My son recently moved into an apartment with beige, beige, beige everywhere! Boring...
To liven up his home, I am making a wallhanging that looks like you are viewing a salt water aquarium using lots of bright colors and lots of 3D appliqué and thread painting. He asked for some clown fish and nearly every Google image shows the fish in this setting-
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I have some ideas on how to create the 'thing' that looks like a mop head (!!! LOL) but would like to pick your brains to see if somebody can come up with a construction idea that works better than what I'm thinking.
Quilters?
Here's what I have so far- and I'm just getting started!
Leslie, it's beautiful! Wow. I have no idea how to make the anemones. I've seen kitchen cleaner brushes and such that look like one, but I'm not sure you want to use something that big. Maybe just some sort of filled half tubes stitched into the area where the clown fish are? Sorry, I'm not feeling very engineerly today. But whatever you do, the wallhanging is already beautiful.
It doesn't need to be washable but mustn't be too fragile- lifelike is good. I'd sure appreciate any help as I'm kinda stuck with my brain on solving this one before I can move on to the next 'challenge'! ;-)
Thanks, Sunny. This is a challenging but fun project! I am getting ideas from a book- Quilted Sea Tapestries by Ginny Eckley- and now I'm ready to fly off on my own. Wheeeeeeee!!!
Leslie, did you watch the terrific video (or whatever you call them) that Jeanne showed us just this week? Study it and that should give you some insight as to how to achieve some of the effects you want. For sure it would take trial and error but it will be such Fun. Also, of course, you'll want to trot around the batik places and see what's available that will already have some of the composition done for you. What Jeanne showed us - <
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this looks interesting. i'm still trying to get it working for me. as i'm on dial up it might not work but i'm sure the rest of you can get it. tho you might already get it on your PBS or cable tv channels. enjoy! >
Thanks, Polly- I just ordered her book! "The Art of Embroidered Flowers" by Gilda Baron- Amazon had it on sale and I was 'forced' to buy a second quilting related book to qualify for free shipping. You enabling rascal you! ;-)
How 'bout a mop head? :-) BTW - I'm really impressed by what you've got there already.
The anemone reminds me of some of the toys DW has in her toy drawer at work (or maybe the toys remind me of an anemone - I'm not sure...) If it were me, I think I'd cruise some toy shops/depts., craft stores, and teachers' supply stores (one of my S.O.P.s) for ideas/ inspiration. They have some of the weirdest stuff - usually intended/ made for other purposes. Have you thought about some kind of trapunto effect? Macrame cord? (*covering* macrame cord or similar w/ fabric to create the tentacles). Pet/aquarium shops undoubtedly have real anemones, but they may also have artificial ones for decorating aquariums(?)
Doc, covering some clothesline rope with fabric (I have some slightly off white satin-like stuff that would be great) was my initial plan but the ends need to be rounded and that's what has me bamfoozled. I have an idea for the shapes- trapunto'd background shapes with a few 3D rope covered ones extending beyond the flatter shapes for dimension- but rounding the ends has me at a stand still. I can insert the rope or stuff the shapes for the rounded end but not both with the construction method I have in mind. I even thought of gluing a large pearl on the ends for the rounded effect. I'm gonna go berserk with this one! LOL But I truly am enjoying the challenge. ;-)
Now to figger out where and how to incorporate some beading and hot glued 'jewels'!
Leslie & The Furbabies in MO.
How 'bout a mop head? :-) BTW - I'm really impressed by what you've got there already.
The anemone reminds me of some of the toys DW has in her toy drawer at work (or maybe the toys remind me of an anemone - I'm not sure...) If it were me, I think I'd cruise some toy shops/depts., craft stores, and teachers' supply stores (one of my S.O.P.s) for ideas/ inspiration. They have some of the weirdest stuff - usually intended/ made for other purposes. Have you thought about some kind of trapunto effect? Macrame cord? (*covering* macrame cord or similar w/ fabric to create the tentacles). Pet/aquarium shops undoubtedly have real anemones, but they may also have artificial ones for decorating aquariums(?)
What size do the bits of the anemone need to be? For bigger ones you could stuff and cut off the fingers of gloves - a couple of pairs of stretchy knit gloves from the dollar store might work ....
For smaller bits - you could twist a piece of yarn tightly so that it folds back on itself and then fix the ends so it doesn't unravel. I think I have seen fringes done this way. For extra glitz you could add a bead before twisting so that the bead would finish up at the end of the twist.. (I hope this makes sense - it's hard to explain in just words and I couldn't google any pictures to show what I mean)
Allison.
Leslie& The Furbabies > My son recently moved into an apartment with beige, beige, beige
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