One product and (finally!) one process!

     I completed another sheer fabric applique (but forgot about taking pictures along the way again).  I designed this one for my portapad pattern, and it turned out OK.  Trying hard to remember all of the problems I had with the first attempt, this one was a lot easier altogether.  Still a few tweaks, but on
the whole, I enjoyed the entire process. 

I added small pieces of copper for a little bling, but the narrow strips don't show up very well in the photo .  I also used copper embroidery thread to delineate the center of the flower.

     As for my bragged about process:  step-by-step (well, I left out a few) photos of using teabags to create collaged fabric.

The above photo shows one of my pieces of gelatin printed fabric which I used as background.

These flower photos were all stored in my Photoshop files.  I cropped them, using images that would compliment the background, collaged them onto a blank page, then printed it on teabags taped down to a sheet of printer paper.  (See tutorial by Judy Coates Perez.)

Here the printed flowers are simply laying on top of the background fabric.  I added Misty Fuse to the back of each print, being careful to use parchment paper both front and back as I ironed it on.  Right now there are a couple of missing steps because my photos weren't clear enough to publish:  a printed a sheet of  tags off tea bags, text downloaded from the internet about the history of tea, and some short labels.

This is actually the finished piece.  Steps not shown:  tearing the flowers apart and placing them around the background before ironing them in place; same for the tea tags; then the text.  Finally the labels were scattered strategically across the whole piece.  I added loosly-cut strips of antiqued-lace fabric, then batting and backing, and free-motion stitched in an easy echoed-flower pattern.  I have an idea of how I'm going to use the fabric, but probably won't get anything completed for several days.