Friday is my fiber day as I am off from work and get to spend all day doing fun stuff. Today I am continuing working on my class homework. Part of our assignment this time is to do a bit of study about various kinds of applique. So I looked up reverse applique and found some wonderful photos of molas.

 Molas are from the Kuna Indians who live on islands off the coast of Panama. They use these colorful geometric designs on the women’s blouses. And most are done with reverse applique. That’s where you have several layers of different colors of fabric. The fabric layers are sewn together in a design and then the top layers are cut back so you can see the colors underneath.

 This isn’t a very good photo but this is the stitching on the back from the horse design above. If you search for Molas online, you’ll find some wonderful examples.

 I also found this reverse applique technique on the Sew, Mama, Sew blog. She has a tutorial if you’d like to try it out.

 Another assignment is to write a book review of an applique book. I couldn’t find many at the library that weren’t just basic felt appliques sewn in “cute” patterns. This book The Art of Elegant Hand Embroidery, Embellishment and Applique by Janice Vaine was the best of the bunch. It really only talks about needleturn applique but it gives a very thorough explanation. It also has a stitch dictionary which is handy for adding embroidery to applique pieces.

 I also looked up Broderie Perse earlier as I needed to do an example of that type of applique as well. It is essentially fussy cut applique where designs from Chintz type fabric are cut out and appliqued to a solid background. Here I have fused the flower to the background. I haven’t stitched this yet but I’ve got it all ready to go so when I have free moment, I can stitch the flower down.

The last thing I worked on today is this needleturn applique of an aspen leaf. It is sort of tedious work and stitching the felt applique is considerably easier. But I’m making progress despite leaving a big loop of thread on the back of the fabric, tying a knot in the working thread and then breaking the thread in mid stitch. But I will persevere!

A small update on the progress of yurt building. I am searching for a local source of wool. I have gotten several names of people who can spread the word of what my needs are. A local Montana wool processing mill was also recommended, Sugar Loaf Wool. I will be contacting them to find out what the schedule is for getting the wool washed, carded and made up into batts. They make big batts for bedding so I think this might be perfect as it will speed up the layout process considerably. So small steps forward on the yurt project.

Hope you have a nice weekend!