I have been working on creating backgrounds for my recently finished felt and stitched pieces. In the past, I have dyed the fabric to try to match the pieces. This time I decided to try the fabric store and see if there was some solid fabric that would work.

The background for Sanctuary is the only piece that I dyed. I actually used tea to “stain” this fabric. I wanted a soft tan color and the tea seemed to work. I then stitched the felt piece down to the dyed cotton fabric and laced it to matt board. It’s a lot of work but the pieces seem to hold up well and then I don’t have to cover them with glass.

At the fabric store, I found fat quarters that would work for all my pieces. I can’t say that I think the colors are perfect but they work OK.

So each piece got a different color of fabric and I didn’t have to buy a bunch of extra fabric that I probably won’t use.

This one is a bit too bright, but I don’t think I will change any of them at this point.

These all sit nicely on the stretch cotton fabric and you really can’t see where they are stitched to the background fabric.

This one and the oak tree piece were fused down to the fabric instead of stitching. I tried to stitch the oak tree down but where I had silk screened on to the surface just wasn’t taking the stitches well. So I applied fusible to the back of each of these pieces and then ironed them to the background fabric. It was much quicker than stitching and I might use this method from now on instead of stitching. As long as the piece isn’t too heavy it should work.

Now I need to get these to the framer. I am planning on putting them in an exhibition in August. So I have plenty of time yet.