The Best Part of Waking Up

Is getting to go to the studio and play! 

This piece has been in process for enough years that I don’t remember when I made the yellow base.  I have been purging the studio and came across it, and when I saw the colorful textiles in the Wavy Gravy movie, I knew it needed to be a floral scene.

The butterfly is an extra machine embroidered butterfly left over from the piece I made for The Artful Storybook.  He’s sat in the pile of in process works for two years now.  Doesn’t he look pretty flying above the flowers?

Here’s a detail of the picking process.  I made these fabric yo yos when Izzy was an infant, they come in handy for so many embellishing chores.  The crochet pieces are found objects from second-hand shops.

A different detail of the yo yos set in the center of pieces cut from the white doily.  If you look carefully, you can also see the machine stitched detail on the poppies.  I used crochet thread in the bobbin for that effect.

I chose to back the orange doilies with this African brocade from Becky at St Theresa Textile Trove.  It will help with the contrast against the bright yellows.

And another detail of the doily as finished flower.  I am going to go back in and add some veins in the leaves, either with beads or sequins, once the piece is ready for its final embellishment.  The poppies were sewn separately and beaded separately before being appliqued to the background, and the stems are zigzag stitch done over rattail satin cording for extra dimension.

I love when a piece comes together like this.  Everything here has been in my stash for quite some time, just waiting for the opportunity to be made into art.  The finished piece will be on exhibit at the High Road Gallery in Worthington OH as part of the upcoming FABRICations exhibit.