Fabric collage

A couple years after my grandma died, my grandpa was preparing to move out of the house that they had lived in for the past 30ish years.  On my last visit to that house (seriously, I can hardly think of it without crying) I was able to gather up lots of sentimental things, including a couple bags of fabric and yarn from Grandma's impressive sewing stash.  The stuff has been packed away in my garage for about five years, and the other day I had the urge to dig it out. 

Some day I'd like to make a crazy quilt from all these mismatched fabrics, but that day is not today. I've had the image below saved for a long time, and it was the perfect inspiration.  I can't find the page for this exact picture, but you can visit the Hula Seventy blog here to see more of her awesome paper collages.

I cut out a bunch of small fabric samples, and then I painted a 12x12 canvas in shades of blue and green.

Unfortunately, when I laid out the fabrics, they looked all wrong on the variegated blue canvas.  So I painted another one with a simple orange background

The orange really worked better with the '70s vibe I was getting from the fabrics.  I also made a long braid with some bright pink yarn and hot glued that to the outside edge.  I mean, if we're going '70s, let's throw orange and pink together and go all out, right?  Here's the finished product.

I used Mod Podge to attach the fabrics, with varying results.  The thinnest ones, for example, became kind of see-through.  Oh well.  I still love it.

Finally, I'll add that I have a small amount of the black and white tiger print bedsheet that my grandma made into a button-up shirt for my grandpa.  (Are you picturing it, cousins?  The Olan Mills photo with Grandpa in that marvelous tiger shirt?  I know you are.)  I will make a project with that someday too, when I've dreamed up something worthy of the material.