How I Create Thread Painted Fiber Art Christmas Cards
Every year I create a special Christmas card with a new design. This time I took lots of photos of the work in progress. This is the perfect way do demonstrate my thread painting process on a simple project.
FIBER TECHNIQUES
I start by laying out the sky. These are tiny little pieces of fabric. I have attached a heat activated glue (Wonder Under) to the back of the fabric before cutting. Then I use my mini iron to attach the pieces to some heavy interfacing.
After stitching the sky, I lay out the snow fabrics. The video shows this process. The sky is stitched with a lot of thread with a long stitch. The stitching blends the different color fabrics together much like a painter blends paints on a canvas.
The snow is stitched using the free motion foot. That means I can more easily control the placement of the stitches to follow the curves of the snow banks.
Next is the tree. First the tree trunk is stitched down. Then I iron the green fabric for the basic tree shape. I use a green thread and free motion work to get the look of pine needles.
Here's what the back looks like so you can see all the stitching.
Lastly I glue the artwork onto card stock, trim off the excess, add my label, and sign and number the cards. And now they're ready to go out in the mail.