A Completed Project

I'm finally able to post a photo of this appliquéd picture

which I finished recently for someone who is very dear to me.

It is a project I have worked on for many years, due both to its complexity

and to my own procrastination. I'm so happy to have completed it and sent it to its owner.

I do very few house/building portraits these days, but this one has

a special meaning for its owner, and I was happy be able to do it.

Hope you're having a wonderful weekend!

Building a Fabric House

Recently I was delighted to be part of a lovely conspiracy - making a house portrait for a mother to give her daughter as a surprise for Christmas. What made it even better was that the two parties concerned are dear friends, Sharon of the blog Sallymomsprouts and her daughter Anne of My Giant Strawberry.

First, a photo of the house from Anne's mom

Next, photos of Anne's pets, gleaned from her blog

Then, a drawing of the house

And a version in colored pencil and cut paper, with animal faces in the windows

Fabrics selected, shapes cut out and prepared for fusing

Picture fused and machine embroidered

Little faces in the windows

Border added with embroidered vine...

Picture completed and mailed in time for Christmas!!

Unfortunately I wasn't able to finish another project I had hoped to complete, but it is first on my list for the new year. Thank you for your patience, Julie.

Hope you have had a wonderful weekend!

Latest Projects

I recently finished up this house portrait for a client. It was a very simple house, interpreted with a combination of fabrics for texture, and the background trees were watercolor painted with Setacolor transparent paints and then machine embroidered. The picture was stretched, matted and framed, and the clients were delighted. A happy ending!

I'm also working on this fabric landscape. The background is hand painted fabric, on which I loosely painted some trees with the Setacolor paints. I plan to enhance the trees with machine stitching and add more hand painted fabrics and stitching to the foreground.

Hope everyone who reads this is enjoying a great weekend!

Fabric House Portrait

I recently finished a house portrait for a client. The project had taken me much longer to finish than expected, but my client was wonderfully patient and pleased with the final result!

I began with a drawing based on photos of a vacation home on a lake in Maine.
I had the original drawing enlarged, then put the enlargement on a light table and traced the different components on Wonder Under on the reverse side of the drawing. I then chose fabrics for the house, trees, etc., and ironed the Wonder Under-ed components on to the backs of these fabrics. After cutting out these components, I reassembled the "puzzle pieces" and ironed them down to create the picture.

All pieces were stitched down with a zig-zag stitch, some textile paints were used for shading, flowers were hand embroidered, and a linen border was added. It felt so good to finish this project and to know that my client was pleased!!!

I've done many house portraits over the years, and doing this one reminded me of how much I enjoy the process. The main drawback, as with any handwork, is that it is nearly impossible to charge for the many hours that go into such a piece of work! It's an artisan's dilemma!