Trees - A Workshop - EVERGREENS

I've been a bit rudderless this last month helping my I.T. guy and soulmate navigate the medical system. He experienced a cardiac event early last month and its been a bit of a roller coaster ride in our household.

Medical appointments are keeping me unfocused. I chose to stay home and forgo what had been becoming a yearly retreat with my quilting friends in Algonquin Park each late summer. The cat quilt went to an RN friend who has been helping hubby cope with the uncertainty of all this.

I've been trying to focus on some new art. It's not going well.

But it was proposed that I give a TREE workshop to some of my friends in September. The prospect is rather exciting so I'm now trying to focus on that. The art will happen when it happens.

I decided to make some samples that people can examine. Putting them on stark white allows the technique and the stitching to be highlighted.
(Sorry I can't rotate the picture....nasty Windows 10..  I'll remember when I take more pictures.)

I decided to start with Evergreens.
The first thing I assembled was a sampling of raw applique and some "cheater fabric" use.

The next piece is a composite. Half this "typical "evergreen is stitched with free motion and half with a zigzag stitch. They both have merits.

And this last "page" is an selection of tiny landscape application. None of these trees are over an inch in height. The trees get slightly larger as they move forward and more detail is necessary.


A few more "tiny" ones.
This first one at the far left is simply ragged stitches moving in an irregular pattern, ie. no pattern with a general idea of evergreen shape. Omly the "point" defines the shape. This gives a more open appearance.
The one on the right is stitched in a similar motion over a fragment of needle felted wool.

Also on the same sample page, continuing along the "hill", on the far right, a thin piece of green material was placed along the line and trees stitched over. Again, it's really only the tips of the trees that are important here. This can be very loose and minimal. Underneath that line, loose irregular trees are stitched in two colours. They are spaced further apart and the different colours are stitched between. This adds more character and depth.