As mentioned in an earlier post I decided to paint the outline colours on cream calico using Neocolor II crayons and then painting over the crayon with water to give a painterly finish. The colours turn much brighter once the water is applied.
As also mentioned I delineated the shapes of the design using diluted textile medium to avoid colour bleed between the different parts of the background. This worked very well.
I wanted to move away from using a purely quilted background, although I'll need to add some quilting to get the firm base that I need and I'll move on to that next. For the moment though I've concentrated on applying layers to the painted background.First I have applied sheer crystal organza in a silver colour over the painted blue sky. I pinned it in place and left an overlap so that if there is any shrinkage when I quilt over it there will be sufficient fabric overlay. It can be trimmed after stitching.
Next I tore long strips of green organza in two shades and applied over the area which will be the grass. This again was pinned and then tacked down with white thread. Quite a lot of tacking necessary to keep the strips where I wanted them.
I wanted to include a pond in my garden so I've used some Angelina hot fix fibres underneath a blue organza.Garden ponds aren't really blue of course and at the moment it looks like a miniature swimming pool but I hope that as I add surroundings with stitching the idea of water reflecting the blue sky will become more realistic (fingers crossed!).
Around the pond area I've used a cotton with a crackle design which I hope looks like paving and I bonded the shape with fusible web. I must admit my earlier efforts to create a paper pattern for the different shapes has paid off here.
Again I used fusible web and a cotton with a wall design for the rockery, even though I had painted in a rockery to begin with. I think it will look quite realistic when it has hand embroidered plants growing between the stones.I decided not to put any layering over the gravel area in the middle and consequently it's going to need quite a lot of quilting to get the texture needed.
The front of the design is still work in progress. I want it full of flowers as my mother would have done and she loved spring flowers like crocus, violets, primroses and so on. So first of all I painted the background in a variety of greens for foliage but it didn't seem quite right. Then I spent lots of time searching for the right layers to break it up ready for hand stitched flowers. At this point it has two-tone silk strips in a cerise and orange with a purple pink organza between. Currently these are only tacked in place so could be replaced before moving on.
I need to dwell on this and leave it pinned up on my board to think about before quilting over it. I'm not sure this background and these colours will work well with what I've been imagining in my mind, so it's time to step back and consider the options.
In the meantime: here's an image of a layered wall hanging I did some time ago. I started with a photograph of some autumn leaves which had swirled around my front door. I printed the image on to A3 sized fabric and applied it to a silk background. Next I embroidered designs and free machine embroidered around the leaves. I made some free standing 3D leaves and added these as the top layer after making up the silk into a wall hanging.But back to Gertie's Garden: next comes the quilting stage.
I can see that currently it looks more like a seaside scene because it's so barren but I hope that will change as other embellishments play their part and more layers are added.
But first to re-think the foreground and how best to improve the base ready for all those hand stitched flowers.
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