For a swap: Teesha Moore Inspired Patches

Ok, the blog bombing is almost over.

It's time to show off the last thing I got done over my long weekend.

This was for a Teesha Moore inspired patch swap.  I'd never heard of Teesha Moore but when I saw the patches I thought they'd be fun to try out.  Also, this swap was for tiny patches (no bigger than 3 inches square) so I figured I could use some of my really small scraps for this.

How's that for an eclectic bunch?

Don't fret, they're supposed to look "rough" like that (with big stitches on the edges and kind of uneven).

Close up time!

Yeah, that one on the left is wild and crazy.  It was the last one I made of the set and I just had to use some fake fur and try my hand at some quilting.  It was also the only patch I made using the Teesha Moore technique.  Her technique is to sew two pieces of fabric together (wrong sides together), lightly stuff with polly fill, and then roll the edges over to make the frame.  It's a good technique but there was one major thing I don't like about it.  You can see the stitches on the BACK of the patch.  I understand how that's not a big deal for Teesha because she uses her patches to make book covers for art journals and to make bags, so you only need one "nice" side.  But all those visible stitches just irks me.  Not so much the quilting stitches but the embroidery stitches leave an ugly mess on the back which I dislike.  So for the fuzzy patch, I did do the tiny bit of embroidery (on the center bee) before I sewed the fabrics together.

The Kiss Me patch (and the others) were made with my take on the Teesha way.  I used felt as the padding and attached the front fabric to the felt so all the embroidery stitches were hidden inside the patch (and the felt helped stabilize the fabric.  Then I took the backing fabric (cut larger than the patch front) and folded the edges to make the frame, then sewed using big stitches (and contrasting thread).

The Kiss Me patch has the words embroidered and all the dots are done in french knots.  The back fabric is a modern print (squares).

The zombie patch was the first one I made of the set so I did it a little different.  I stitched the front fabric to some felt but the backing fabric I wanted to use wasn't big enough to cover all four edges, so I wrapped it on the sides (the yellow fabric) then added another top fabric to cover the top and bottom edges.  So there are some visible stitches on the back (along the edges).  I chain stitched to embellish a few of the letters, added french knots for the zombies' eyes, and added some stitching to one of their arms (and around one of the buildings).

The cat patch was the second I made so I had my technique down for it (the back fabric was big enough to do the full wrap around).  I added felt bits to the center of the ears, pom poms for the eyes, and thread for the whiskers.  so the whole thing looks dimensional.  The backing fabric?

Sushi of course.  I just love pairing cat fabrics with sushi fabrics.  It's cheesy and silly and I adore it.

FATTY TUNA!!

The patches have been mailed out so we'll see how well they are received.  I think they look good but the fuzzy one might get a bit of a WTF reaction (it is kind of nutty).

I'm really liking making these patches.