Category Archives: free form embroidery

Free-Form Design Complete

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Home in the Country #2 by Laura Wasilowski

My free-form design on felt is complete. It is stitched to a rectangle of yellow felt using the fly stitch and French knots around the pinked edges. The yellow felt is stitched to a blue cotton fabric that is wrapped around a stiff interfacing.

Creating artwork by improvising a design can be a challenge but it is always rewarding. Sure, you don’t have a sketch or pattern to work from but designing a composition as you go is a cheap thrill! Without a pattern, you are free to let you imagination and chance help you create something unique. I recommend free-form design to everyone!

What We’re Stitching 2

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I love working with felt! It is so easy to stitch into and never frays. I’m hoping my students in Mi Casa es Su Casa class at the Asociación Española de Patchwork festival enjoy it too. Follow along and you’ll see one of the methods I’m showing them for creating their own designs.

The cloud is stitched to the background fabric and now I’ve added a grassy knoll. The green felt is stitched with a variegated size 8 thread called Lime Frappe. Blanket stitches are placed across the base of the knoll and I’m peppering the rest of the fabric with the scattered seed stitch.

I’m also adding a few French knots to the knoll to cheer it up.

I can’t wait to see what my students create with their kits of felt fabrics!

What We’re Stitching

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Would you like to follow along with the class I’m teaching for the Asociación Española de Patchwork called Mi Casa es Su Casa? In this class, students free-cut shapes from felt fabrics and add intense hand embroidery. I’ve made up kits using Commonwealth Felt. They are suppliers of beautiful bright colors. I recommend felt with at least 20% wool content.

The process for creating their little felt casa begins with a background fabric. I picked this wine colored felt as a challenge to myself. It’s so dark and moody!

But I cheered myself up by placing a large billowing cloud on it. The cloud shape is free-cut to shape and held in place with large running stitches. Around the edge, I’m adding blanket stitches using a size 8 Ocean thread.

Although you’ve seen the finished product above, trust me. This design is completely improvised. Which is what I’ll be asking of my students. Improvisation makes the design unique to each person.