I'm so glad that winter is finally over. We had a light turnout at Club this month, but we all had a great time and even learned a little bit.
We showcased the incredible work of Kathy T. a.k.a., the Fish Lady (because she is so well known for her seascapes). She expertly incorporates all of her talents like painting, hand embroidery, free motion quilting, thread painting, scrapbooking skills in her art. If you are looking at the Show and Tell photos, then scroll down to the bottom of this blog entry. Now let's start with the lesson on constructing a landscape.
Last month, we learned how to plan a landscape by selecting the embroidery designs first and scaling the landscape and elements of the landscape to the background. Now it comes to constructing the landscape after you have a plan of actions. Don't be too upset that the finished project looks very different from what you initially planned. Art has a mind of it's own, so just roll with the flow and I'll bet that you will be pleasantly surprised with the finished product.
Let's take a look at Kathy's work and analyse how it was constructed. The first work that we will look at is the farm scene below.
When constructing landscapes, start with the part that is farthest away from the viewer. In this case, Kathy started with the sky. She then appliqued the purple mountains onto the sky. She hooped the fabric and embroidered the horse and the moose directly onto the fabric. She also added decorative stitches to the mountains. Next she applique'd green grass area, leaving a space for the stone wall and the sidewalk. She added couched yarns, appliques for the mud, the field, the sidewalk, the stone wall, and the garden. Some of the embroideries are stitched directly on the background fabric and some were hooped separately, carefully cut out and machine appliqued to the scene. You'll have to look close to see them. Note that the moose embroidery is partially covered by the wall and many of the animals span across two appliques. The borders were also appliqued and embellished with several of her machine's decorative stitches. She also embellished her landscape with couched ribbon, buttons, yarn, and even 3D eggs from the floral department of a craft store (in the lower right hand corner). Although this piece was quilted, it is mounted to a canvas frame just like a painting.
This seacape was also started with the top background sea. She used organza to change the look of the sky to transition from the sky to the surface of the sea. Some of the embroideries were stitched on the background fabric and others were stitch separately and appliqued to the scene later. Some of the embroideries were stuffed to give them a 3D look. Other embroideries (like the sea lion) was stitched twice (one was mirror imaged) on a separate hoop, stuffed and sewn together just like a stuffed toy and affixed to the background. Look behind the sea lion to see a third embroidery in muted colors to look like a shadow. In the sea area, organza and bridal tuling give it a shimmering look and make some of the embroideries appear farther under the water than others. Although you can't see it, but the two scuba divers are actually affixed to clear plastic cording on top of the piece and wiggle like they are actually swimming. She used freemotion quilting and decorative stitches to add texture and movement to the piece. The piece was finally mounted on a painting canvas frame.
This piece was created to commemorate a family tree. It contains embroideries, thread painting, appliqued photo transfer appliques of family members. Take particular note of the tree. The trunk has appliqued fabric and then was heavily thread painted using free motion stitching. The tree leaves are made of fabric snippets and then simply glued in place. The flowers along the bottom were stitched separately on washaway stabilizer and then glued or stitched into place. Now look at the bottom of the piece below.
You can see tiny photos of family members under the glass flat marbles. The marbles magnify the image and are glued onto the background. She says that there is plenty of room to add photos as the family grows. Free motion quilting and decorative stiches add texture and details to this piece. Again, this piece is mounted on painters canvas.
Here is another of Kathy's famous seascapes. She has a lot of three dimentional fish appliqued on top of the organza and her hand painted background fabric. The fish were stitched off hoop with fabric both above and below the stabilizer and embellished with decorative stitches, beads, sequins and thread painting. The kelp and seaweed are made up crocheted and knitted yarn. Look closely at this mounted piece. It has so many details that I can't begin to describe them all.
This small piece that is mounted to a painter's canvas frame came from a photo that is printed on photo transfer fabric three times. First for the background, and then it was tread painted and painted with fabric markers to bring out the details. The second photo fabric is the vase that was carefully cut out, embellished with thread painting, appliqued to the background, and stuffed for a 3D effect. The third printing is the foreground element that are also embellished. Yarn was glued all along the edge to frame the piece.
She also brought two fabulous quilts that the photo's didn't come out. One of them was a spectacular large seascape that even had a treasure chest with jewels. Another was a desert scene with a road going through it. It had all kinds of wild animals embroidered on it. In fact, the road had a magnetic strip sewn into it and freestanding animals and jeeps with magnets on the back to be placed where ever the viewer wishes them to be. Perfect for a kid!
I think that you will agree that Kathy's work is wonderful and innovative. I really thank her from the bottom of my heart for letting me use her work to finish up our landscape series.
Now for the show and tell portion of the blog. Our ladies have, once again, shown us how Southern Maryland had some of the most talented embroiderers around.
Be sure to come to club next month as our topic will be Pockets, Pockets, Pockets.
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