Book Review: Colorful Fabric Collage by Sue Bleiweiss

So not only is my crazy Thermofax 101 blog hop (are you entirely bored of it yet!?!) almost through, but this is the last stop on the blog hop review of Sue Bleiweiss‘ new book:

 

 

Gotta say – I’ve loved every project Sue has been involved in so I knew going in that her book would turn out great! The first chunk of the book is all about the techniques she uses in her wonderful and whimsical artwork. She covers sketching, dying cloth (I learned a couple of different ideas from her methods that I hadn’t used before!) fusing, quilting, and embellishing. Each topic is covered with clarity and in enough depth to be able to understand and proceed with her process.

 

I have a little project in the book. It’s a little on the “different” side for ways to use fusible web.

 

For this piece, I laid some Misty-Fuse on a piece of crumpled then smoothed parchment and painted it with watered down purple acrylic and blue paints. After the paint dries I lift it off of the messed up parchment and sandwiched it between two layers of a teflon pressing sheet. I then ironed it to smooth it out, waited for it to cool, then cut and tore this sheet of fusible paint into the shape I was looking for.

 

I fused it down to my quiltlet (this piece is 12″ x 12″) then did another strange but very fun thing. I put the teflon pressing sheet on top, ironed it to heat up the fusible web, quickly pulled of the pressing sheet and laid down a piece of foil. I quickly (but carefully – you don’t want to burn yourself) rubbed a few areas with my thumb to adhere the foil in a few places over the web. Let that cool then lift the foil sheet and there you go.

And you know me – I can’t resist beads so of course I had to add some of those as well for added texture. (If you are interested in purchasing this piece send me a quick email.)

 

Enough about my crazy ideas, back to Sue’s book. There are a lucky 13 projects in the back of this book for those of you who love to work with patterns! The only reason I don’t use patterns (I love them) is because I dan’t focus long enough to read directions. Her directions are great!

So – would I recommend this book? Absolutely!

 

To add to the fun, Sue is giving away a prize package that includes a book, a stack of 10″ squares of her hand dyed fabric, some spools of Aurifil thread and a package of Mistyfuse.  The book will ship directly from Interweave so International commenters will receive an electronic version of the book and not a hard copy. May 15 drawing – all comments left on all of the blogs during the hop will be eligible.That’s a very short time frame so get busy and revisit each of these blogs and leave a comment for your chance to win! I wish you the best of luck!!!

 

May 4: Sue Bleiweiss: http://www.suebleiweiss.com/blog/

May 4: Jamie Fingal :http://www.jamiefingaldesigns.com/
May 5: Leslie Tucker Jenison: http://leslietuckerjenison.blogspot.com/
May 6: Terri Stegmiller : http://stegart.blogspot.com/
May 7: Deborah Boschert : http://deborahsjournal.blogspot.com/
May 8: Desiree Habicht : http://myclothesline.blogspot.com/
May 9: Kathy Sperino : http://finishinglinesbyksperino.blogspot.com/
May 10: Barb Forrister : http://www.barbforrister.com/blog/
May 11 Kathy York : http://www.aquamoonartquilts.blogspot.com/
May 12: Lyric Kinard : http://lyrickinard.com/lyric-kinard-blog/