Last November, Sanchia took a trip to Houston International Quilt Festival.  She was very impressed by those contemporary textile works.  Since then, she has been working on various fabric projects.  Through the workshop, Faux Chenille by Louis Sutten, she found out that lovely scenes can be created by cotton chenille techniques. 

Developing a Chenille

This piece of chenille is created by combining a piece of cotton print fabric with two layers of osnaburg and one piece of muslin.  We'll use the muslin as our foundation.  Then, we add two layers of osnaburg to the muslin.  The top layer is a piece of cotton print fabric.

As you can see through the above thumbnail, I used a print made of paradise and other flowers.  After I had all layers together, I sew them with straight stitch 45 degrees along the grain of fabrics.  Each stitch line is half inch apart from the others.  Then, I made a cut through the middle of two lines.  The cutting line should go through the print and osnaburg.  Our foundation, muslin should be intact without being cut through.

The final step is putting this chenille to the laundry machine.  After pulling off your chenille from the dryer, the fun and delight of this techniques come into light.  This is the time when you see the finished background of your masterpiece.  And only then do you have a firm grasp of your creation.  I enjoy the experience of making chenille because it is always an adventure for me.   Send me your feedback information or come chat with me!

A collection of fine art, fiber art, graphic art, documentary photography, interior design and website design.