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Karoda’s comment and Leaf Sampler Stitched

I finished the stitching on the leaf sampler yesterday, and hope to quilt it today. In the meantime I took some photos. But, to begin with giving credit where credit is due, I got this idea from Jane Sassaman. She brought a 16-leaf sampler (and drat it all, it was so wonderful I couldn’t think of anything else subject wise that would work as well for a class sample, but at least I made two leaf shapes, both my own, and used my own colors and stitches without reference to hers!) to a class, then I later discovered that a few of her leaves are in her book, the Quilted Garden, on page 121.

Karoda mentioned that she could use a class in the decorative stitches….so I sent her this reply:

Ooooh goodie….that must mean I’ve picked a good subject! The (earlier) post was a quickie, and I intend to get a better photo and some closeups to show the differences. I’m actually thinking of a book proposal…who knows, maybe in 2 years I’ll have a book on it LOL!

Oh…and the answer is play. Pick a simple shape…a leaf, a circle, a trapezoid, whatever floats your boat. Use fabrics with high contrast, and use the same fabric combination for all of them….every single one of these is the same magenta stem and green batik. They look mighty different once you add thread, eh?

Then use stabilizer (I used freezer paper, but on some of the more openwork stitches you get paper left underneath), and go to town with all your various threads. For a class sample, I don’t mind the paper but for a “real” piece, I’d probably use a tear-away or a washable (the papery kind, not the see-through, which is kinda grabby when on the bottom of the fabric).

Just fuse up 9 or 16 samples, and try different combinations. 16 may be a bit much / boring, but a nice “nine-patch” will give you an idea how dramatically different stitches and thread can make a leaf (or whatever) look….

To get the freezer paper off, spritz with water bottle (or daub with sponge paintbrush along stitching lines), let it sit a few minutes, peel paper away (if need be, pinch stitching between fingers on the really lacy stitches so they don’t pull), and iron dry. If using poly threads, iron from the back to minimize the possibility of melting your threads with the hot iron. Or use a press cloth. From the back doesn’t require *finding* the press cloth LOL!

Here are some close-ups of a few of the leaves. I don’t necessarily like all the options I did, but I wanted to illustrate how different the leaves can look depending on the stitch and thread color chosen—heck, I only used Superior Threads 40-wt. trilobal polyester (the Highlights, Rainbows, and Hollis Chatelain lines) threads. Imagine if I’d added cotton, matte poly, metallic…etc!

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