Little Imp's Feature Wall Finally Complete

From this:

To this:

Little Imp's Feature wall is complete!

 It has taken a while but it has been fun & I've learned a whole lot along the way.  Thank you also to others who have also added to the wall - the leaves, the dyed silk, the button bird, painted elephant and Winnie the Pooh prints. xx

Another Frame for Little Imp

There has been a long delay since I last worked on filling the final picture frames for Little Imp's feature wall.  The latest idea for one of these was thought up after last week's sewing lesson with Trish where we discussed using Kantha stitches to create patterns and designs in fabric.  I'd never heard of Kantha before, but now know that Kantha stitch is 'simply' running stitch that is used in different arrangements to make patterns on the fabric.  I will not try to pass off what I have done as anything as beautiful or delicate as what you will find if you do a search on traditional Kantha stitch, but this is my version.  My rows of running stitch 'paste' strips of material, some new, some scraps & one piece of vintage sequined something onto a piece of calico.  Some of the rows of blue stitching I used to add sequins & beads as well.  

Two more Little Birds

Two little birds from felt perching on some wonky strips of fun print fabrics. Another picture frame completed for Little Imp's Feature wall.

Basic 'how to'
To help with piecing the strips together given they were quite skinny I tried a trick of stitching them together with paper underneath to get the positioning right.  It seemed to help with lining them all up the way I wanted.

I drew the sewing lines on the paper and cut each strip slightly wider to give a seam allowance.  I wanted to keep the top pinked edge of each strip raw and visible, so just stitched each strip directly onto the next right sides up (rather than stitching wrong sides together and pressing out flat).  Once all the strips were sewn together I turned the whole lot over & tore off the paper.  Easy done.

Then two little birds were cut out of felt & ironed in place with some 'heat-and-bond' to stick them down.

Hot air balloons...and some more owls

Little Imp's feature wall gets busier.

I hung all of the frames I have finished so far yesterday afternoon and this morning I received the payoff when Little Imp stood up in her cot and saw the designs coming together on her wall.
'Wow' she exclaimed, with the enthusiasm only a 21-month-old can muster at that time of the morning!

The Hot Air Balloons frame is an embroidery I did years ago (1993 according to the date on the back).  I used a design from a library book, but no idea who to credit it to.  Anyhow, it fits perfectly in one of the frames I have for Little Imp's feature wall, so in it goes!

The balloons, clouds and landscape were embroidered onto calico that I had dyed blue and then I remember using mum's water colour paints to extend the scene onto the white cardboard frame.  A long time ago...

And some more owls....

Appleville

Another two frames completed for Little Imp's feature wall.

The main print fabrics used for both of these is from a Robert Kaufman collection by Suzie Ultman called Appleville. Cute apple faces and rows of houses.  My designs are inspired in part by some of the other fabric prints in this same collection.  3 apple picking girls in little felt dresses with apple picking pockets and 3 little houses under an apple tree surrounded by free motion flowers.

Two little birds

The next installment for Little Imp's feature wall.  Two Little Birds.

Mini quilt - in a frame

I've finished the first frame for Little Imp's feature wall!

I wanted to combine some of the sewing techniques I have been playing with and practicing over the last year or so, quilting, free motion embroidery, applique.  This is how it turned out.  As you can see, I'm still getting mileage out of one of my favourite fabrics - an owl print I've used to make many owl baby grows already, and a number of the other owls are earmarked for other frames already.  So there will be more!

I'm not sure that this is truly a 'mini-quilt', but the background has the look of lots of tiny pieces of fabric being pieced together like a quilt.  To achieve the haphazard layered look I cheated a bit by ironing my little bits of fabric onto a pre-cut piece of heat-and-bond, including the owls.

The pieced fabric 'sheet' before being ironed onto the aqua backing fabric

Then for some free motion embroidery.  Haphazard stitching around each little piece of fabric, sometimes going around more than once to reach the next section.  This is what the back looked like.  Almost tempted to frame this, I do like geometry designs.

And here are some close ups of the design detail.

Tree positioned just so Mrs Owl can perch on her branch

An appliqued tree and leaves, edged with free form stitching and some little flowers. 

Some free form flowers embellished with  buttons

Not all of the pictures for Little Imp's feature wall frames are going to be this detailed.  But it actually didn't take too long to make once I had worked out the design & how I would put it all together.  One picture frame down....