Applique Tree

A different background for your little house could be an applique tree fused in position and then enhanced with either hand or machine embroidery.  I have found a simple little tree on line from a website called www.WeeFolkArt.com and there you will see a whole list of free applique designs.  Although these have been developed to use with felted wool they work equally well will cotton and Bondaweb. I will bring this design with me on Sunday 6th so if you want to copy it please bring a small amount of Bondaweb.




 Here is a little house ready to have a background added to it.




First decide on the fabric for your garden and add a piece of garden  below a piece of sky ready to receive your little tree.  Then attach this to the side of the house block.





Now stitch your garden to the bottom of the house block, sloping if you like.   You now have a canvas to add your background, whatever you choose.  In this case we are going to add an appliqued tree.

Trace the shape of the foliage and the trunk on to the paper side of the Bondaweb.  Cut around the shape roughly at this point.

Iron the glue side of the Bondaweb on to the wrong side of the fabric and then cut out the shapes properly.

Before gluing them down audition them on the block to decide the best position. 

 At this point perhaps you may find that two trees would be an asset.  Or you may think that the trunk and branches should have been reversed so that they lean in the other direction.  If this is the case you must reverse the design when drawing it on to the Bondaweb.

In these photos the tree has not been fused to the background yet and when it is I will be adding some embroidery around the edges, either on the sewing machine or by hand.

In fact I am looking forward to adding embellishments to this little house and some of the others in order to give them more personality

We need about nine houses for the full quilt so this gives lots of opportunity for artistic licence in our colours, design and background details.