I had the idea of creating a wall hanging with a Large Blue Heron for many years. I bought the Heron design in 2008 and he flapped around in my head until the Fall of 2014!
I knew he would have to be Free Standing in order to give me the freedom to ‘land’ him in his chosen spot! And because of that, I had to stitch the background completely before I could stitch him in place.
I stitched him on organza sandwiched between 2 layers of WSS. Then as his layers stitched out, I continually added more organza for texture.
The green background is made with 7 different Batik fabrics, cut into 2 ½ inch strips of random lengths. These were sewn short ends together until I had a very long strip. I cut the strip horizontally in half and stitched the 2 pieces side by side length wise; cut it in half again and continued stitching and cutting until I had a good sized rectangle. Then I cut this rectangle into 2 ½ inch strips on the diagonal and repeated the previous process all over again. This way I created a very richly textured background.
I did the same with the blues for the water, except I cut them in 2 inch strips.
When I had finished both, I sewed them together. The whole piece was carefully Free Motioned. This was a difficult process because of the great number of seams. (Lots of broken needles here!)
The joined edge between green and water was ‘smoothed out’ with silk roving covered with fine tulle and Free Motioned in place.
The log is one piece of fabric fused in place. However, it did not fuse completely, giving the log lots of depth! A very Happy Mistake! The log’s watery edge was ‘smoothed out’ with pieces of fine yarn, covered in fine tulle and Free Motioned in place.
I trimmed away as much of the tulle as I could.
It was now time for the reeds. Their shapes were cut and then fused together with a piece of fine wire between each layer. This gave me the opportunity to position them as I pleased, once they had been stitched in place. I embellished them with Oil Pastel Paints helping them stand out from the background color.
Finally the Heron landed on his log and was tacked in place with nylon thread.
I chose to bind this piece instead of adding borders. I did not want to detract from the focal point—the Heron!
I’m speechless June!!! Thank you so much for such great detailed info on how you created this beautiful wall hanging. You’ve made me want to touch and feel it and look at every detail….Suz
Just a thought – I’ve been working with the Dupioni Silk a lot making up Silk Packs for m ETSY shop. There are always scraps and I wonder how a background of silk pieces done with your method would look. Just a thought, but with the way the silk shimmers and shifts colors, this might make a very unusual background!
