SOS - any advice plse!!!

Hi! I've got this great idea for a quilted, collage wall hanging but am stuck! I want to title it "pieces of my life" and sew tog, or likely paper piece individual "blocks" to represent each of my hobbies and favourite things in life. For ex., to represent photography, was planning to paperpiece an old fashioned camera on a stand. I would then applique each "block" onto the coordinating bkgrnd fabric, and make the wall hanging. Oh yes, & of course embellish each one with trims, charms, netting, shiny fabric (oh I love shiny!!) My problem?? I don't want to do individual blocks as I want each design to flow into the other, thought maybe an appliqued vine to join each one... Can anyone help? Has anyone ever done a collage? I've been googling sites on collage wall hangings but not much so far... Only that I would need to have a color scheme thruout the designs to tie them tog. Signed "stumped" in Ottawa, Canada!

Oh! Oh! Pick me!!

The first thing I thought of in reading your post was "crazy quilt". Have you ever seen how fabulous crazy quilts are? And for a collage you could embellish with anything...ribbons, shiny fabric, bows, buttons...the possibilities are endless! And just by the randomness of the "block" (not really blocks though) placement, it all looks like it belongs together. I'll attach some photos on this to show you what I came up with when I googled "crazy quilt".

All I can say is WOW!!!! amazing pics, of beautiful quilts.

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Originally Posted by Gayle8675309

Oh! Oh! Pick me!!

The first thing I thought of in reading your post was "crazy quilt". Have you ever seen how fabulous crazy quilts are? And for a collage you could embellish with anything...ribbons, shiny fabric, bows, buttons...the possibilities are endless! And just by the randomness of the "block" (not really blocks though) placement, it all looks like it belongs together. I'll attach some photos on this to show you what I came up with when I googled "crazy quilt".

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Gayle8675309

Oh! Oh! Pick me!!

The first thing I thought of in reading your post was "crazy quilt". Have you ever seen how fabulous crazy quilts are? And for a collage you could embellish with anything...ribbons, shiny fabric, bows, buttons...the possibilities are endless! And just by the randomness of the "block" (not really blocks though) placement, it all looks like it belongs together. I'll attach some photos on this to show you what I came up with when I googled "crazy quilt".

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Well haven't you opened a new can of worms Gayle!!!!
Gotta get me a piece of this action LOL :)

and...good luck Suzi. Post pics for us to ogle ;)

Love your idea and looks like you already have some excellent advice! Can't wait to see what you come up with!

The project sounds like great fun and the pictures of the crazy quilt ideas should be a great help. I love doing wall hangings but have never thought about doing a crazy quilt style. Now to the drawing board!

Gayle, these are some of the prettiest crazy quilts I have seen. What makes them so pretty is all of the embellishments. It must make making the blocks a lot more time consuming, but the results are spectacular. You also have a wonderful machine that makes those decorative stitches. I see that there are pictures within the block. I have not had good luck with printing pictures on fabric. They are not colorfast even though I follow the fabric's instructions. I wanted to make my grandkids a quilt with their picture in it, but I tested a few blocks (at considerable expense) and they all washed out or faded unacceptably. Do these quilts ever get washed?
Suzyq, I think a crazy quilt is the way to go with appliqué pieces within it.

I love collage... i'm more of a start with neutral background... then make applique on top... overlapping, into one big piece.. (but then i'm known for things that are NOT symmetrical..sp?)... LOL
Perhaps a beautiful "vase"... with stems (not straight) of hobby flowers????
i know, i'm crazy....just thinking....:)

when I first read this post I thought DNA (yours as in your life experiance) or a monocular structure. You could link each block/item as a monocular diagram such as :-

http://www.news.wisc.edu/newsphotos/ironVI.html

or use an image to represent yourself and entwine DNA around it such as this:-

http://propaganda-dimitrios.blogspot...-dna-junk.html

I think the stucture invites embellishment, could do all kinds of things with beads,thread, sequins buttons

Attachment 19780Just to add a little more "craziness" to your ideas... how about STAMPING a couple things?? LIKE use rubber stamps and PERMANENT INK.

Oooo - going have to follow your thread here Suzi. I've had on my list for quite a few years to do something like you are talking about. Just haven't decided how I am going to do it either. Your idea of 'connecting' the ideas together is something I didn't think about. Now you've got my wheels turning too.
I like the crazy quilt idea, but I am not into crazy quilting myself. It is pretty for someone else and I ooh and aah over it but don't think I'll use that idea for mine.

I'll be checking back here for more great ideas.

Hugs,

You are barking up my tree! Although I won't be doing it, it sounds amazing! I am to old to do that. But... I did something similar for my grand daughters. Granted, they are 12 and 6 and you will want to do more with it than this, but still...ideas can come from all over. I made them T-shirt quilts from t-shirts that they have worn in the short little lives, that meant something to them. They were both different but had some same likes which will tie them together..they both liked Hanna Montana and have a t-shirt front of that, both liked dinosaurs so they have a t-shirt they wore of their fav dino, one was in girl scouts and went on a trip and made t-'s while there, one loved the beach and got a t from there and I used that..and the list goes on for 12 shirt blocks. They both love their quilts and I put on the younger one...I had the older one write something "to" the younger one about a time they had shared that meant so much to them, then I printed it out on an iron transfer sheet and made that into a block and then she deocrated it with fabric paint...another thing they liked doing. Here are the pics. As far a joining the blocks...how about a ladder of some kind..."climbing your way through life...". Good luck and hope to see a picture soon!!!!

I saw an old Fons and Porter video on QNNTV.com where you cut tiny scraps of fabric and make a "collage" by laying toole over the pieces and then FMQ the whole thing. They were using a photo to make a landscape quilt. Reminded me of a Monet painting, if you know what I mean. You could certainly design out your quilt, blending your themes together and then use that to create this type of quilt. The video is in series 400 and is called Introduction to Longarm Quilting in Japan. It was an interesting concept.

Oh wow ladies! You are all so TOTALLY my new best friends! Great ideas and I can incorporate them all.. Thanks SO much for including photos too, this really gives me ideas... Me no stumped no longer... Here I've been researching collage quilts when it shoulda been crazy quilts! Go figure... I can see now from the photos, how to incorporate decorative stitching which I never thought of, I was so hung up on the different designs. I have just " busted" out of my comfort zone!! Yes pics down the road....