Thursday, February 25, 2010

How to make a Landscape

The first thing you will have to purchase, if you don't already have some, is a good stabilizer.  This is your base for all landscapes. 

I use a product called Fast-2-Fuse.  It is fusible from both sides and it isn't bulky even though it is called heavyweight. I buy it by the metre from Sewing Machines, etc., in Burlington.
As you can see I work with an applique pressing sheet underneath.  This product is fusible from both sides and it will adhere to your ironing board if you don't use the sheet.
TIP:  Always cut the stabilizer larger than what you want your finished landscape to be.
I start with the sky -- always!  This is going to be a winter scene and it is a bright day.  Take a look around and see the difference in the skies even from summer to winter.  Winter skies are usually brighter, crisper looking than the summer sky that could be a bit more hazy.

I found the snow fabric I wanted to use.  It is kind of sparkly like you would find on a sunny day.  It is the same fabric just cut in different places on the fat quarter. I wanted drifts of snow and to accomplish this I took out some Thermore (which is a thin batting).  I cut a strip of fusible web and pressed it onto the batting.  Then I put the fabric on.  Each piece of fabric I used I pressed fusible web to the back. Although it doesn't show up very well on here, I did cut the "snow" so that it made three hills.  I added a pond in a different colour of blue.  Then I got to take it all to my sewing machine and start to "play".


Does the thread work?  Sometimes you have to pull a lot of thread off a spool and "puddle" it on your piece of work.  I tried three different blues before I was happy with the final one.  It may look perfect on the spool but it doesn't do a thing when you sew it.  It is easier to puddle than it is to "reverse stitch".  Once you have stitched through fusible web it will leave a hole and that hole is really hard to remove.






I added trees and grasses around the pond.  See my little stash of threads there?  I keep them all together until the piece is finished.  Just in case, I want to go back and use one of them again.  The majority of the thread I use is just Gutermann.  I have Sulky thread, but there are times I just don't like the
"shinyness" of it.
This is all free motion work.  I stitched lines in the hills and added blue to the sky.  I made marks in the ice.  I added snow to the trees.
I add what I like where I like.  Its my landscape............well, this one isn't............its for a friend that wants snow!  This is the best I can do.When I'm finished I put a mat around it.  Oh, one thing more.  I do put a backing on it.  Just a piece of fabric pressed to it.  It covers up all the threads.  I also put a label on.
I glue the mat right to the landscape.  White glue.  I use Aleene's tacky glue and I find it at Michaels.
If you ever have the opportunity to take a landscape workshop, take it!  It is really the most fun you will ever have. 

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