I have been trying to “use stuff up” instead of creating new backgrounds or more felt. I have a bunch of pieces of fabric and felt that need to be used for something. So I am working on doing that this year. I decided that I wanted to have a hand stitch project going all the time so that I have that to work on when I have a moment or two. One of the pieces of fabric that has been hanging around is a deconstructed screen printed fabric that Louise created. We had decided to use grey dye when screening. That was a mistake! It was pretty ugly. Louise gifted me the fabric and it’s been sitting in my studio for months. So it is the new background for my hand stitch project. I added another piece of fabric behind as it was lightweight cotton.
I forgot to take a photo of the fabric before it was painted. It looked like trees to me (everything looks like trees to me) so I painted in the white areas with watercolors. This is what I had at the moment when I was painting. I might have chosen a different medium but it worked fine. And it will mainly get covered. The fabric looks better already!
Next I started adding feather stitch with a multi colored pearl cotton that I dyed myself ages ago, another good “use stuff up” option. You can enlarge the photo to see the stitching better.
I was originally thinking they would be fall trees but I have decided on a variety of green. I have started to add dark green on the right hand side. I am planning on piling all the stitching on top of each other so it will be a while before I finish this project. All of the trees will be multiple layers of feather stitch. It’s good to have something I can pick up easily and do a few minutes of stitching to get in my daily dose of fiber. Do you have a hand stitch project ready to go? It’s a great way to do a little fiber art on the go. I just put everything in a plastic bag with my needles and a pair of embroidery scissors and I’m ready to go.