I must confess that my heart sank when I read that Improv was this quarter's theme for the Group, I have struggled with Improv blocks in the past so knew that it wasn't going to be a straightforward process to create a piece for the theme.
This piece, which I have called Tucked Away, is my response to the theme.
I chose to take a technique, Chenille quilting, and use random stitching to reflect the Improv theme. I have detailed the differences between the blocks in my post
here as I wanted to mention other aspects of the hanging in this post for the Endeavourers.
Whenever I need to come up with a project to fit a theme I always turn to photographs for my inspiration and this challenge was no exception. The photograph above was taken on our visit to the
Benmore Botanic Garden a few months ago when I was on the lookout for interesting textures for an upcoming competition in the Camera club. The fungi are fabulous but the fairy door beneath was the icing on the cake :)
I toyed with all sorts of ideas - trapunto and matchstick quilting to name but two to emulate the tree bark for my blocks, but wasn't really convinced until I reread
Layered Cloth: the art of fabric manipulation by Ann Small and realised that Chenille was the technique that I needed.
Using different widths of random stitching and different directions for the stitching I was able to produce a credible tree background.
I wanted to use Suffolk Puffs (yo-yo's) for the Fungi but realised that the traditional round shape wouldn't work for the frilly half-moon shapes that I needed, so I cast around in my sewing room for inspiration.
The oval lid from a long ago eaten box of truffles proved the ideal template!
Stitched with a running stitch around and padded with toy stuffing when the running stitch was gathered up they made ideal fungi for my tree house tree.
As you can see :)
Two pieces of pink wool fabric stitched together with a small piece of thick wadding in between and a button for the door knob made the perfect Fairy Door.
To complete the embellishment I added lengths of machine wrapped cord for tree tendrils and a few beads nestled in amongst the frayed edges.
As you can probably tell I had great fun with this project and I am loving the amazing directions that this group is pushing me into :)
Looking forward to seeing how everyone else has met this challenge.
