Opening Glass Applique

For the past 3 months I have been having a lot of fun making little fused glass beauties. When My husband said he wanted to buy a kiln my first thought was "Yay! I can make my own buttons... or glass quilt blocks....or zipper pulls! What fun!"
I have done a lot of surfing the web and visiting craft shows but I have not seen quilt themed fused glass items. After playing around for a while I realised why. It is very fiddly but it is also satisfying. Since my first thought is to make something to go with my sewing I don't mind fiddly. I like to try to copy the different quilt block designs or just try to make something cute and pretty.

This one is flying birds.

My husband was keen to try his skills at making detailed animal pendants. He has the skills with the tools but just needed the right outlet to use them. His interest was in the sparkly dichroic glass to highlight the silhouettes. Of course I saw pretty sparkly buttons.

I made this shirt from my Short and Stout range.

Just with fabrics I never seem to have enough glass colours and a big trick with the glass is that what you see is not what you get when you fire it. Also if I don't like something I have to make a new one and glue bits one day, then fire it the next day, then look at it the next day. It takes three days to try something. It is like crafting in slow motion.

Since I liked many of the pieces I made and I hadn't seen much like them around I thought maybe others would be interested, so I have joined my husband in the shop. I make quilt block pendants, buttons, zipper pulls and brooches all with a bit of a patchwork and applique theme.

I bought some very pretty fabrics to make some small projects from Fort Worth Fabric Studio.

I thought it would be easy to make some things to showcase my buttons and zipper pulls.

Not so! I can make a great pouch. This one is from Sew4Home with a few changes. The fabric is the feature not my zipper pull. It seems I need a whole new way of thinking to use the pieces I make.

I then made a little frame purse. The first one I made had little owls on the outside. Once again I had made the fabric the feature. Back to the sewing table. I tried the brown and orange piece with the new arrangement. You would think it would look OK but it still got lost in the fabric. I then tried the little cream letter and I think it looks great.

I didn't fully close the jump ring because I am putting this one in the shop.

Finally I am asking that you go and have a look at all the things we have made over at Glass Applique and maybe pin a picture or two from here or from the shop.

Happy Quilting and Crafting,
Val