This is the piece I completed today. It is called Pinon Tree. I made the background quite some time ago with torn paper stencils and oil paint sticks. My plan had been to do just a bit of free motion stitching on the background and it would be done. However, I didn’t iron my fabric before applying the paint sticks and there was a big crease in the sky which then caught more paint than the rest of the sky. So, there was a big ugly mark in the middle of the sky. So I finally decided to cover the mark with the tree. That’s why the branch goes all the way across the piece.

You can see the mark if you look between the branches on left hand side.

Here’s a close up. I think that the leaves needed more contrast between the colors. I used three different color of threads for the leaves but you can barely tell it. I needed a darker color to give the leaves a bit more depth. This piece took over 5 hours to complete because of the dense stitching on the trunk. So much for doing a simple piece! Note to self – iron it anyway, even if you’re in a hurry.

I am so excited! My work got accepted to the Pfaff Art Embroidery Challenge. Here is a portion of the letter I received:

“Dear Ruth,

The first selection of the works, made on the basis of the submitted presentation dossiers
took place during 2 and half days on the last week. Among the 112 entries that we
received, the works from 50 artists have been selected.

I am pleased to tell you that your application is successful with the work:
“Beneath Notice: The Landscape of Bark” . Congratulations!”

So if you are going to the Knitting and Stitching Show in London, take a look. Sorry there are no photos in this post but I can’t publish the work before the show.

This is the back of one of my thread sketched felt pieces. I thought I would try a new method of hanging them. This is a thin board that I drilled holes in and added some screw eyes. Then I stitched it to the felt with invisible thread. I also added a label to the back. So now I just need to add the picture wire to the screw eyes and it can be hung. You can’t see the hanging mechanism at all from the front and I’m pleased with how it works.

Here’s a close up of one of the drilled holes and the stitching. It takes a bit of time to stitch them on but I didn’t want to frame these so this was a good solution.

The next photos are the three machine embroidered bloom pieces that I finished. I made these backgrounds quite a while ago which are oil paint stick rubbings on muslin and then overpainted. On the machine, I used free motion and automatic pattern cable stitch. The inside of the flowers are done with mossing stitch (Ala Ken Smith’s workshop in WOW). The center of the flowers is hand stitched.

Here’s a close up.

And the second one.

Another closeup.

The third one.

And the last close up. I am planning on framing these altogether but I have to get a frame. So I’ll take another photo when I’ve gotten them framed.

It is finally spring here.

But this looks almost like Christmas, doesn’t it.

We were working on the property when I spotted these in the pine tree. I never noticed them before. Such a bright red!

Here’s another thread sketch on felt that I finished yesterday. This is called “Grizzly”. I have several others that I’m planning on doing including a moose, deer, mountain lion and wolf. I have to dye some more wool for those though so it might be a while yet. I’m planning on using a thin piece of wood at the top of these pieces on the back for hanging purposes. Once I get it worked out, I’ll take a photo of the back so you can see how these hang.

Lay out your wool and wet down to felt. You need to do a thin felt as really thick felt won’t fit under the sewing machine. I used three layers but it was almost too thick. Thinner felt is much easier when you are first trying this technique.

You can use a hand held sander to felt. Just cover with a plastic bag but allow air to escape so it won’t get too hot. Then finish felting and fulling in the sink.

Here’s my finished piece of felt ready for thread sketching.

This is the photo from which I drew a simple sketch. You could trace your design if you’re not comfortable sketching. For your first try, I would suggest something more simple than this.

I used the copy machine and enlarged my sketch by 150%. I added some mountains behind the mountain goat.

Here’s the sketch on the felt to make sure it would fit and that it was placed well.

Then I covered the sketch with water soluble fabric. You don’t need any extra around the edges, just the size of the sketch.

Then I used a water soluble pen to sketch the design on the water soluble fabric. Don’t use a permanent pen as it may stain your felt.

Here’s the sketch after it’s all done.

Pin it in place on your felt.

Normally for thread sketching, I have been using black thread. But I decided to look at what grey threads would work best as this piece was so white and I didn’t want the stark contrast. I used the middle grey thread.

Put your piece under the machine with the feed dogs down, use a darning foot and the stitch length to zero. Bring your bobbin thread up to the top surface, stitch in place several times to start and then stitch following your design. This is sketching so you do several passes over all the lines. Don’t worry about being exactly on the line. It is supposed to look like a sketch so you don’t have to be perfect!

I usually do a section at a time and go over it at least three times for the major outlines etc. I do only two passes on the less important features. When you need to move from place to place, just
stitch in place several times before moving your needle and when you start to anchor the thread.

For the mountains, I used a lighter shade of grey to let them fade into the background and only did two passes of sewing.

Here is the piece completely stitched. You need to snip all the loose threads where you moved from place to place. I left the loose threads on the back to provide more security of the end threads.

Then I cut off all the extra water soluble fabric.

You’ll need small scissors for the tighter areas. You can skip this step and just dissolve all the fabric but depending on the brand you use, it can get kind of sticky and not dissolve easily.

Here is is after I’ve cut off most of the water soluble fabric.

Follow the directions on your water soluble fabric to dissolve it. Some use hot water and others can use cold. I just put mine in the sink and soaked it a bit. The pen lines and the fabric dissolved away.

And here’s the finished product. You can click on the photo to see it better.

Here’s a close up of the stitching. If this doesn’t make sense, please let me know and I’ll try to explain it better. It’s a really fun project, give it a try!