"Flabergast & Flotsam"

"Flabergast & Flotsam" on display at the Umpqua Valley Quilters' Guild Show in 2015. I finished it in time to enter it in our Fyber Cafe Challenge Display at the show.

"Free Floating Flabergast" is the theme for this challenge, from a comic strip by Pat Brady. I added beads and shells to the base layer of my photograph printed on fabric, then free motion quilted with some trapunto. Over that I hung a dried piece of kelp that I found on the beach one day, completely dried as is. Onto the kelp I glued pieces of plastic, raffia, netting, bottle caps, wire and a feather. I think I'll take a close up and side view when I go back to the show today. It looks stunning on the black sheeting background.

I also wanted the base to be more three dimensional, so I made two sand dollars with fabric. The real sand dollars I picked up on the beach, and put under the scanner. They looked kinda blah-gray, so I punched up the contrast and color in Photoshop Elements. I printed them on a white on white fabric with a rice pattern, just to make them look more interesting. I stitched the center pattern first, then trimmed the cotton batting, sewed on the back and turned them. A fine edge stitching finished them, they are not great, the color too blah and you really can't see the pattern of the photo, but they'll do. I hand stitched just a bit of the edge to the kelp photo, so that they stand out. I had thought about gluing on the real sand dollars, but they are just too fragile.

Here is the side view photo, and the closeups that I took at the quilt show.

The sand dollar and feather are tucked beneath the dried kelp.

I am linking this to Nina-Marie's "Off the Wall Friday" click on the badge on the right hand column to see what other talented textile artists are doing.