Free Motion Applique

I was at the library the other day and picked up this interesting looking book.

It's a beautifully presented book that totally lurred me into having a go at an embroidery technique called 'sketching'.

Sorry about the blurry pic!

This technique is everywhere in blogland at the moment, and I love the naive & imperfect look of it.

So today, with the torrential rain and thunder banging outiside, I thought I'd have a go.

In the book, the author uses an embroidery hoop.  I find mine tricky to use on the Pfaff, and actually not that freeing!

Practising with random squiggles & shapes!

So for me, a different approach was needed.  

I grabbed the first scraps that came to hand, and diverted from the book slightly by introducing some trusty bondaweb and ditching the hoop, and ended up with this!

Essentially, this is drawing and colouring in, only using your sewing machine as the pencil & felt tip pen.

The idea is not to have perfectly formed stitches or lines so that the 'sketchy' look is achieved.

From the back

As an experiment I'm quite pleased with it.  

While the bondaweb holds the fabric in place, I'm not so keen on the 'neatness' it offers, and would prefer a softer, more organic look, as in the book.  However I will practise more with different techniques until I'm happy with the look I'm after. 

I don't know yet how easily quilting could be incorporated, but I'll keep playing around with some ideas & see what happens.

Happy Thursday everyone!