An art quilt pattern for a pair of tailor's shears built from two of Laura Heine's collage techniques, painterly collage strips for the blades and floral collage for the rest, finished at 18 x 24 inches. On the cover sample, the blades run in narrow strips of tiny blue and grey florals shading light to dark, while the handles curl in leopard and dark floral prints. Behind them, pastel hexagon patches, gold script, and cream floral grounds build the wall, scattered with fussy cut pins, spools, buttons, small pink scissors, a bee, and a little black dress form. Those fabrics were one set of choices. The pattern provides the shears' shape and both processes; every fabric decision belongs to the maker, so each finished pair is distinctive and one of a kind.

What the Pattern Includes

This listing is for the instructions and printed paper pattern. Fabric, fusible web, and notions are not included.

The package contains the full sized pattern, so there is no enlarging at the copy shop, plus step by step instructions in color for both the painterly strip collage and the floral collage.

Here's How it Works

Trace the design from the full sized pattern onto a sheer foundation, then build the shears right on top of your tracing. The blades work in the painterly style: rotary cut strips of tiny prints laid side by side like brush strokes, shading from light to dark so the steel seems to catch the light. The handles and background work in classic floral collage. Back your fabrics with Steam a Seam 2, which stays repositionable until it is pressed, so you can place each strip and motif, step back, and move it until it sits right. A pressing sheet keeps the sticky web off your iron, and one final press fuses everything permanently. Then sandwich, quilt closely to secure the raw edges, and finish with binding, or stretch the piece over an 18 x 24 canvas for a framed look (the pattern gives both finishes).

New to collage? Laura's Little Book of Collage covers the technique in more depth, from fabric selection through quilting, and makes a good companion to any of her patterns.

What You'll Need

The back cover sizes each fabric for the piece shown on the cover. Plan on eleven coordinating background fabrics in cuts from 5 x 11 to 6 x 22 inches, seven tiny print florals in light to dark values plus 6 inch squares of 3 to 4 dark tiny prints or solids for the blades and their outline, two medium scale prints and two coordinates for the handles, and cuttable motifs for the background (a bee, three large flower groupings, a medium scale floral, pincushions, scissors, spools, buttons, and a dress form). The list also calls for a 21 x 27 inch piece of Pattern Ease foundation, Karen K Buckley medium size Perfect Scissors, a 17 x 24 inch fuse mat, 3 or more yards of 12 inch wide Steam a Seam 2, a number 2 pencil, 24 inches by width of fabric for backing, and an 18 x 24 canvas for framing or 6 inches by width of fabric for single fold binding.

One package of Steam a Seam 2 Double Stick Fusible Web 12in x 3yds covers the base 3 yard call-out; add a second if you tend to layer generously. The Laura Heine Collage Mat set covers the 17 x 24 fuse mat on the supply list (it includes the silicone mat and a teflon pressing sheet), and Sew Tites Magnetic Flowers are an optional extra that holds the pattern and mat in place while you work.

Perfect For

• Sewing room and studio walls
• A first try at the painterly strip technique alongside familiar floral collage
• Showing off hexagon, script, and notion novelty prints
• Finishing as a bound quilt or a canvas framed piece

Why You'll Love This Pattern

Collage is forgiving in ways patchwork cannot be. Nothing has to line up, no points need to match, and small imperfections disappear into the density of the design. There is no needle turn and no blanket stitch. The work is closer to arranging a bouquet than to sewing a seam.

Two techniques in one small quilt is the draw here: the strip built blades teach the painterly method on a manageable scale, and the canvas finishing option means it can hang like art, no rod or sleeve required.

Product Details

• Brand: Fiberworks
• Item #: FWLHSS
• Designer: Laura Heine
• Category: Quilting Pattern
• Skill Level: All levels (no collage experience assumed)
• Technique: Fused Fabric Collage (strip "painterly" collage and floral collage; raw edge fusible applique)
• Finished Size: 18" x 24" wall hanging
• Format: Printed Paper Pattern
• Made in the United States