three finished projects

I'm on a roll trying to finish up some projects that I've been working on simultaneously, and these three are finished (for now anyway).



First is the book cover that I started when I was writing up my Artistic Free-motion online class. I've added the pockets inside to hold a book and bound it, so it's just waiting for a book to be placed inside.



Next is the art quilt landscape - first project for the art quilt class that I'm taking with Jane LaFazio at joggles.com. I've added my hand stitching, and also went back and shaded the trees again to add more depth.



Last is a felt flower design for the same art quilt class. I'm not sure I'm making a quilt out of it - maybe a wall hanging, but it will be finished once I decide. At least all the cutting, layout, and embroidery are done!

free-motion trees

I received some questions about how my trees were created, so I thought you might like to see another picture that I took before I washed out the stabilizer. The how-to instruction below is a copy of what I had posted in the art quilt class that I'm taking. One thing I forgot to mention, is that you need to make sure that you have the threads locking with others (you can stitch a grid in the area you will embroider to help hold it together).

My trees were free motion embroidered on Romeo, which is a super heavy weight water soluble stabilizer. I drew what I thought I'd like with a sharpie on the stabilizer, and then hooped the stabilizer and stitched with lots of thread, changing the colors from darkest to lightest. It's kind of like scribbling with colored pencils to fill them in, except you're holding a hoop and stitching with the machine. The trees were still on the stabilizer in the photo that I posted, so today they had a nice bath in very warm water to wash it out, and now they're drying. Once they're dry, I'll take another photo with them on top of the quilt, but I'm seriously considering cutting it into two sections, putting the two trees that are close together towards one side and the other tree on the other (but opposite of the way they are now). They are not wide enough to fit all the way across (would have when I was going to do the quilt in a portrait format), and I think they will cover the valley between the hills if I don't cut it. Anyway, I'll find out when it's dry.

Landscape mini quilt

This is another of the projects I'm simultaneously working on. It's homework for the art quilt class with Jane Fazio at joggles. I haven't made much progress on this landscape in the last few days, although I did get the trees sewn down. I tried adding beads to the tree on the left, but they were too large and I ripped them back off. I've pulled out some embroidery threads to add some french knots and maybe some other stitches. At this time, I'm unsure if I'll add hand stitching along the mountain / hill crests. I'm also considering adding shading with markers, all purpose ink or paint. Maybe if I let it rest a few days I'll be able to make a decision.