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Service Berries Appliqued Nuno Felt

Service Berries Appliqued Nuno Felt

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I showed you earlier the nuno backgrounds that I had created. I decided to try using the idea of the layered photos that I created in Photoshop Elements.

So instead of going with what the background suggested (pine trees), I thought I would try some fused machine applique over the nuno felt.

I printed out my service berry photo and got out my light box, tracing paper and a pencil. I completely ignored the background in the photo and just concentrated on the branch with berries and leaves. I simplified the design as I went.

Here’s the traced design that I came up with for my applique. Now I needed to choose a piece of fabric, get out my fusible (Wonder Under) and transfer the design to the fabric.

Here’s the piece of fabric that I chose on top of the nuno felt. The photo is not the best as the nuno felt looks black. I fused the Wonder Under to the back of the green fabric with my iron. It’s easy to do but if you haven’t used fusible before, make sure to read the instruction of the type that you have. All of them are a bit different.

Once I had the fusible in place, I transferred the pattern to the paper on the back of the fabric. I had to remember that the pattern would be reversed when cut out and applied to the background. I used the tracing paper to do this by flipping my drawing over on to the fusible paper and drawing on the backside of the tracing paper to transfer the pencil line. This works best if you enhance the original pencil line with a softer lead pencil, I used a 7B. Once the pattern was transferred, I cut it out with a pair of short, sharp scissors. I left the paper in place until after everything was cut out.

Then I applied the cut out fabric to the background by ironing it in place. The fusible melts and holds the fabric in place so that it’s easy to stitch down and add details.

Before I started stitching, I decided to add a little thickened water color to get a bit more definition and shading in the leaves and berries. Then on to the sewing machine.

Here it is after stitching (free motion) on the machine. I used three different greens and a couple of reddish brown threads. It’s hard to get an accurate color representation in the photos as the dark red seems to throw the camera off very easily. This was a fun project and different than most of my other nuno landscapes. Now to figure out what to do with the other backgrounds. More to come!

Fireweed

Fireweed

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Here is the last of my nuno felted landscapes that I have been working on for an exhibition in September. This is the largest piece and measures 11″ x 30″. I thought I had taken more photos of the piece in process but I can’t find them. So I must have just dreamed that I took photos 🙂

The background is nuno felted and I did add a bit of hand stitch to a portion of the mountains as one section felt too yellow. I added grey seed stitch to make it match the rest of the mountains. Then I added the fireweed flower in the foreground with hand dyed cotton fabric that is fused down to the felt. If you haven’t seen a fireweed before, here is a bit more information.

Here’s the piece before I stitched the leaves. I added some stem stitch and straight stitch to the flowers to hold them in place and to add a bit of detail.

Here you can see the stitching a bit better. I used wool thread for the hand stitching.

And here is the finished piece. I added machine stitching to the cotton applique pieces as I felt that the fusible wouldn’t hold them completely in place and I didn’t want them to start peeling off. Plus it added more definition to the leaves to bring them forward from the background.

Now I am working on background fabrics for each piece and then framing. Once they are framed, I will post again to show you the finished pieces.

The Girls and Happy Halloween!

The Girls and Happy Halloween!

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On my last post, “the girls” were fused down to the background fabric and I was ready to start stitching. The stitching is always my favorite part of these caricatures because it really brings the piece to life. After stitching, I used a little paint and colored pencils for the final details. And then I put the piece on stretcher bars. I think I will go ahead and frame it because it will be in an exhibition next summer.

Fused Applique by Ruth Lane, design by Nanci Williams

Here’s the entire piece. The original sketched design was drawn by my friend Nanci Williams. We have begun working on the exhibition and have invited 25 local artists to pick a sketch and make a piece in their preferred media from that sketch. Once the pieces come in, then we’ll take photographs and create a book which we are planning on self publishing.

Fused Applique by Ruth Lane, design by Nanci Williams

Here’s a bit closer view.

Fused Applique by Ruth Lane, design by Nanci Williams

This is Anna Belle,

Fused Applique by Ruth Lane, design by Nanci Williams

Sally Jo,

Fused Applique by Ruth Lane, design by Nanci Williams

Mary Jane,

Fused Applique by Ruth Lane, design by Nanci Williams

and Becky Sue.

And here are there feet – I like how the sandals came out 🙂 The sketch was based on four women that came into the store all together, dressed nearly the same. Of course “Becky Sue” is the odd one out as she had a striped shirt!

The Purple Pomegranate Halloween Window

And since it is Halloween, I thought you might like to see how our windows are decorated at the store. This is another one of Nanci’s creations.

Halloween Window at The Purple Pomegranate

She spent a lot of time creating these scary, spooky birds.

Halloween Window Photo by Jack Dewitt

And the skeleton in the “nest” is still afraid! Do you see the rat? Happy Halloween from all of us here at the Felting and Fiber Studio!

 

Give Away Winner and Update on Caricatures

Give Away Winner and Update on Caricatures

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Last week, I posted a review and give away for the book Felt So Good by Tone Rørseth. I randomly drew from the comments posted and the winner is: Kim

Kim, I will send you an e-mail to get your mailing address. Thanks for all your comments and if you’re still interested in winning a copy of the book, there are more blogs that are giving it away. You can find the list on the initial give away post.

Becky Sue

Back in September, I wrote a post about caricatures in stitch that I’ve been creating. I had only gotten as far as one of “the girls” at that point.

All the Girls Cut Out

Since then, I’ve gotten all the pieces backed with fusible and cut out for all four of them.

Pieces Cut Out for Mary Jane and Becky Sue

Here are Becky Sue and Mary Jane.

Pieces Cut Out Anna Belle and Sally Jo

And this is Anna Belle and Sally Jo.

Background Painted

I had a piece of dyed background fabric but it seemed way too busy. So I decided to paint a piece instead. I used Dye-Na-Flow paints and added a bit of salt after painting to get some texture.

All the Girls Ironed Down

Then I placed all of the pieces and ironed them down.

Mary Jane and Becky Sue

I added stripes to Becky Sue’s shirt with a permanent marker. I decided to go with the red marker as it gave the best contrast.

Anna Belle and Sally Jo

Putting the pieces in place is a bit painstaking as everything has to be in the right position and then kept in place while ironing. I covered them with a piece of parchment paper to iron. Now on to the fun part – stitching them. I am in the process of choosing thread colors and I always like to do a little practice free motion stitching before I start. I did buy some stretcher bars for this piece so I will wrap the background fabric around the stretcher bars to finish it. I’ll keep you posted about the stitching.

More Caricatures in Stitch

More Caricatures in Stitch

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I wrote a post about stitching some caricatures back at the beginning of June. The sketches are all done by my friend Nanci Williams.  We are still working out the details but the plans so far for these are to have an exhibition of work by different artists using Nanci’s sketches as inspirations and to make a book of all of the people. We are thinking of calling it “Whitefish Fashion Plates”. The two previous stitched people who I did were the same size as Nanci’s sketch. This time, I decided I wanted to enlarge them considerably. I chose a sketch that had four women pictured who were all dressed very much alike.

Pattern Enlarged

I copied the original sketch and then enlarged each person on my copy machine by 200%. I then taped them all back together again. I gave them names as well!

Choosing Fabric

I then hunted down fabric that would work for them. All of them were wearing pastel shirts, all had grey hair and wore a visor and carried similar handbags. I had a hard time finding pastel fabrics in my stash as I don’t seem to have a lot of these colors in solids. The skin tone fabric I had was dyed with tea.

Fabric Ironed and Ready to Fuse

Once I found all the fabric, I had to iron all the pieces so they would be flat and ready to put fusible web on to the back of the fabric.

Trace Pattern on to Fusible

I started with Becky Sue, the one on the right hand side of the sketch. When I traced the different body parts, I had to remember that the paper on the fusible web is on the back side so I had to turn the sketch over and trace from behind. That way when I fused the pattern on to the back of the fabric and cut it out, the figure would be facing the proper direction.

Iron Fusible to Backside of Fabric

I then ironed all my fusible web with the patterns on to the back of the fabric I had chosen.

Becky Sue

I cut them all out and here is Becky Sue ready to be fused down to the background. I haven’t chosen a background fabric yet. I only have one piece of fabric that is the correct size and it seems a bit too “tie-dyed” for a background. I have been just using fairly plain green backgrounds. All of the details will be added with stitching once all of the figures have been fused to the background.

What Color Stripes?

All of the ladies shirts were plain except for Becky Sue. Her shirt is supposed to be striped. I didn’t have any striped fabric so I decided I would add stripes with a permanent marker. I made a sample piece to see which color stripes I like. Which color stripes do you prefer?

Deb's Mosaic People

These mosaic people are by my friend Deb Stika. This isn’t a very good photo but these are approximately 2 1/2 to 3 feet tall and all done in mosaics. The resemblance to Nanci’s sketches are amazing. These will be included in the future show and book too. I will keep you posted on my progress on the four ladies.

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