Something Completely Different!

As a change from my usual hand stitching on felt, I’ve just completed a special project using machine applique and embroidery. I had recently bought a new sewing machine with accessories for quilting and free motion embroidery. Just after it arrived, a friend commissioned me to  make a cushion, featuring a favourite local scene, as a special birthday gift for a member of her family. Here was a great opportunity to get to know the new machine and try out some new techniques.

Doonshean beach is one of my own favourite places, too. Much walking, swimming, tea-drinking and sandcastle-building has been done there over the years. In the distance across Dingle Bay lies the Iveragh peninsula , and  closer to the beach rises the distinctive rock stack named the Siorrach, which means foal. Marram grass and gorse grow in the dunes above the sand, together with sea holly, meadowsweet, Fuchsia, hawthorn and the naturalized pink roses which my friend asked me to include.

I drew out the basic composition on paper, using a good amount of artist’s license to alter the scale of different elements, such as enlarging the Siorrach to make it more of a feature.

Then I sketched the individual plants and flowers and designed the foreground to include them all.

I began with the sky, cutting wavy strips of fabric and laying them on the backing fabric, overlapping and moving them until I was happy with the composition of colours and prints. I used double sided fusible web to cut out and iron on the detailed shapes of the headland and rocky promontory, and used a piece of lace trim to suggest the foam where the waves lapped the sand.

I stitched all the pieces in place, then added lots more stitching in toning and contrasting threads. The raw edge applique technique means that the edges fray a little, but this seemed to add lively movement to the waves.

This was very much a learning process as I tried out the features of my new sewing machine. I stitched the sky and background hills using only the utility stitches on the machine, but as my confidence grew and I began to add the foliage and flowers in the foreground, I lowered the feed dogs and changed to free motion embroidery, which is trickier as you have less control, but much more satisfying as you can stitch in any direction without needing to raise the presser foot and pivot the fabric.

For the foreground flowers and leaves I used fusible web to apply fabric shapes to the background, then machine embroidered the edges and details. The roses were the most difficult part and I tried various combinations of fabrics, searching through my scraps for anything I could find in shades of pink. Finally I added some hand embroidered details to the flowers.

Once the picture was complete, I cut and stitched strips of fabric to make the border, then added a piped edge and zipped backing to make the cushion cover.

I really enjoyed doing this one-of-a-kind piece, returning to machine applique and embroidery after a long break. It was lovely to dig out and use my quilting fabrics and scraps, most of which are old friends I’ve had stashed away for years. I’m now planning to create some smaller scenes in this style, to make into cards and prints.