Fall is definitely my favorite season. I love crisper weather, the apples, the impossibly blue skies, and the leaves. I can’t get enough of those fall leaves! Every fall, I collect and paint leaves. This year I decided I’m going to try something a little different; embroidering the fall leaves!
I am going to experiment a little here and see how it goes.
First, I gathered some fall leaves in a variety of shapes and colors.
Next, I added some Pellon stick and tear stabilizer to the back of the leaf to make it more sturdy for stitching. I was also hoping it would help to prevent the leaf from curling when it started to dry.
After I attached the leaf onto the stabilizer I cut around the leaf and I added some freehand embroidery of some cute little bugs on the first two leaves, then I added some veins in BACKSTITCH on the third leaf plus some edging around one side. I really loved the results.
But fast forward a day or two…………
The leaves began to curl and shrivel. I still liked them but next I wanted to try to preserve them by ironing them between wax paper.
I collected some new leaves. I placed a towel on my ironing board, then two sheets of wax paper with the leaves in between the two sheets.
I put some paper towels down on top of the wax paper and ironed using a medium heat for a couple of minutes. I flipped the wax paper over and ironed the other side for a couple of minutes.
Here is what I ended up with. You couldn’t see the glossiness of the wax on the leaf at all. They were very brittle so I, again, added the stabilizer to the back of each leaf and VERY CAREFULLY added stitches. I had to be very gentle so the leaf did not crumble.
I strung them on a piece of thread and hung them in the bathroom. I kind of liked the rustic look of them but they were really difficult to work with because they were so brittle. I was wondering if dipping them in paraffin or bees wax would make them a little more pliable but still preserve them. Then it SNOWED and temporarily ruined my fun. Foiled again by Colorado October snow!!!!!!
I remembered I had some fake decorative leaves so I gave that a stab.
Above are the pens I like to use. I always have a handful of these around because I LOVE them.
Above I used SATIN STITCH in the negative space surrounding my letter stencil for a cool monogram.
Pictured above I just used one color and followed the lines of the veins. I made some clusters of FRENCH KNOTS as well as BACKSTITCH and RUNNING STITCH.
Above, I used some variegated thread to create some designs using the SATIN STITCH and RUNNING STITCH.
Here, just some random stitch work in lovely fall colors. This is such a fun way to practice your stitches and zone out.
Guess I’ll have to wait for the snow or for next year’s new batch of leaves to try the wax dipping method.
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Thanks for visiting.
Warmly,
Pam