New techniques

After coming home from the show with the catalogue and studying the pieces I liked again, I knew there were a few things I was going to try to incorporate in my Natural pieces. I'm cooling my heels right now, busy mounting a customer quilt on my longarm. As a favour to my friend I'm also prepping her backing. She had had one ready but I thought it was the wrong choice for her quilt. So she left me a bolt of backing fabric to make and prewash. ITs in the dryer now and the front is mounted
BUT
This technique for making evergreens more dimensional has haunted my sleep and thought.

I'm not a fan of using a hoop with my free motion work, but it may be because the piece is all assembled and bulky. Getting the hoop under my presser foot on my Jenome always meant I had to dissemble the foot, place the hoop and reattach the foot. This small hoop doesn't require that. At that point if there is distortion it becomes a problem. But this method has you pre sewing parts to be layered. In this case evergreen boughs.

 

So this is an individual branch stitched onto a nylon netting. This is really exciting for me, thinking ahead to different layers, levels and colours. The results are then cut and layered and using invisible thread, anchoring the work with NO distortion. As long as the pieces will fit under the presser foot it can be added. But Wait...it can all be hand stitched too as there is minimal bulk.

Think trees, flowers, grass...feathers. WOW