Category: Wall Hanging

Sr. Kateri’s Entry for one of our Freebie Contests

I am a Catholic sister who makes vestments for my order and I acquired
my first embroidery machine this July so I could embroider little
crosses on our habits and such. I immediately began scouring the
internet for patterns and lucked onto the BFC site. So many beautiful
designs; just add thread and time and wait for the beauty to emerge! As
I collected the freebies on the site, I began thinking how Fred’s
designs represented all God’s creation so well. And, as you know, God is
everything to us sisters. I immediately made a list of the religious
designs I would like to acquire someday, and when I saw the freebie
contest, I knew I had to enter because it represented my chance to
obtain those designs. I went through my downloaded files to find the
“Give Thanks” freebie that started it all and thought of building a set
of placemats around that idea. Then, as I looked at the animals again, I
decided to embroider part of the Book of Genesis as a wall hanging for
one of our prayer areas.
In keeping with our vow of poverty, I cut up one of our winter habits
to obtain the fabric so it was a nearly bulletproof heavy black fabric.
In hindsight, black was not the best choice because the outlines had to
be changed from black to other colors so they could be seen and
photographing the final product was nearly impossible, especially given
the poor lighting in our sisters’ residence. Also due to that vow of
poverty, I had to alter many of the designs because I have fewer than 10
colors of thread. I obtained the vast majority of those during that
fabulous BFC sale a couple weeks ago. So, this really is a BFC design in
many ways.
In the end, I used eight picture graphics (to represent sea creatures,
winged birds, wild animals, livestock, man, woman, edible plants and
tree-born fruit), a frame, a scroll, and three elements combined and
moved around to make custom frames. A freebie Byzantine quilting block
was transformed into a frame around two of the graphics because it
resembled a cross and I wanted that imagery present in the panel even
though it is based on the Old Testament. A freebie crewel element was
shrunk and mirrored to become a frame for the cardinal and radishes. A
freebie Art Nouveau element became a frame for the tiger and Eve. Two
angels became Adam and Eve. There was plenty of graphics to choose from
to represent the text I included from five Genesis scriptures (1:21,
1:25, 1:27, 1:29, and 1:31). My superior is rather bemused with the
final product and happy this contest motivated me to create it. Now, I
submit it for consideration.

I LOVE BOTH YOUR ENTRIES AND YOUR NARRATIVE!!!  People will love reading about you and your projects 🙂  Suz

June’s Heron

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!

BFC0712 Large Blue Heron

Marge’s 3 Little Children

Attached is my entry in the contest.  I love these 3 kids and when I was about their age we had a little black and white dog.  I think that was one of the reasons I bought this.  The little girl in the red dress is a close second.

Great picture Marge – I bet a lot of people could identify with the 3 kids:)  No one did Christmas like Fred did 🙂   Suz

BFC1079 Window-The Night Before Christmas

 

Sandra’s Nativity

I want to thank you  for giving us so many designs that when done  they are breath taking.   I have showed this one to  so many people  They cannot believe  it was done on a sewing machine, also  this was the very first large  machine embroidery design and to be honest I thought it would be  more than I could do I almost didn’t do it  just because I was not a seasoned embroiderer.  I am so glad I did.  I get so much praise on this design. I have the last supper  but when I purchased it I did not realize I couldn’t do it  my machine will only go up to 100 color changes  it also would not let me split the design so please ask Fred  if he could possible  work on that  I know so many ladies that would purchase it.
Thank  everyone for all they do  we are truly blessed to get  the quality we get.  My all of you have a Blessed New Year
Sandra

Beautiful Job Sandra 🙂  thanks for sharing with us…Suz

BFC0495 Window-The Nativity

Karen’s Freebie Fantasy Island

My name is Karen and the name of my design is (Fantasy Inland) The embellishments, Angelina Fiber, and Embroidery Glitter. All came from BFC-Creations.  I wanted to put the sail boat in so I made a bridge for it.  New Ideas came as I went along. I used cotton fabric.  The sun was actually a freebie of the moon.  I put embroidery glitter in the design and made it the sun.  So many things a person can do with these grand free designs.

Fantastic Karen!  Love how you used so many different things!   Suz

Carol’s Freebie Floral Picture

Hi Suz, here is my entry for your current competition.
Thanks so much for running these, they are so much fun.
Carol

Description
Vase of flowers using lots of freebies, embroidered on muslin for an antique
look.
I used some left over lace pieces from my daughter in laws wedding gown for
the corners just to enhance the embroidery.
I framed it using foamboard and a frame picked up in a sale a few years ago.

WOW! – very impressive Carol!   Suz

Martha’s Wisteria Picture

I wish to submit the following for consideration in the Quilting Contest you are sponsoring on the Yahoo Group. The work is “Wisteria” using BFC890 by the same name. This was embroidered on white cotton (Kona cotton from Robert Kaufman). It was finished with a purple batik for the borders, backing and binding. I also added a layer of DreamPoly as batting. There was light quilting with black thread at the borders of each embroidery block and around the final embroidery boundary and also light quilting of the final border to hold all layers together.

Unfortunately I no longer have this piece. It was donated to our local St. Vincent de Paul Society for their 150th Anniversary Gala for a silent auction which was two days after I finished the piece. I was lucky to get a good picture of it first! I’m going to have to stitch this one out again so I have one for myself (if I don’t donate that one to someone else).

I hope you eventually were able to do one of these for yourself martha – you did a gorgeous job!   Suz

 

Donna’s Under the Sea Wall Hanging

Hi, This  is my Under the Sea Wall Hanging. I used designs from your Under the Sea Designs. I loved doing this and want to do another. I even have the background fabrics pieced together and want to use some of the other under the sea designs I purchased from you. I used mostly batiks for the background and other kinds of fabrics for the appliqué. I also used some fuzzy yarns and real shells for embellishments.

I think I like yours better than mine Donna!  LOL Great job.  Suz

 

Art Quilt – Undersea Fantasy