I have finally finished the hand stitching of the leaves on this quilt top (51" x 39.5"). I like how it came out but stitching in the middle of the quilt was harder than I had expected due to the weight of the fbric and backing. I pinned the leaves in place one at at time and used green embrodery thread and running stitch to secure them to the quilt next to the "trees". I placed the next one over it once I had finished the first one and repeated 18 more times. I really like how the quilt feels so now I have to find a backing to sandwich my polyester batting into the quilt.
I found a dark green cotton polyester piece that was the right size for the back and there was enough from the other scraps to make a binding in the same colour. Perfect!! I added some vertical stitched lines using an off white thread on the front and dark green on the back once I got the backing pinned into place. After that I stitched on some outline leaves with the same thread placing them next to the lines on the front to simulate a forest in the background. I had one leftover leaf and so I traced it with a pencil where I thought leaves would look appropriate then roughly followed the line to create the outline leaves. I really like how that looks. I cut 3" strips for my binding and stitched them together. I decided to use a wavy decorative stitch to stitch it into place because I usually miss the back portion when I use a straight line and have to go back and finish all those places by hand. I had folded the edges of the 3" strip into the center and then in half so I would be assured that as long as I caught the back with stitching it would be secure. I am pretty happy with how it worked out. The wavy line does not distract from the quilt and it certainly ensured that I did not have to do any handwork once I was done. I washed the quilt after I finished it to wash out the pencil lines and to see that it all held together. The hand stitched leaves are now a little fuzzy but that is fine. All good!!!!! I have a special purpose for this quilt which I will share later. I have several possibilities for the next quilt - will have to see which one calls to me. I have also started on another hand stitching project which features stitching decorative fabric elements to solid coloured 6" squares. I will blog those once I have started the first one. Therese
That’s beautiful Therese. You do amazing work.
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