Category Archives: Level 3 Stitch

After The Snow

Posted on by under applique, Level 3 Stitch, machine stitching

I have seen a lot of people recreating famous paintings online. So I thought I would give it a try with an applique piece. I used Paul Klee’s Before The Snow as inspiration. I had printed the photo of the original out in black and white so that I could see the values and the shapes better. It has been several months since I printed out the photo and I knew it had something to do with snow but I didn’t remember the title even. So I started thinking it would look good in a combination of blues and purples.

I used a hand dyed fabric for the background, covered that with fusible and then added tulle and sheer fabric.

Here I have added the clouds and the foreground plants.

Then I added the tree. So it was definitely looking snowy. And then it snowed here, which isn’t that unusual in April but when you’re housebound, the cabin fever seems to increase since it was too cold to even go outside in the garden. But I was celebrating the snow with this new piece.

Then I added free motion machine stitching. I tried to keep the stitching fairly simple and just give a little bit of line definition. So then I decided to go back and look at the original photo in color. Imagine my surprise when it turns out that it’s Before the Snow and it’s in fall colors. But that’s OK, After The Snow turned out as I had been seeing it in my mind’s eye.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you’re staying well.

Back to Color Studies

Posted on by under Color, Level 3 Stitch, machine stitching

I thought I wasn’t going to have much more time for color studies. But all of a sudden, I have loads of time on my hands; as many people do at this point. So I am pretty sure that I showed you this first color study. It was done when I was working on all the rest.

I liked the concept of this one and thought it would be fun to make a series. I would use the same color scheme but emphasize a different color with each study. These are all 6″x 6″ and will eventually be connected into some kind of book format. I’m not exactly sure on how they will connect yet or which order they will be in.

I emphasized blue violet on this one. All of these are done on a heavy stabilizer with fused fabrics and automatic machine stitching. These are all inspired by some photos that Antje kindly sent me.

This red orange one is really bright, isn’t it? But I like how the stitching looks like doodles.

And another bright one that has a yellow orange emphasis. Looking at these, it might be interesting to cover these with a layer of sheer and perhaps burn back the sheer to reveal just a few bright areas. Food for thought anyways.

This last one isn’t stitched yet. It is mainly black and white. I have been stitching these one per day so that I don’t get overwhelmed with changing automatic stitches and colors of thread.

Here is one possible combination of pieces together. I also need to work out how to treat the backs of each of these. In book format, the backs will be exposed. One thought was to fuse fabric on the back side, perhaps in the main color used on the front? Still working out what I think will be the best idea for the finished piece.

I hope that you are all staying safe out there. Thank you to all of you who are on the front lines of this crisis. I appreciate your effort and I’m staying home as instructed.

Portrait Applique

Posted on by under applique, Level 3 Stitch

I have been working on this applique piece for over a month. At our art meeting in February, we all worked on portraits. Some of us created portraits with paper collage but I decided to use fabric. That way, the portrait would work for my stitch homework. Having never done a stitched portrait, I learned a lot and found it fun, up until doing the facial features. Then I got a little stressed. I didn’t take very many in process photos.

These were the samples that I did in advance for facial features. I ended up doing an eye that was more like the one on the right. The teeth ended up being put directly on the lips fabric instead of having two layers of fabric with the dark for the inner mouth. That just didn’t work. And noses are hard.

Here she is partially stitched. I used a photo I found online when I searched for celebrities with wild, curly hair. The reason I did this portrait was so I could stitch wild, curly hair. That was my favorite part. None of the fabric was fused down, mistake number one. But it ended up working OK. The mouth ended up tilted too much and I really didn’t like it. So I did some surgery and cut it out and stitched it back down. This would have worked except for fabric fraying. I ended up adding some glue at the edges to keep it in place.

And here’s the finished portrait. I fussed with the nose and the mouth for an inordinate amount of time. They still aren’t the way I had in mind exactly but they’re OK. And it was fun trying something new. If I do this again, I will fuse all the fabric. Maybe I should try one with fused fabric and free motion machine stitching? That might be fun too.

I hope that all of you are staying safe and well in this crazy world. I’m staying at home and I’m finally out of the retail business, so more stitching, felting and fiber art to come! Yay!

Confetti Applique Sample

Posted on by under applique, Level 3 Stitch

This week, I got another applique sample completed. This one is called “confetti” applique. I thought the technique would look great as foliage, so I immediately thought of trees and the forest. Not surprising, huh?

I started with an iced dyed background and added some trunks. This is a machine stitch applique so on to some free motion stitching. I did back the piece with two layers of Lutradur fused together that I had from a prior class assignment. It’s fairly sturdy for adding free motion stitching on top but quite thin.

I stitched the trunks in place and added some branches. Now on to the confetti. I forgot to take photos in process, but I essentially shredded some fabric in different fall leaf colors with my rotary cutter. Then I used BoNash powder to fuse these scraps under a layer of tulle.

I did the further trees with a yellowish brown tulle and the foreground trees with a brighter orange or red tulle. Then I free motion stitched it all into place.

Here’s the finished sample. I liked this technique and I would have done more with the background if it was to be a finished piece but it’s just a sample. I have some ideas on creating a larger piece this way. Note to self, finish background before adding trees and foreground.

Thanks for stopping by and have a good weekend.

 

Applique Samples

Posted on by under applique, Level 3 Stitch

I have been working on a list of types of applique for class. I took some photos of samples from past classes and made a new one. It’s good to look back and see which ones I have already sampled and look for other types that I haven’t tried yet. All except the last sample were made in my Level 2 Stitch class.

These two are Broderie Perse. I have not stitched the one on the right because the flower fabric frayed and fell apart every time I tried to stitch it. So I just ended up fusing it down.

These two are shadow applique. The one on the left is felt and silk organza. The one on the right is cotton and silk organza.

These two are turned applique. The one on the left uses a fusible and the one on the right is a needle turned applique. These are probably two of my least favorite types of applique.

Here’s a stacked felt sample. These are fun because you don’t have to worry about the edges of the felt fraying.

This is a machine stitched cut back applique.

This is the sample I stitched this week. It is reverse applique. It’s created with three pieces of hand dyed linen and blanket stitch. It is a raw edge applique but actually the blanket stitch keeps the linen from fraying as much. I still have at least one more sample that I’m going to create and another larger piece that will be based on bark. So more applique to come.