Hello!

I love to dye fabric, make thread pictures and quilt. I live in the Yukon on an acreage with my husband, 2 dogs and 34 fish. It's the 'good' life.

Monday, September 3, 2012

Flower Thread Paining

I have been working on my fall truck picture (no, really I have been), but I wanted to make a quick picture to check some techniques for an upcoming class I am teaching. It was a quick study I did from a photo from Alison Holt’s book, Machine Embroidered Landscapes. Here is the picture I used:

DSCN2838 



This is called “Daisies and Grass”. I was trying to see how I could create a painted background like this. Of course I could have left the project after the painting was done, but I had to finish it to see the final picture. 

Below I have added a series of pictures that show my progress in this piece. Enjoy!

PS--I cannot get Blogger to format this post properly, so my apologies for it's sloppy appearance.













Poly Cotton in the hoop. 
Thin poly-cotton in the hoop. Looks pretty awful, doesn't it?

The first stalks are added. 
   The first stalks are added.    
DSCN2834 
Some of the flowers are added. 
 DSCN2835
 The first of the daisies!
DSCN2842   
Leaves are added. I call them filler.
  DSCN2843
More daisies.
DSCN2844 
More fillers, more detailing.
    DSCN2845
 Here is the back side. Notice the thread is not cut. This is good-it keeps the embroidery from unravelling.DSCN2847  

  I had to add some more background dye since I didn't make it big enough. Sheesh. Then I added some more filler and it was done. Part of why I had to add some background is that I dyed the fabric in the hoop forgetting it needed to be at least 6 x 4 when my hoop was smaller than that…

DSCN2857
Voila! Here is the final piece. Not perfect, but I do like the finished background-and that was what I was
trying to achieve.. 


  

6 comments:

  1. I so appreciate you showing the steps in making this. Wow! Really great. What thread/floss do you like using for these, and how many strands?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well thanks very much! My photos are definitely not professional, and my lighting should be better HOWEVER I wanted to share these steps since I remembered to take photos. What always surprises me is how a piece can look horrible but when you trim it to size, it always looks so much better. :-)

      As to thread, I use whatever I can get in a variety of poly-cotton, rayon, cotton-anything that looks good. The reason I use anything is that none of my pieces will be washed. I do not do any hand stitching, so I do not use floss. Do you do embroidered landscapes BJ??

      Delete
  2. I love how chunky some of those higher colored flower stalks are. I have her book but I can't do the varied zigzag b/c I have a computerized machine, and to dial wider and have to push a button "beep beep beep"... total disaster. I have an older machine with a dial but the free motion ability is total crap. lol

    That turned out very pretty. I can't wait to see the truck!

    Monika in Saskatoon

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Monika--and I am sorry to hear you can't do the zigzag without that stupid button action. I have a Bernina Artista so it has the dial you turn. I LOVE it.. I cannot believe you do all your gorgeous work with only the straight stitch-wow!
      So you have Alison Holt's DVD? It is awesome..

      Delete
  3. Dahn it looks pretty perfect in the photo. Lovely!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks Janet! It was a quick, fun piece. When are we getting together to do some thread embroidery? :-)

    ReplyDelete