Surface design on cloth has exploded. Not content to create whole cloth fabric by batik, marbling, dyeing and painting, quilters now embellish their new creations. Cloth as art is taking giant leaps forward.

Sometimes just quilting a whole cloth design, especially if it is innovative and different from the traditional white, will tell the story. More often than not, more is needed to enhance the "story" of the quilt. Anything you can stitch through or add to cloth, is the basis for surface design. Yarn of all kind, silk ribbon, feathers, stamps, small bits of fabric, specialty embroidery threads, glitters, foils, beads - the list is endless.

Collage is adding bits of papers and pictures to a base paper. When you look at collage and whole cloth, you increase your possibilities. Add yarns for texture to landscapes, hair, the sky. Stamp on and stitch fish to increase the texture in a water piece. Add small bits of fabrics for a mosaic look to a particular area of the quilt. Use your printer and create small sayings to add to the "story" of your whole cloth. Fabric glues are available that allow you to adhere pieces of fabric, as well as stitching through just about any material.

Fabric manipulation that is added onto a base of whole cloth can create three-dimensional texture, especially for landscape quilts. Create elements by using water soluble fusibles, stitching to "paint" on the fusible and then adding to the whole cloth. Put fabric wrong sides together, satin stitch the edges, and then add a three-dimensional butterfly to a piece. Use basic garment sewing techniques: add pleats, cording, shirring, or zippers to reveal hidden pictures or sayings.

The use of color is perhaps one of your best tools. Take your finished piece of whole cloth. What else do you want in your story? Consider adding color with pastel chalks, crayons, colored pencils, water color paints, and oils. These are perfect for adding shadings and accenting particular areas of your story. Add additional fabric to accent a particular color, using fusibles or decorative threads.

Don 't forget both hand and machine embroidery; take some traditional sewing stitches and add them to your story. Use commercial stencils, or make your own, it you want to add a repeated pattern to your cloth.

Beading, foils, and glitter are more notions to add to your fabric. Beads, from small to hand-blown glass, are perfect for small accents, like bubbles in an underwater piece, or dew on leaves in a landscape. Foils are thin layers of metallic plastic fused to cellophane. They can add depth and brilliance to a design. Glitter comes in microfine and ultrafine sizes, as well as dozens of colors, far different from the classroom glitters many of us remember.

Photocopy transfers allow you to add very personal mementos to your whole cloth. Use your own imagery or pictures you have taken. Remember that artists take their copyright very seriously. You will have more fun creating your own pictures to use for your transfers. There are, however, lots of books available with public domain images to use. Your photocopies will be transparent on the cloth, allowing you to use your underlying design to accent the photo, as well as letting the photo accent the overall story.

Imagination allows us to dream. Technology has given us wonderful tools to use to make these dreams a reality. A simple piece of cloth can become an incredible work of art. Whatever you want to do to the cloth, you can.

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