Little Bits.....: 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.