I finished my shadow applique piece today that I started yesterday except for the edges/finishing. I need an iron for that and I don’t have one handy here at work for some reason. I also continued to work on the design for my folk design inspired applique. I am basing this design on Kyrgyzstan carpets or shyrdak.

Here is the finished applique. You can just barely see the silk organza sticking out around the edges. I need to fold that over and fuse it to the back and then stitch around the edge. I think I will stitch the edge in a reddish brown so that it doesn’t show much. I don’t think I want to stitch it in green.

 Here’s a close up. I drew the stitching lines on with pencil so I had something to follow.

 Here is one of the designs that I am considering for my next applique piece. I am going to make this from hand made felt so actual felt making is going to occur amazingly enough. I laid out some blue wool today. Perhaps I’ll get it felted tonight. I already have a piece of red prefelt so I’ll use that as well.

 Here are four other design possibilities. These are all based on “ram’s horns” and from photos I found online of various shyrdak. I cut the patterns out from paper and glued them down in my journal. There are endless variations. I think I might just do one of the emblems instead of four connecting ones on a four inch square of felt. But perhaps I’ll go for it and do all four squares.

 The Kyrgyz use a lot of negative and positive space/shapes in their work. They usually cut out the pattern in two different colors and use both the positive shapes and the backgrounds to create intricate designs. Which design do you like? I haven’t decided but I know it won’t be the bottom left one as it is way too intricate to try and cut out of hand made felt. It will most likely be one of the simpler shapes.