One of the ladies in our local quilt guild handed out a pattern for an applique block. I don't do applique - it's just not fun or satisfying enough for me. I could have passed on making the block but it occurred to me I might be able to render it in embroidery.
Keep in mind that I'm still fairly new and inexperienced at transferring designs for embroidery. I simply taped this pattern and my fabric to a window and traced it off with a lead pencil. Then I layered it with a piece of muslin and started stitching. I didn't plan much of anything out beforehand. I just wanted to see what would happen.
I took the opportunity to use some of the new floss I've purchased from Nancy at Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe. I'm also experimenting with embroidery stitches.
I couldn't quite figure out how to manage the whole wheel so I just dropped the side panel of the trailer over the tire. Hope they never have to change it! It was fun to do the woven stitches for the hubcap. The tire itself is two passes of herringbone stitches.
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| The vertical stripes were created by stacking two passes of blanket stitches. |
My original thought was to decorate the exterior of this caravan as if it had been painted by hippies in the 1960's. It's looking just a bit more traditional now. I might still try to do something wild on the upper section. ;- ) I'm accustomed to fussy-cutting images for details when I make quilt blocks. The windows have me a bit stymied at the moment for that reason. What I'd really like to do is use French knots to create bobble fringe on at least one set of curtains. Just have to decide what type of curtains to put in my trailer!
Of course, the further along I get with this the more ideas I have for variations of the pattern. If you know me well you won't be surprised to learn that I'm thinking that door could easily be shaped like the top of a coffin. It might be fun to embroider this in a light monochromatic scheme on a dark fabric... :D
I like it,and all those different stitches add to it being a real sweet design.
ReplyDeleteI think you definitely need to fill up that window! A cat, a dangly something, a vase of flowers, those bobbly curtains... as for how to decorate the top half, take a look here!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.casitaclub.com/forums/topic/24074-new-old-kid-in-town.
Caravans seem to be cropping up everywhere these days!
ReplyDeleteIf I remember my childhood holidays correctly - caravans always had the cheapest, gaudiest curtains possible - you could go wild!
I love your little trailer! Especially the trim around the door. And I can totally see where all the possibilities could lead you to a series of trailers. A Happy Trails quilt?
ReplyDeleteIngenious..... and I love it so much.
ReplyDeleteIt is such a cute little caravan that I want to hook it up to the car and go wandering. Curtains would be great, but maybe they could be stripy blinds, with bobbles on the bottom.And I bet that when you have finished them you decide the upper part of the van needs a riot of decoration too 😊
ReplyDeleteThis is a great idea! Your caravan is so good looking!!!!
ReplyDeleteThat is a great variation. Dropping the edge of the trailer actually makes it look more like the really old trailers. =) Your stitch choices are terrific, too. That's how I still do most of my tracing, even with the light box. It's always available in the daytime, and if you can get snow on your TV, you can use that at night. Snow or the blue screen of death. LOL
ReplyDelete