Collage Quilt advice needed
 

Hi everyone! First time posting, long time lurking.
I'm working on my first quilt. I've tried to include a photo. It is a collage quilt for a wall hanging.... (at the same time I'm working on a traditional machine pc'd quilt to get the hang of things). I'm using info from a couple Susan Carlson books to get me pointed in the right direction. Her method uses water soluble glue to compose and tack on the pcs, then netting over the top to smooth things for quilting. I'm partially done with affixing pcs using water soluble glue. I'd like to somehow avoid netting over the top (I feel like it dulls the colors). I'm considering getting a free motion spoon/glide foot for my machine and/or using a water soluble topper (used traditionally in embroidery) as suggested by my sewing shop, to allow me to sew over many pcs of uneven fabric (all 100% cotton quilting fabric).
Has anyone had experience with this? Does anyone have other suggestions? Should I sew the small pcs of the tail etc onto the top fabric *before quilting (applique?), or just sew everything together when I have my quilt sandwich? Any thoughts on type of thread and needles? Which machine should I use? Do I want a free motion ring?

My machines are Pfaff Expression 710 (love this machine), Pfaff 360 (older), Viking Klass20 (older), and Husqvarna Mega Quilter (smaller one, with free motion table). Feel free to correct my use of vocabulary above :-) I'm still learning.

Can't give you any help or suggestions -- but zowie! look at you go!!

As I say, this sort of thing is not in my skill set... but we have people with marvelous talents and hopefully they can give you some good suggestions.

Just again, welcome and grats for figuring out how to post pictures, and for your collage work.

Different colors of tulle will give you different effects. I've not used Susan Carlson's method but have used Soft fuse, a very light fusible. I use the tip of my iron to tack the pieces in place until I've determined the proper placement and then give it a final fuse. Once my collage is done, I layer and quilt line vertically and horizontally 1/2" - 3/4" apart using a 50 weight thread. I use an 80/12 or 90/14 machine needle depending on the number of layers. But Soft Fuse is so light that most of the time an 80/12 needle works fine. By using fusible, you can layer everything on parchment paper and have your pattern under the parchment for guidance. I've made several collage quilts. I am jealous of the rooster photo. LOL Hope I've helped a bit but feel free to PM me if you have any questions.

Thank you! The needle info will help. :-) ,
I have livestock, and I've painted for years. I take tons of reference photos. So if there are any animals you'd like photos of, I may have them, and I'm happy to share.

I, too, was not fond of the effect of tulle on my finished piece, no matter what color I tried. I wanted the colors to remain vibrant but found that any tulle seemed to make the colors a bit dull or pearlescent. I'll be following this post to see what others recommend. Are you part of her Facebook group? Someone there may have offered some suggestions.
I can't wait to see your finished project!

The only collage quilt I've done was a Laura Heine. I took a class from her and she didn't use tulle over the top. I haven't finished mine yet (its only been 3 years!!!!) but as I remember she used steam-a-seam to place and secure the pieces on a light weight interfacing (I think) foundation with the design drawn on it and then glued it to the background and finished by straight line quilting. You might look up her technique. It was easy and fast.

You have an amazing start on your rooster. I can hardly wait to see the finished product.

Beautiful chicken and your work matches perfectly!

I have done a number of collages, using a number of methods, Susan Carlson's being one of them.
I've done with and without the tulle. If you get the right colour, it can really add to your collage. You can also add the tulle in different colours to different areas....the background in one colour and then the chicken covered in another colour, as an example. It doesn't all have to be one.
he horse in this collage is mostly in grey tulle, but his lighter areas are in white tulle. He was collaged with Steam a Seam Lite 2, but with 1/4" squares of fabric, so I felt the need to put tulle over top, with so many tiny pieces. Quilted on a Tiara.
This dog collage was done with glue, but I didn't do tulle. I only quilted around the dog and lines in the background. It's held up to my daughter moving numerous times, quite well. I did take quite some time to be sure all the pieces and edges were glued down. I even went over it lightly with a lint roller to see if I could lift any edges.
Watson

Tulle
 

Cool! How did you do the bridle and reins on the horse? Did you not tulle them, or? I like both ways you tackled these. Food for thought!

QUOTE=Watson;8535560]I have done a number of collages, using a number of methods, Susan Carlson's being one of them.
I've done with and without the tulle. If you get the right colour, it can really add to your collage. You can also add the tulle in different colours to different areas....the background in one colour and then the chicken covered in another colour, as an example. It doesn't all have to be one.
he horse in this collage is mostly in grey tulle, but his lighter areas are in white tulle. He was collaged with Steam a Seam Lite 2, but with 1/4" squares of fabric, so I felt the need to put tulle over top, with so many tiny pieces. Quilted on a Tiara.
This dog collage was done with glue, but I didn't do tulle. I only quilted around the dog and lines in the background. It's held up to my daughter moving numerous times, quite well. I did take quite some time to be sure all the pieces and edges were glued down. I even went over it lightly with a lint roller to see if I could lift any edges.
Watson[/QUOTE]

Thank you! Your offer is so sweet and I may take you up on some of those photos. Keep up the work on your collage. I am sure it will look great.