Have you ever made or wanted to make a collage quilt? I made a collage quilt several years ago, and it was so much fun. I got so carried away cutting out flowers that I ended up making not one but two quilts. Each one had its own look because I just couldn’t make all the ideas play well together :) Some of these photos were taken many years ago, and you can tell cameras have come a long way, but I think you’ll get a kick out of seeing the process anyway.
Collage quilts are basically a background piece of fabric with flowers from other fabrics cut out and glued in place then stitched down with quilting. Or, you can use fusible web and stitch each piece in place before the final quilting.
The first thing you want to do is pick your flower fabrics. I like to use very large scale prints that will make big splashes of color and won’t take an eternity to cut out. Here are several pics of different prints. I left my hand in the photo so you can see the size and scale of them.
I cut out each flower pretty close to the edge but I wasn’t fussy about it. I even used partial flowers, layering them in behind other flowers so it looks like there are layers of blooms.
For my background, I used two different black and white prints: one was floral and one was newsprint. I cut a wonky line between the two and pieced in a black strip to join them. I added several more black strips for “stems”. These were all cut on the bias so I could easily manipulate them into gentle curves.
Now it’s time to play! With a stack of cut flowers and about six glue sticks (literally Elmer's glue sticks), I set to work making my garden grow. Some of these photos aren’t the best quality, but you get the idea.
Here are some other close-up photos of the second quilt I made using this method. I haven’t quilted this one yet, and I needed to reattach some of the flowers. You don’t have to glue every last inch down, just enough so they don’t move around or flop over while quilting.
This glue applicator would work great for small areas because it has a pointed tip, and you could put just a dot in small places.
Basically, the quilting is the magic. You can put as much detail in the quilting to make the flowers pop and secure the edges. The glue will either wash out or dissipate and soften up over time.
And, that’s all there is to it! You’ll have some sticky fingers and a big smile at the end of this process :) I hope you enjoy it!
Happy Sunday everyone!