The Tree of Life
I had heard of the Shakers before but never really looked into the story of their history. They originated from the English Quakers and Methodists and founded the movement in 1774 in Maine, North America. Their maxim in life was: Hands to work, Hearts to God. As both men and women practiced extreme celibacy, they have all but died out.
Their ‘Tree of Life’ appealed to me, depicting a very austere, simplistic and no frills craft work. I used a Seed cloth for my background fabric, then with the batting behind, I cross-hatched a few lines using a variegated thread. I couldn’t resist putting a few beads between the tacked lines of the background, deviating from the Shaker lack of ostentatious embellishment. Using cut-off quilt edging fabric I created the fruit with buttonhole stitching around the edges. The leaves are from Felt attached with a simple stem stitch. Trying not to distract from the whole, I made a pale coloured, narrow edge around the piece.
All in all, an interesting challenge for me as I’m inclined to prefer a more ‘textured’ or 3-D effect for our group pieces.
Allison