal box thinking, so I'm returning to a fusing process with minimal surface tension.  This will make sense as we move forward.

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First a simple line drawing the size you wish our piece to be.  A simple contour drawing is fine. One could easily use a coloring book like outline for this or clip art.

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Since I intend this to be a fusing process where light fusible web goes on the backside of fabric,  we need a reversal drawing of this  presently left facing birdie. This happens on a light box or window with the original drawing turned upside down. ( I know one  could also scan their drawing into photoshop or the like and mirror the drawing)  Do whatever works for you. We are woking here on a light box... the drawing turned over, and still with perfect visibility of the drawing on the front.

Now a layer of freezer paper (shiny side down) atop the drawing.  It's not quite as bright as the previous drawing but will be easy to exactly trace with a ultra fine permanent marker.

Traced birdie.

When I worked on the original, I made some last minute changes to the drawing .. shown here with a slightly different marking so I would remember what I'd done later.

Cut it out leaving those intricate little feet as a separate unit.

I decided I might also mark each area with the fabric colors I intended.

Time to cut out the pieces... again cut right on the line.. still leaving those intricate feet as a unit... don't cut them each out.

You end up with these birdie puzzle pieces.  Now to iron to the back side of already paper backed fusible web  fabric pieces of the planned colors.  This means you will have freezer paper  puzzle pieces ( say that fast 3 times..;-)  atop fusible web.  I'll show that tomorrow, so you might hold off as there is a trick in how these get cut out so to work well.    You might also be wondering about the black and white text/music fabric.  I'll explain that next post as well.