Monday 19 October 2015

Election Day in Canada - Maple Leaf





Today is our National Election day and I think most of Canada would like to oust our current government. We won't know the results until the wee small hours so for most of us, that will be tomorrow.


To celebrate the occasion I decided to thread paint a Maple Leaf, our beloved symbol of Canada.

Where I had done the birds and bears on a thin poly, I thought I would try once again using the wash away stabilizer. This is a solid piece so I figured it would be fine. And it was.

I used three weights of thread with this, primarily because of colour choice. And as I broke a needle midway, two different sized needles. I started with a quilting needle and switched to a top stitching needle. It really didn't seems to make any difference for this .




After tracing a leaf onto the stabilizer, I stitched in the main veins.
First colour pass was yellow.



Second and third passes were two shades of orange.




The first red.



There is a second red here. They are different brands but appeared to be different shades. However the second doesn't seem to stand out very much at all. Oh well.

Notice on the right side of the leaf, the tip has torn away from the rest of the stabilizer. This was  the only problem I had using it. But the next picture shows how I fixed it.



By running the thread first at the corner, out about half an inch, it prevents the stabilzier from separating from the main hooped portion. This is not intrinsic to the leaf so these little tips can be cut away.

The last red, the third, finished this leaf. Start to finish it took about 2.5 hours.



There is no sheen to this, or any nuance of colour as these were not embroidery threads.
As the stabilizer is really nothing substantial, the whole thing is locked together only by the over lapping of the threads.

A nice bright red thread to anchor it on a background or on a piece of clothing, a few passes through the body of the leaf to secure it and  it will stand up just a well as the commercial patches.

( ps. I voted earlier, last weekend.)

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