Improvised Applique

As soon as this month’s Improvi-Robin WIP went up on my design wall I had an idea for what to do with it. Here’s what I received from Abby (you can see the evolution at the IR flickr group):

To me those random wonky log cabin blocks look like little village huts. The colors in this one appealed to me, because I have lots of greens and orange/browns in the stash. But after pulling a big stack of fabrics, I ended up using only two, an orange-green oversized leafy abstract (“Jungle Burst” by Alexander Henry) and a forest green batik:

Size at this stage is roughly 36″ square. The leaves are machine appliqued. I cut squares of Wonder Under and drew some free-hand jungly leaves on the paper side, then fused to the batik and cut out the leaves. Peeled the paper off and played around with positions, then fused the leaves to the WIP right there on the design wall, then used a green thread and narrow zigzag all around the edges.

In an ideal world the leaves would stand out a little more against the side/bottom panels added, but they accomplish my intention of inhabiting some of the “blank” space and softening the seam line between the side/bottom panels and the ivory background. You can see in this pic that the ivory is wonderful, with a subtle almost-alligator-hide shading to it.

This one was a lot of fun (and quick to do!), and I’m sorry to see it go. I’ve liked having it up in the studio for a few weeks. It’s on its way to Jackie now… for one last round before returning to Miki for finishing.

Tagged as: applique leaf, machine applique