Textile Art Blog posts

Part 2 – Using the photo as a guide and working from the top I began to shape the feathers forming small crescent shapes. A very loose fly stitch helped give the impression of feathers. I always pay close attention to the underlying fabric as I stitch. The fabric is working in harmony with the threads and it’s important to keep the stitching balanced in order for the fabrics to peek through.

Part 1 – When creating a hand stitched fabric collage the first step is to cut the fabric roughly 2” larger than the embroidery hoop you are intending to use. Choose a fabric that is lightweight and transparent enough to see the object you wish to trace. Using a Lightbox, trace the art onto the fabric with a pencil.

Continued from part 3 – Once I had completed the beading, I cut out Zorro’s famous saber-slashing “Z,” and appliquéd it to the background. This gave added distinction to my textile art entitled, “Z Marks the Spot.”

Once everything was tacked down, I thread-painted the horse and rider. Several shades of Aurifil 50 wt. grays were used on the horse. Using the comic’s cover art I stitched in the direction of the anatomy emphasizing the muscles. After completing the horse, I used the template to mark the lines, and began stitching the rider.

My entry for the 2019 “Quilted Comics & Sci-Fi” exhibit at the International Quilt Festival in Houston, Texas was probably the biggest challenge of my entire textile art career. As someone who’s worked restoring A style used primarily in comics is a very graphic posterized technique.

Let’s pause and talk about the pattern I used to mark the stitching lines. To learn more about the types of patterns available and the process of choosing images please read Fabric Collage How to Begin blog. I work with many wildlife photographers and have permission to use lots of images.

Let’s pause and talk about the pattern I used to mark the stitching lines. To learn more about the types of patterns available and the process of choosing images please read Fabric Collage How to Begin blog. I work with many wildlife photographers and have permission to use lots of images.

These colorful parakeets are dear to me as they’re not really native to Florida, but live in large flocks after escaping from a pet shop. I watch them chattering in the palm trees outside my deck. They cannot seem to stay quiet and sound like they’re all talking at the same time. This piece is aptly entitled, “Liberated,” as they’ve happily escaped.

Tanzanian Tango Part 3: After I hand-embroidered the French knots, I snipped apart bridal lace and lace I had created previously using the thread-painting technique to imply larger splashes. I worked slowly avoiding all of the French knots to avoid breaking the needle…