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

Friday, February 27, 2009

`Header- Hummingbirds'




The header photo I just put in, was one of my first thread painted wall hangings.

I was so pleased with it as I had always been wondering whether I could do it.
I mention it because if you look at it closely you can see how I thread painted the flowers and the birds. I thought I would show you close ups of other thread painted projects I have done over the years. Some have been put on my blog but rather than having to scroll down I thought I would put them in again. I am finishing up the ongoing thread painting class
this next month where we do a thread painted landscape, including buildings etc.

About 20 years ago I saw some pictures of some wonderful faces in the National Geographic and painted them with
oils, and then with watercolors. I did them in thread painting a few years ago.

One is a Mali Princess, the other is an Australian Aboriginal Man and the third is an
Aussi Shepherd. If you click on the photos they will enlarge and you can see the stitching.












The next picture is part of my Christmas thread painting series. It shows the shapes and colors of a pointsettia -- I use this pattern for lots of different things. A table topper edging - I thread paint the blocks around a border - and make a bouquet in the center. I use it for
coasters, etc.
The next is a bouquet of thread painted tulips. This wall hanging was lots of fun to do - the shading is very important, and a great way to practice. If I remember correctly, one of the members of our group won it a couple of years ago.

I will be teaching a Floral bouquet using many different flowers on April llth & 12. As we are limiting the number of members on the learningfa group , if you are interested in signing up for the floral bouquet there is still room in the group to sign up. Just click on the yahoo icon in my sidebar.

The peacock has beades on the crest and was a fun project.

click on the pricture and you will see how it was done. notice the different stitches I used.


This is a thread painted house I did for a wall hanging. I used a 'different' basic fabric' it was upholstery fabric and worked very well. You can see how the thread painting hi lighted the sides and roof

I used thread for everything included the windows. This was only one of 4 buildings I made for this wall hanging. Notice that I lay the brown fabric on top of a piece of timtex and thread painted the house. This is a great way to do it as it never puckers - I then cut it out close to the outside edge after going around the outside of the house 3 times with a very fine zig zag stitch, and then appliqued it to the piece.


The last picture shows a thread painted wall hanging on pure silk I brought home from
China - I painted it with fabric paints after soaking the fabric and diluting the paint - this gave me the background - then I thread painted it. I hope you like it.

I hope you will find these pictures of help with your thread painting - It is a matter of practice - practice - practice. To start you could also print a building, or an animal onto a sheet of printing on fabric - I sometimes use Crafters images or printed treasures. then I place the subject on a piece of timtex and thread paint over the subject using the colors that show up in the image - this is an excellent way of thread paint a focus animal, house, flower, etc. If any of you want to see more examples just comment and I will put more in. Shirley

5 comments:

Donna said...

The peacock is so pretty. I promise just as soon as I'm caught up on my have to do list, I'm going to give art quilting a try. I really admire all your landscape pieces.

Delia (Del) said...

Hi Shirley
Love this work of yours.
Delia

Anonymous said...

Shirley, love your work. Especially the tulips, my favorite flower ;-) I'd love to see more

Anne
Finland

Char said...

Love the hummingbirds, trying to catch up with all the UFO,s so I can try threadpainting, I need at least 12 more hours in the day. The close up pictures are a useful tool...thanks

Shirley said...

Thankyou very much for your comments.

Thread painting is a very useful tool. I will try to find some landscapes where I have thread painted the bushes and trees and post them. thanks again. Shirley