I have been asked to do a workshop on landscapes, so I thought I would start by putting a tutorial together for you. This tutorial is based on the itty bitty landscape I did a little while ago and uses some very basic techniques, so is a good starting place.
I am actually going to show you two landscapes, one done with free motion embroidery, and one done with decorative stitches on your machine (for those who are a bit daunted by FME).
The tutorial will be in two parts, this first part about construction and on Thursday, the embroidery. I will also mention, hand stitches that could be used.
Construction
You will need a backing for your landscape
On the left, is some muslin and the hoop I am going to use to do FME , on the left, is a medium to heavy weight interfacing for stabilising when doing decorative stitches. I have marked my guide for placing the fabric in heataway pen. It is about 2.5 by 4.5 inches for this piece (not the whole rectangle fits inside the hoop).
You will need some scraps of fabric from blue through to green. I have a pale blue for the sky, some lilac for the far away hils and a variety of greens for the foreground. These are from my fused fabric scrap box. You will need to prefuse your fabrics if you don't keep such scraps.
Here is the sky placed on my muslin (the procedure is the same for both landscapes).
Next, the far hills in a purple. I simply cut a few curves into a small strip of fabric to make the hills.
The first of the greens is much more blue than the ones to the right of the picture. If we added a bit of blue (and brown) to the lime fabric, it would be similar to this.
The second green. We are getting more green as we move forward.
A brighter green
And a mottled foreground fabric.
Araange your pieces to suit yourself. I have alternated the directions of the hills in this sample, but this is not set in stone. hill may go in the same direction.
Sandwich your piece between parchment paper and fuse
And here are the two landscapes, fused and ready to embroider.
On Thursday, we will continue this tutorial with the emboridery
