Here’s my last machine embroidery homework assignment. It’s based on the California poppies that I have in my back bed in the summer time. This was done with free zigzag thread painting on muslin and dissolveable. I made the center from a machine cord of wool roving which I then cut and sewed together by hand.

The piece has lots of depth as I made the top layers of petal like machine lace and then sewed them in the center.

Here’s a close up. I was off today instead of Friday so I won’t get any more fibering done until next week probably. We are also having the inside of our house painted so we’ve been taking all the stuff off the walls and moving furniture etc. What fun.

(Edited to add photo) My wonderful DH found the inspiration photo for the piece. This is one of the many photos of bark that I have which inpired the piece below.

Here is my second homework piece for my machine embroidery class. It is based on a photo of bark that I have in my studio journal. I thought I had the photo of the original bark somewhere on the computer but can I find it??? Oh well. This is done with fused applique, with many layers of fabric and stitching. I used oil paint sticks to color most of the fabric. It’s a mistake to use oil paint sticks with multiple layers. It’s hard to stitch. I should have remembered that from my try of oil paint stick colored bowls before Christmas. But no!

Here’s a few close ups.

I even did a whipped mossing stitch in black ala Ken Smith in a recent WOW workshop on machine embroidery. I really like how that stitch came out. Now only one homework assignment left.

Here are the two pieces that I did for my first homework assignment, cut back applique.

These were inspired by the concrete walls next to the freeway in Everett, WA. I took photos of them when we were there in October. I thought they might make nice stencils. I have to say that I should have stuck with the stencil idea as these were a bit too complex for my skill level and this technique

Here’s a photo of the inspiration. I chose the colors to represent salmon. I’m not sure that the concrete wall fish are supposed to be salmon but it reminded me of our trip and visit to the salmon festival.

The sea weed portion was really a pain to cut out and a pain to zig zag the edges. And parts of the fish were not much better.

I sketched the design first in my studio journal and thought that the first one needed another to go with it. So foolishly, I went ahead and did a second sketch, ending up with two pieces which are 6″x 9″ to complete.

I’ve been working on these all week. I finished with four hours of zig zag stitching today. I’ve decided that I really don’t like doing cut back applique that much.

You can see in the close ups how I had a bit of trouble with the intricate design. So in the future, I hope to remember the KISS principal: Keep it simple, stupid!

We arrived home safely from our trip to Virginia and Philadelphia. It was almost warm there. The first day we arrived it was 60 degrees which really felt like spring. I even saw some early daffodils. With at least 3 feet of snow still on top of my daffodils, I don’t think they are blooming any time soon. I visited with Vicki while I was in Virginia and she gave me some of her lovely hand dyed cotton fabrics. I have to say that they are truly scrumptious! Thanks Vicki!

This is the Valentine I made for hubby. The background is angelina that was ironed over a rubber stamp. The heart is made from mixed breed wool and wensleydale locks that I felted and then stitched. I used the drizzle stitch that I learned recently. You can’t see much of the stitching in this photo but there is another sample below.

Here is the felt with drizzle stitch.

And a close up. I used stitch and tear on the back to prevent distortion and it is quite flat.

I worked today on more samples for my homework for my experimental machine stitch class. These are all of samples that we did in class that I wasn’t too happy with the first try. This is using an automatic stitch and varying the width and length of the stitch to get different looks of the stitch. I used cotton muslin with an iron on stabilizer. It didn’t stabilize much. I got lots of distortion of the fabric.

Here’s a close up. I actually liked the way this stitch turned out as it doesn’t look like most of the automatic stitches that are available on my machine. It is much more organic looking.

This is cable stitch using an automatic stitch. This is the same stitch that I used on the green piece above.

Here’s a close up. I am really happy with being able to change my bobbin tension as this is so much better that what I was able to do in class.

Here is cable stitch again only using it free motion. On all the cable stitch samples, I used some of the hand dyed threads that Sharon sent me when I guessed correctly how long her sampler was. It works really great in the bobbin. This is design I am practicing as I have some ideas to take it further. But since this is just supposed to be a cable stitch sampler, I didn’t add any other stitching. I want to try filling in the amoebic like shapes with either granite stitch or mossing.

Here’s a close up. I used a variegated thread in the bobbin and for the top thread. I’ve got three more home work pieces to complete and then I’m going to start experimenting with the stitches I have learned on felt. More to come!