A Bit About Fusible Products

Before I hurt my hand I was working on this bright little quilt.

Each of the little stacks of hearts illustrate a brand/type of fusible and how well they stack up, stick and feel. This is designed for touching, to feel the layers and the suppleness or the stiffness of the layers of each of the stacks of fused hearts.

(I think the pictures will enlarge if you click on them)

Another thing that nice to know is how the edges hold up after fusing and stitching. Some fusible products are much better at holding the fabric edges down than others. Here I used an open narrow zigzag stitch to finish the edges of each heart.

Over the years I have used many different fusible products... about 200 yards so far. I like having a selection on hand to use, depending on the project. Sometimes I need to have some real stick and others need a light stick just to keep in place until I stitch it down. Sometimes you do not want to trace a thousand leaves... and would be happy if you could just print out a paper backed fusible with all your leaves traced and ready to be fused to the fabric.

Some fusible products stick… so well that the glue becomes part of both fabrics and taking them apart…. will never happen, while some others depending of the fabric treatments, you may be able to peel a fused piece off and reposition. Still others allow you to create your design pieces and they will have a ‘temporary’ sticky feature that allows you to play with placement before making it permanent with heat. Another downside to some fusible products is that the glue may maybe so heat sensitive that too much ruins the stick or there is so much glue that the layers of fabrics become stiff that they are nearly impossible to stitch through by machine or they will transfer the glue to the needle causing additional problems.

The hearts hanging on the side are to show how a fusible product looks on the back of the fabric, minus a backing so you can see how each the fusible feels and looks after fusing to the first fabric.

After sharing this with a guild I have been asked to expand this into a talk on various fusible products and characteristics.

Do you use fusible products in your creative process? Which one is you favorite? Do have one that has disappointed you?

More Later- Beth

Focus

Do you ever find that you have lost focus in your creative endeavors. Not just falling out of love with a project, but forgetting that you even have it in the works. Not only that but the project is sitting right out in the open, on the table, -

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visible!

I just did that the other night. Sometimes I have difficulty finding the order of projects after completing an unforeseen or unplanned project or obligation and when coming back to the Creative Space feel lost. I spent an hour piddling about… with a little hand work on an old quilt top, that was not really on the list ‘get done immediately’ projects.

I had been working on getting this

little thing done…

but was sidelined once because I hadn’t totally thought the project through and then I had those “Guild Chores” or Meeting Preparation things to move off the table, which totally drew all my focus from the creative fun stuff.

Do you find you are diverted from your focus, and find yourself doing nothing?

More Later! – Beth