Wednesday 11 February 2015

Eclectic Elements Blog Hop

When Nicki suggested a blog hop I thought yikes!   I've never done one before but I do love my Eclectic Elements fabrics designed by Tim Holtz and one of my promises for 2015 was that I would actually use more of them instead of take them out of the drawer, stroke them then put them back, the blog hop was a way of forcing my hand!

I have begun cutting some simple blocks to make a patchwork and there are lots of scraps falling into the bin.  I don't want to waste a single piece of this yumminess so stopped the cutting and got out my felting/embellishing machine and a piece of felt.  For those of you who have never seen one of these it looks a bit like a sewing machine but there are far less moving parts, it has no thread just several barbed needles which bonds or felts layers of  fibres and fabric together.  It works best when one of the layers is felt or batting as the fibres are looser and blend better with the other fabrics.

I layered scraps of fabric over the felt and ran it under the machine, you could do this with a single felting needle but it would take ages, my machine has 10 needles so only took half an hour to make a completely new piece of fabric out of scraps, a fabric collage.  I machined around some of the pieces,  cut out a couple of die cuts to simulate hinges and added some hitch fasteners.




I folded the fabric into three and blanket stitched around the edges using a machine and quite thick thread to create a useful purse.



 I have also made a Fabric tote with Eclectic Elements, some bracelets and a roman blind but please don't forget to continue the hop the discover what other delights have been created using this fantastic fabric once you have finished here.  

Thanks for visiting.

Jassy – you are here
Lisa 
Jen 
Amy 
Nicki