Pumpkin flower shop. Still needs some beads added and sign made straight.
Welcome to What Are You Working On? where we talk about (and often display) our handiwork, whether yarn and fabric crafts, woodwork, metalwork, art, or anything else “crafty”.
***********************************************
I do a few types of crafts: quilting, embroidery and knitting. Each craft has multiple sub-categories and even sub-sub categories. Under quilting, there is applique, both with cotton and wool. This blog is about wool applique. It is not something I have done a lot, and most are have smaller and I given them away. However I have two that I have not quite finished that I can show you.
The picture above is the largest one I’ve done. It is part of a series of six different different patterns using pumpkins as shops. The one above is obviously a flower shop.
Below is a smaller one focused again on flowers, specifically one flower, the geranium. This is from a class I took at the Grand Hotel, on Mackinaw Island. They used to have a Needle Art Seminar on the second week the hotel was open, on the second weekend of May. It was a way to get customers to stay during a time when the weather is not very warm. However, it was still lovely. The one time I went I took three classes and got to stay at the hotel at a reduced price. The Geranium is the flower of the Grand Hotel. It is in the carpet and flower boxes, etc.
So more about wool applique. There are two stitches that are mainly used for wool applique: the blanket stitch and the whip stitch. Additional stitches, such as a straight stitch or a French or Colonial knot are used for ornamentation.
Wool applique can done on wool, such as the Geranium, or on a heavy cotton fabric, like the Pumpkin Flower Shop.
With the Geranium, the wool is appliqued directly onto the wool background. Basically a pattern is used to cut out the wool. There is no fusing. You pin the wool down (such as the stem), and then using (In my case) cotton thread and, a blanket stitch sew it down. (You can find out how to do a blanket stitch on Sarah Homfrey, or Embroidery Guild of America, or elsewhere). You can see how it is done more clearly on the left side, using a variegated thread.
The base layer of red flower petals used fusible applique and did the leaves. The flower petals on top are done just holding the wool piece down and stitching it down with straight stitches. The concept was not to have the petals lay flat, but be mounded up. The two green leaves again use fusible and then are stitched down with the Whip Stitch. How to do a Whip Stitch again can be found in various places on the Internet. In the center of each red flower petal is a Colonial Stitch, which is similar to a French Knot.
The Pumpkin Flower shop has both blanket stitch and whip stitch. I should not have done blanket stitch on the more complex shapes. I may cut the stitching out and replace it.
Now with the more complex and larger pieces, such as are in the pumpkin piece, how does a person transfer the pattern and hold it in place while it is stitched down? There are two ways, and they can be used interchangeably.
One way is to trace the outline of the piece (flower, petal, etc) on the paper side of waxed paper. The piece is cut out roughly and ironed (hot iron) wax side down onto the back side of wool. The piece is then cut out precisely. The piece then can be pinned down in place, or placed in place with a small amount of glue. Then the wool is stitched down with either blanket stitch or the whip stitch. I’ve used both here.
The other way to work the design is to trace the pattern onto double sided fusible material. Again traces roughly at first and ironed onto the back of the wool. Since the material is double sided, you can then remove the second paper layer and fuse it to the background fabric. You won’t need pins or glue. Then, again, stitch it down again.
What are the differences in the two methods?
If you don’t use fusible backing, the wool will “puff” up a bit, as is shown on most of the flower petals and centers. However, with a wool weave that is looser, it is better to have fusible holding the wool. I should used fusible with all the yellow and blue wool flowers as they are a loose weave. The centers of some of the flowers have fusible material behind them. The yellow centers and the peach/pink center have fusible between the wool and the heavy cotton. You should be able to see they are flatter then the red and brown centers.
So this my beginning journey on wool applique. In most ways it is easier than needle turn applique, which uses cotton and a more complex and precise method. However, wool pieces are best used for wall hangings and pillows, as they cannot be washed, as can cotton applique.
There are many places on the Internet that provide videos of wool applique, if it is of interest to you. A couple of FB pages you might look up are Calico Designs and Stitching Among Friends, which offers cheap digital patterns. Right now the topic is snowmen.
So, as always, What Are You Working On?
