Angelina wings

Well, I still haven't finished my Dahlia, but hopefully some of you have! Instead, I have been working (in the loosest sense of the word, I've mostly been running around like a chicken with my head cut off about the wedding) on my Hungry Caterpillar quilt (the fabric still isn't here :( . This morning, after water aerobics (woohoo!), inspiration struck, and I thought: this quilt needs some Angelina!! So I chose lime green (big shocker, for those of you who know me) and a reddish pink crinkle cut. I decided to do the butterfly's wings, so I measured the general size of the wings (8"x17").
First I shred it up:
I wanted it loosely woven, so some of the color of the wings would come through. Then I added the pinkish stuff.
Then I spread them around together until I was happy with the density. Notice that it's just laying on my ironing board. If you've never used Angelina, or even if you have, you may not know, but it ONLY bonds to itself when you iron it. It won't bond to your fabric, it won't bond to your ironing board, or even your iron. You don't HAVE to use an applique pressing sheet with Angelina, but you should, here's why. Put your iron on the Silk setting (the ideal temp for Angelina), go ahead, stick it on some Angelina. It won't melt, but if you don't allow your brain to control your hand, you will burn yourself. Why did I just convince you to burn yourself you ask? Well, hopefully you'll read this whole post before playing with your own project. Angelina is very VERY high static, so it will cling, NOT stick or melt, to everything. What happens then? All the Angelina clings to your iron and without thinking, you go to peel it off before it gets "overdone" (it will change color if you cook it too long), and OUCH, you burn your hand. The moral of the story is: use your applique pressing sheet.

Once I've ironed the Angelina, it becomes a fairly supple fabric. The key to utilizing Angelina fibers is to remember they are just fabric waiting to happen. Angelina will also take on the texture of whatever you iron it on: remember that when you're pondering what to do with this vibrant fuzz. You can see above that the top where it was against my applique pressing sheet was on it is very shiny and smooth.
After I've made my Angelina fabric, I lay it on my butterfly and hold it down with one hand while trimming it to size and shape with my other hand. The finished product, I will fuse down with 606 spray fusible web, but I'm going to wait until I've finished piecing the top to fuse it down, but this is what it will look like:
Hope some of you will give this fun embellishment a try: I'm only just realizing the possibilities. Who knows what Monday might bring on the blog: I am putting multiple pieced borders on this panel, I have the Dahlia going, a table runner, a jelly roll quilt, and I've done the very early stages of an art/landscape quilt. Wishing there were more hours in the day.
Happy quilting!!!