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:

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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.    
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Some of the flowers are added. 
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 The first of the daisies!
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Leaves are added. I call them filler.
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More daisies.
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More fillers, more detailing.
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 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…

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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. B J ElderSeptember 3, 2012 at 6:00 PM

    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?

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    Replies
    1. DahnSeptember 3, 2012 at 8:31 PM

      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. monika@mysweetprairie.caSeptember 3, 2012 at 6:24 PM

    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

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    Replies
    1. DahnSeptember 3, 2012 at 8:34 PM

      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..

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  3. JanetSeptember 3, 2012 at 9:16 PM

    Dahn it looks pretty perfect in the photo. Lovely!

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  4. DahnSeptember 3, 2012 at 10:01 PM

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

    ReplyDelete

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