Valentine Preview

 Spread the Love

hand dyed, commercial and wool fabric

machine pieced and free motion stitching

hand embroidery

9" x 12"

© 2011 Lisa Flowers Ross

I've now finished my second piece of the year.  This is the piece that I will be donating to Flying M's Valentine for Aids auction.  The free motion stitching is reminiscent of handwriting.  I wanted it to look like handwriting, but not be readable.  As I was stitching, I did use love quotes and poems but made it very messy and also did some lines upside down.  Even I can't recognize the majority of the words now.

I decided to finish this piece a little differently than usual.  I wanted to try using a pre-stretched canvas. I've seen several different ways other people have mounted their pieces on canvas.

I purchased one at the store in the size I wanted the finished piece to be.  Before I did the quilting, I lightly traced the canvas frame on the back of the work where I wanted the edges to end up.  Then I cut a piece of batting to the same size.  I placed the batting within the drawn lines, pinned and then quilted.  I did this so that there would be no quilting or extra bulk on the side edges.

Before finishing, I chose to remove the canvas from the stretchers bars. When I was done quilting and hand stitching, I aligned the piece on top.  The next step was to pull the fabric to the back and stretch it just like a regular canvas.  The raw edges also got folded under to make it neater.  I purposely left the back exposed because I like the idea of being able to see some of the stitching which we usually so carefully try to hide.

After stretching the piece, I tinted the edges with an oil paint stick and brush to give it more depth and make it look more "old fashioned" or more like a yellowing letter. All that's needed now are some hangers attached and a label.  I like how it turned out.