Two Prayer Flags

I have recently discovered that I LOVE doing fabric collages!  Here are two examples of my recent work in that style, which I made for my partners in the Prayer Flag Swap on Craftster.  Both of these flags are 5" x 8", with a hanging sleeve at the top.

For this swap, we gave our partners several words or phrases to either use as a guide or to actually appear on our flag.  We also mentioned themes and images that appeal to us.  For my first partner, alteredmommy, I combined the phrase "be still" will her love of nature/birds and antique-looking colors.

The egg and the words "crested lark" were printed on fabric that I already had, so I chose the other fabrics to go with that.

I love this little "pile" of textiles.

I filled a glass bottle with lavender buds and the theme phrase printed on a slip of paper, and hand-sewed it in place.  (You might notice that this bottle is different than the one in the first picture.  I realized that the bright green beads I used inside that bottle didn't go with the rest of the colors.)

All the fabric edges are left unfinished, and most of the sewing threads are long and dangling.

My second partner, Phizzychick, likes earth tones and insects, so I started digging through one of my bags of scrap fabrics, and almost immediately I pulled out this fabulous bee!  I had to use it, even though there isn't much of a connection between the bee and the word "thankful" that I already planned to use for the theme.

I found out that this partner also likes bells, and I happened to have these tiny ones on hand.  I simply tied them onto the bottom with string, leaving the ends of the strings showing.

I made this flag like the first one, by simply cutting the fabrics, arranging them so they looked good to me, then machine sewing them onto a heavy piece of canvas.  All the edges are left unfinished.

 Leaving all the edges raw allowed me to work quickly, so it didn't take more than a couple of hours from start to finish for each prayer flag.

I am so pleased with these that I feel like making a set of them for myself!