Ride Like a Girl collage

[grimmscreed]

When I read about the challenge for this month I knew *exactly* which catalog I would use.  Almost a year ago I ordered some cycling clothes from a company that specializes in women's cycling gear.  Everything they sell is so cute!  How could I go wrong?  Except that nothing fit, and everything failed to fit in different ways.  ::sigh::  And they won't take me off their mailing list, so every month I get another catalog to taunt me with cute stuff.  Very frustrating.

So I knew what I would use, but didn't have the faintest idea what to make with it.  I kept hoping for inspiration to strike as I went about my usual crafts.  After several false starts I realized that I could use my newfound obsession with crazy quilts (which I haven't had time to indulge in yet beyond the dreaming/planning stage).  Eureeka!  I could make a faux crazy quilt collage!  So I ran to my stash and grabbed some tissue paper to use as a background.  I wish I could say that the red and pink is some sort of political commentary on girly bike gear..... but those were the only colors I had that blended nicely together.  Once that was decoupaged down I added pictures from the catalog.  Mostly these were logos from t-shirts, but I mixed a few other things in there as well.  Then I embroidered along the edges.  Since I used tissue paper and overlapped the pieces I didn't always have clear edges, so I just pretended that they were there.  If I do something like this again, I will use thicker paper and make it look more quilt like.  To finish it off and continue with the faux quilt idea I used strips from the magazine to make faux binding tape and wrapped the edges with it.

Here is a close up to show some of the stitching, as well as the soure of the projects name (there's another copy of that logo in the collage as well, in pink)

I'm still not 100% happy with the outcome, but it was a daring experiment and a learning experience.

[TLW]

I really like the way it looks in itself.
Very pink (I agree) but it all goes well together.

The fact that you basically made a paper quilt makes it even more interesting.
Very original idea!

[selkie]

Great work!
I thought it was a fabric quilt until I read the paper part!

[Belladune]

cue collage!  I like the embroidery detail.