This is my latest piece of work. It is quite a traditional piece of hand appliqué. I started with a piece of printed furnishing fabric from a sample book, measuring roughly 18 inches (46 cm) square and drew a circle on it in pencil. Then I went over that in chain stitch. Had I made a bias tube and stitched that down, the result would have been better but I would still be doing it now. Also the light line of the chain stitch, I think matches the delicacy of the finished piece.
The leaves were cut freehand from scraps of fabric. The main fabric is a cheap Liberty knockoff, but the other two are very contemporary fabrics which I used with the reverse showing to knock back the brightness of the prints. They were appliquéd using very traditional needle-turning.
I finished it off with some big beads from a charity shop necklace I took to pieces over some tiny crocheted circles I had made one night when I was bored and only had a bit of yarn and a crochet hook to hand.
I am quite pleased with it, as it was fairly quick to make and it was a good day on the radio yesterday, and it cost pretty much nothing. Plus it is quite spring-like.
I think I will mount it over a plain canvas box frame, otherwise it might be the start of a Baltimore album quilt and that way madness lies.
