Using Trim as a Design Element

I love using unconventional items on my fiber art pieces, so I thought I would show you how I used some trim intended for clothing construction on this landscape. The black leaf shapes on the lower right bush are what I am referring to. I have a close up of this bush below.


















To make this bush I cut out a variety of leaf shapes from white and black/white fabrics and arranged them to look like the bush I had in mind. I put a fusible on the back of the fabrics before cutting so I just needed to press the arrangement once I got it the way I liked it.



 


I wanted to add something a little out of the ordinary to give the bush more interest, so I found a bit of black trim in my stash. You can see it below:











I cut out three short sections of the trim and played around with them to create the leaf shapes I was after.





Once I had them the way I liked them, I used a tacky glue to secure them to the fabric. The bush was placed on the landscape background and I began stitching the fabric leaf shapes to the background using free-motion quilting. The black trim leaves were secured with a Zig Zag stitch. I had to switch to my domestic sewing machine to do that.


Here is a detail that shows the stitching on the leaves. I think the trim gives added texture. They make you want to touch it to see what it is!

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