Here is my latest creative folly - simply called Bloom.
This little work of art was created in four stages. Firstly I had a lot of fun felting dyed merino wool roving, silk roving, fancy wool, and other off cuts I had collected from other projects to make the luxuriously textured tree top.
Stage two involves drawing a simple design on your background calico and then painting it. This is all about experimentation with the paints and using water to mix different dilutions. The paint has a life of its own to a certain degree in the hands of an inexperienced painter, but that just makes it all the more fun and free flowing. This is not the time to be too fussy.
Stage three is free motion stitching time on the sewing machine. After ironing on pellon I machine stitched the tree trunk, the Sun, the heart, the lettering, and some grass detail around the bottom.
Finally it is time to have a play with hand quilting and embellishing. I stitched on sequins, beads and a diamante to the tree top. I then quilted the entire wall hanging using a gorgeous hand dyed silk thread from BJ's Colourways in Invercargill. The design is completely organic and just developed as I went. Throw in a few cross stitches, french knots, and sprinkles and it's finished.
Well almost, I like the frayed edge look to finish the piece and have ironed on fusible webbing to a backing fabric that I have then ironed onto the back of my wall hanging to hide all the stitching. I then ran a stitch around the edges to secure and have decided to try using 3m poster adhesive strips to hang it straight on the wall.
If you think this looks like fun you may be interested in attending the two day workshop I will be holding in February/March in the Christchurch area. If you would like to find out more when I have finalised the venue and dates please email me at info@fionamarie.com and I will forward the information onto you when it is available.
Happy Stitching!
Fiona Marie Clark
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