Autumn
Last year I did an online course (Making connections. Mark Layer and stitch) with Cas Holmes and Fibre Arts Take Two. Cas uses wallpaper paste on the fabric instead of a stabiliser when doing machine embroidery. I used this technique at the end of the course to make a sample, which worked out really well, and which was the inspiration for this piece:-
However, this time I thought that as I was doing the freemotion on the background and wadding it would work, but the free motion quilting was so dense that it distorted the background to the point that it would have been very difficult to quilt the rest into submission. So I had to cut out the tree, cobble together a new background from the scraps left, then appliqué the tree to it. At which point I discovered that I hadn't quite caught all the background under the applique and had to apply a little glue in one or two places. The quilting has taken longer than anticipated, as I decided to add seeding to give more texture to the background. It's a little smaller than planned as a result, but despite all the problems, I'm pleased with it. The photo of the sample gives a truer idea of the colours. The weather has been very overcaste here, and not likely to change in the next few days, so I've not been able to get a decent photo. Will I be able to change it later?