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 f ..read more

The flying flower is well tethered to the tree trunk with chain stitches. Beware! It’s one of those climbing plants that you can take over the garden. I’ve decorated the giant flower with a few French Knots around the edge and filled the lazy daisy stitches on the stem with that same Really Red thread. Oddly enough there is a tiny flower growing off the rooftop of the house. How did that get there ..read more

The new house constructed on the vacant lot next to the trees looks a little stunned by the giant blue dot object hovering overhead. But I’ve stitched the house securely to a mound of solid blue earth using a blanket stitch. (The blanket stitch came in handy to add texture to the blue earth too.) The rooftop is held into place with fly stitches and French knots so it’s not going anywhere either. To take the menace out of the big blue dot in the sky, I’m turning it into a flower. What could be sweeter than a giant flower in your front yard ..read more

This little free-form design began with a step-out from my Nut House project. By turning the step-out swatch horizontally, the few leaves on the end of a branch become trees. I love being an arborist! See the blue stitch lines of the branches extending to the bottom edge of the fabric swatch? I’ve added extra rows of chain stitches placed closely together to make hardy tree trunks. When you want thick lines, use the chain stitch. In the vacant space on the right of the trees, I’ve tacked down a free-cut hill and house shape using felt fabrics. With felt there is no worry about the fabric ..read more

Welcome to a new free-form embroidery design! This stitch project began with a step-out from the Nut House embroidery found in my book Playful Free-Form Embroidery. On the left you see the image used in the book directions and on the right is a detailed image from the finished piece. The step-out swatch only measures about 5” x 9” and has a few elements stitched to the felt background fabric. It the Nut House design, these elements are leaves on the tree branch and a flying tire swing that the ladybugs play on. What can I do with this step-out swatch? The ladybugs aren’t the only ones who are ..read more

Mi Cas es Su Casa #1 by Laura Wasilowski My classes at the Asociación Española de Patchwork festival  are complete. The Spanish quiltmakers are delightful and I had a wonderful time! Thank you to all who made my visit possible. One thing I discovered during this trip is that the love of hand embroidery translates easily across languages and borders. We all love color and pattern and texture. It’s an artform for all ..read more

Now that their felt fabric pieces for the design are in place my students in the Mi Casa es Su Casa class at the Asociación Española de Patchwork Festival will begin to add decorative details with thread. I know it is sometimes difficult to make color decisions when adding hand embroidery. But remember, you can always remove the thread if you don’t like it! One tip is to repeat colors throughout the piece. Here you see blue French knots added to the V shapes of the fly stitches around the roof top. The blue house and blue threads in the grass repeat that color. And I’ll be sure to ..read more

My students in the Mi Casa es Su Casa class at the Asociación Española de Patchwork festival soon find that improvising a design is thrilling! And that free-cutting shapes or using found shapes makes the artwork uniquely their own. As you follow along with my class, you see that I’m adding layer after layer of shapes like this blue felt house stitched to the ground with a blanket stitch. The blanket stitch is not only utilitarian but decorative too. The next layer is the rooftop. I like the zigzag shape around the edge provided by the fly stitch. It’s another stitch that decorates ..read more

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 Fr ..read more

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 sh ..read more