2014-March-April: Oshie Art Masterpiece Wedding Gift

OK, in a big break from the sewing machine, I did a BIG Oshie art fabric piece for the wedding of my friends W. and B.!  Well, it was about 15" square, but it was big in terms of time and effort!

It was really fun to design and put together.  I will admit, after finishing it, I was ready to take a hiatus from Oshie work for a while. :)

I really like the Oshie technique because it lets you do something so "quilted" and patchworky without actually sewing.  Of course, now that I'm better at sewing and have even made a couple quilts, I would love to explore the look of this piece on an actual quilt.

2013-March: 2-Piece Oshie Art Project: "Chips"

(What is Oshie?  See my first oshie piece here for explanation!)

This was for my brother's album cover.  I made the piece and then scanned it for him, and as a print for my shop.  I do think these Oshie pieces are best seen in their original form, so one can see the texture and puffiness!  I gave him the originals. :)

It does look like a tiny quilt, doesn't it?  I'm not afraid to make something like this on an actual sewing machine now!

And the back cover!  Words were to be written inside the big middle circle part . . .

. . . so I lightened it up on the computer.

I thought this would also make a fun border for a picture frame, but in reality it looks pretty weird with a face in the middle!

2013-January: Oshie Art (Nasturtiums)

I'm going to include my Oshie pieces here because they helped push me into my love of FABRIC!  And it is a form of textile art, though it doesn't involve any sewing.

I was inspired to try my own Oshie by a piece I had bought in Vancouver, BC.  It's a Japanese art form where you use fabric to "upholster" little pieces of chipboard (with cotton batting inside), then assemble them all together into a puffy, quilt-like collage!  I still had no sewing confidence at this point, but here was a way I could make something "quilty" and patchwork-y, just using scissors and glue!

My first piece: nasturtiums.  I brought in a stem of them from my yard, taped it to a board in a still life, and worked from there.