Making textile cards

 My husband took this photo as he thought it looked as if the artist was just called away as I am sure I was by you know who!

Love, love, love free motion stitching on these 4 1/2" X 6 1/2" handpainted (with dye) fabrics. There is freedom in working on small works of art. The process hones my skills in identifying the important lines to add in stitching to depict what I see in each piece. SIMPLIFY!

Do I have an idea before I start painting the fabric? Well... sometimes yes and sometimes I am only thinking of lying down colour combinations. After the dyed fabric is washed and ironed I use the view finder you can see in the left of the photo to find a pleasing start to a composition. Then heavy interfacing is ironed onto the back of the selected fabric.

This next step can take some time and having several pieces ready at once allows me options in choosing one that I can readily see what I want to add to it in stitching. Other pieces may take days of looking at. The idea for the kite flyer came from my fellow art quilter Sharon Durden.  Thank you Sharon.