Slow Stitchng

Every year my weekly fiber group, FiberWorks, puts on a show at the local library. For the past few years our work has been mounted on 30 x 30" black canvases, which gives the show a nice cohesive look. This year the theme for the show is "A Walk in the Woods". We don't even know if the library will be open in Sept, when the show should be mounted, but we decided to go ahead and make our pieces, even it they are only shown on line.

Our pieces can be any size, as long as they fit onto the canvas and you can do as many pieces as you want.

My son is an avid hiker in the Pacific Northwest, where he lives. He is also a mushroom hunter and has sent me some incredible pictures. I decided to do 9 small pieces, each 7" x 7" and mount them evenly spaced onto the canvas. I think I will call it Forest Floor.

I did some small pieces last year that were photos printed onto fabric and enhanced with hand embroidery and that's what I thought I would do with these. I finished my first one this week and am working on my second. They are taking FOREVER and now I think the rest of them will be finished with free motion quilting, as I have done successfully on my Garden Studies

Here is #1. This is a tree fungus. I never knew that they came in such incredible colors.

My embellishments are real tree lichen, dyed Spanish moss and a bit of roving.

I only used chain stitching  on this one. Very time consuming.

On this second one, also a tree fungus, I am doing a combination of chain stitching and satin stitch. Also very labor intensive .

If you do any hand embroidery, I highly recommend  these non-slip hoops that I found online. A little pricey, but oh so worth it. Your fabric will stay as tight as a drum all the while you stitch and no constant tugging.

I am linking up with Off the Wall Friday.