knitting Paradise

I belong to a wonderful knitting and crochet group called

Knitting Paradise.

http://www.knittingparadise.com

I hope you will drop by and check us out. Shirley

Thursday, January 1, 2009

'FALLEN LEAVES'

I just finished the center of a new wall hanging, and have one border on it, ready for a larger green border. I took pictures of the steps in making this wall hanging, and have
decided to show how I made this pretty wall hanging.
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First of all, I wanted to have 3 main trees, so decided to paint them with acrylic paints and
textile medium. I drew three large (1.5 Inch strips for the foreground trees and 1"
strip for the background tree. I wet them, and dr0pped some dark purple along one of the sides of each of the trees. then added peach,brown and pearl cream to the trees. I set them aside to dry.
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I chose a dark green patterned fabric for the background and then painted dark tree trunks on the fabric, and also appliqued some dark strips to represent trees onto the back ground.
I also painted some autumn colors in dark values to give
the impression of lots of trees onto the background.
I used a glue stick to hold them down.

This was the only place I didn't use Stitch Witchery
on this piece. (It was my first try with this product and I am really impressed with it. It will be a 'have to have'
in my quilting supplies.

Once I had the strips for the background trees stitched down, I then added some leave and shrubs in front of the trees.=======Now it is time to add the large trees. I added the narrower tree further back, and put bushes in front, then added the two larger trees with one closer to the foreground than the other. I had already laid a brown mottled fabric for the foreground. I then lay a piece of stitchwitchery on the lower portion of the picture, in front of the two large trees. I chose lots of bright colors for the leaves and fussy cut leaves from leaf fabrics and and red, rust, copper, beige, etc. I then placed them in front of the
large trees to cover the foreground. I then thread painted the big trees and thread painted bushes in the background as well as the branches for the trees.

















I then placed some branches on top of the leaves, squared off the landscape and put the first border on the wall hanging. I still have
a pretty green to use for the wider outside border. I will post the finished wall hanging when I have it quilted. I hope this tutorial was interesting . Please leave a comment if you liked it. Shirley
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7 comments:

Skye said...

Shirley, this is one of my favorites..I love all the colorings and the naturalism of this wall hanging..Your work is so gorgeous...Wish I had your colorful thumb! hugs, Skye

Shirley said...

Thanks Skye -- I really enjoyed doing this one, especially as it is so
cold and wintery outside. I love the forest in Autumn. I think it might be the prize for the spring finished work on Learningfa. Shirley

SandyQuilts said...

I love it. I wanna make one too. Thanks for the tutorial.

Susan Loftin said...

Shirley,
This is a beautiful quilt. I love how you make your quilts so life-like.
Susan L.

Shirley said...

Susan - I tried to work in some abstract quilts but I just didn't enjoy doing them at all. I am afraid I only see my surroundings as they are in real life so that is what I seem to need to do. I love doing them and do them for me first. I would do them even If I couldn't sell them or use them for charity and gifts.

I think we all feel the same way about what we do. I hope so anyway.
Shirley

arlene said...

Shirley, your tutorial is perfect..I like your techniques. the wallhanging is beautiful!
thank you for doing this for us

Shirley said...

I am glad you found the tutorial useful Arlene. I am starting to quilt it and will post it when it is finished. S