Don’t fall off your chair in shock, but I have some textile pieces to show you! The first for months, and a bit different as well.
At our Nifty Needles group today, where our current theme is Recycling, I demonstrated how to make a couple of different textured surfaces for further embellishment and stitch.
I guess the first, Fabric Paper, is really what one might call a mixed media technique but the results certainly have potential for a number of things. Instructions can be found here on Linda Matthews website “Creative Textile and Quilting Arts”. One starts with a piece of fine cotton slathered with a diluted PVA glue, then add bits of fabric, threads, dried petals or whatever, and cover it with tissue paper – plain, coloured or discarded dressmaking patterns, and saturate it again with glue. It can be painted wet, or dry (my preference), and when totally dry becomes a flexible fabric which can be machine or hand stitched. Some photos of how mine was made.
Damp fabric with a layer of muslin and other bits and pieces.
Covered with old dress pattern tissue
This piece was painted while wet, and will need more when dry.
A second piece with added threads, before the tissue layer
Final product - painted dry, dried again and then Shiva Paintsticks applied.
This last piece is very textured and has the feel and consistency of leather, and will probably make a book cover, but I think fabric paper could be used for boxes, vessels, ATCs, Postcards and more….. I made a small notebook from some as a sample for this session, where the pages are made from the backs of A4 envelopes. 
The second surface was made using strips of plastic fruit or onion bags, overlapped and layered on Aqua Bond, covered with another plastic dissolving film, and densely machine stitched all over with polyester thread (which will melt) to hold it together and to integrate the pieces and colours. A simple design with a strong outline was drawn onto the top plastic film, and machine stitched again with cotton or other heat resistant thread, before dissolving the Aqua Bond and Romeo. This results in an open and lacy fabric which can be layered and stitched on something else. With mine, I used a soldering iron to cut away the centres of the simple daisy design, which is why it is essential that the first stitching is done with Polyester thread. Having left my preparation for this session to the last minute, this piece was made in a hurry last night, but even so I think it is quite effective, and if made with a bit more thought, the technique has a lot of potential.
Strips of fruit bag layered, and covered with plastic film.
Piece has been machine stitched all over, and design drawn on the plastic
Design machine stitched with cotton thread - could use metalic.
Plastic films have been dissolved, and fabric sitting on black felt
I plan to do this again with better colour choices, a more interesting design and try metallic threads plus some hand stitching…..but don’t hold your breath!
