Novelty Fabric Frame Wall

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Novelty Fabric Overload

I was a fabric collector long before I was a quilter. I'm a sucker for prints and novelty fabric but I mostly use solids when I quilt, so my fabric museum has grown quite large. At some point I want to design some patterns that take advantage of my stash, specifically the novelty prints, but in the meantime I decided to put them to use by framing them and making a wall collage somewhere in my studio! This was not my original idea, as much as I wish it were! I am in a sewing Facebook group and I got the idea from Laura (keeping her last name private). I'm not on Facebook much so I'm thrilled I actually saw her post!

Supplies

I got mini frames from Amazon. I ended up going with larger ones and smaller ones so I would have a variety. I knew I wanted a wall of color, so I used chalk paint I already had on hand to paint the frames with a basecoat of white. I wasn't sure if acrylic paint colors would adhere to the frames outright, so I covered my bases with the chalk paint, anything will stick to that. I highly recommend you go the spray paint route, it is faster and easier, I was just trying to use supplies I already had. 

To make the frames colorful I used a variety of craft store acrylic paints I had on-hand. If you have access to a craft store you definitely want to buy them there, they are pricedoutrageously on amazon. When I was done painting I sprayed them with ModPodge Spray Acrylic Sealer. 

Frame Progress

As I mentioned, I have an absurd amount of novelty fabric. Almost all of the shelves below contain more novelty fabric than one human ever needs. It was tough picking and choosing which ones to frame, and ultimately it depended on whether or not the images fit inside the frames I had painted. 

I picked out my favorites and laid them out on my DIY cutting/pressing station and got busy matching frames to prints. I have about 45 frames, so I thankfully was able to make a dent in my stash. 

I took photos of the frames on the fabrics so I could tidy up a bit, and now I plan to make a handful each night until I get all the way through them! I am fusing a lightweight interfacing to the back of the fabric, then I have traced the opening of the frames on comic book boards I had on hand for my fabric museum. I add enough wiggle room to the comic book board back to wrap the fabric around it so that I can hot glue the fabric board onto the back of the frame. I plan to use command strips to hang them on my wall once they are all done!