Applique artwork
I love pictures, we have quite a few in our house. Some are bought, some are taken and some are created by me. I am also a fan of unique things, if its a little different or a one of a kind it will appeal to me more. I love the thought of the care, attention and love that goes into something that has been handcrafted. With that in mind I decided that the nursery needed some pictures and that I should make them but I wasn’t sure what to create. Do I paint something? Do I take some photographs and frame them nicely or do I go for something totally different. After a rummage around the house I managed to find two unused square canvases and when I looked through my fabric box inspiration struck.
The fabric owl
As you have already seen there is a rather friendly owl sitting in our nursery tree so I decided to create him a friend. I found some lovely leaf pattern fabric in my scraps box (doesn’t every serious crafter have a scraps box?) and cut off a piece big enough to cover one of the canvases. Next I drew out a design and found a selection of different fabrics to applique the design with. I love quilting fabrics as they are so pretty but I’ll use anything and in fact one of my husbands old t-shirts got chopped as it was just the right shade of brown!
After all the pieces were cut and their position worked out I set to on the sewing. Using a basic quilting stitch each piece was sewn into place using an appropriate coloured thread. It’s a good idea to iron your base piece of fabric before you do this (especially if it has been living in the bottom of your scraps box!) so you get a nice smooth finish.
The fabric hedgehog.
Once the sewing was done I gave the design another iron and then grabbed my staple gun and stapled it to the canvas, making sure to stretch the design nice and tight and ensuring it was sitting in the correct position before starting. I found it best to work on opposite sides first, I started at the bottom and then did the top to ensure I got a nice tight finish. The corners can be a little tricky to get nice and neat but if you fold carefully it should look nice and professional (on the front and sides at least, no one is going to see the back after all!)
When the owl was finished I set about making a hedgehog with the other canvas in exactly the same way. The only addition to the hedgehog was adding some accent stitching to create spines on him. I am particularly fond of the little heart on his nose, a cute little addition I feel!
I now want to find another canvas as I have plans for one more picture. Annoyingly so far I have only been able to find canvases that are too thick so my search continues … watch this space!
handmademummy 