I finished another nunofelted landscape in preparation for selling that last set I sent to the gallery (one can always hope). I looked through the remainder of the nunofelt pieces I have left from Paula and decided to make another piece with the autumnul colored one. I had planned on making more trees but decided I wanted to create echinacea flowers instead.
I found some photos online and printed a bunch off, then cut the flowers out so I could figure out the sizes needed and a good arrangement. It also helps to make the petals and centers more lifelike otherwise the flowers end up looking too much alike.
I had found yellow hand dyed cotton fabric and a bit browner fabric for the centers. I also got out several shades of green for leaves and stems.
Once the pieces of applique fabric were cut out, I tried some stems with fabric but they were a bit too thick. So I tried out green yarn and decided to use it instead. I could couch the yarn down and make the stems with more curves much more easily than out of fabric.
On to stitching, here the flowers are all appliqued down with matching cotton machine thread. I have also couched the stems down with matching thread. The leaves are cut and pinned in place.
Yay, all stitched down. A bit of texture on the centers is needed with a graduation of color and a bit of darkness to add depth.
I used four different colors of hand dyed wool thread so it would look a bit more “furry”. The centers were stitched with a random cross stitch and straight stitches.
Next up, I wanted to see if stitching lines in the petals would be a good addition. So I cut another sample petal or two and tried some different thread with stem stitch to see what it looked like. It just didn’t seem to add enough to the petals for the amount of work it would take.
I decided it was finished. So I bought a piece of background fabric and stitched the nunofelt in place. The piece was finished as usual by lacing the green fabric around two pieces of matte board. It’s all ready to go to the framers when I have a few more pieces finished. I think my next project is to make some smaller (5×7″) landscapes as I have sold a few of those from the gallery in Kalispell.
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