Capturing A Childhood Memory In Cloth

It all began with a fabric find at a garage sale. We were destined to meet. I did not attend the garage sale. A friend told me about it days later and mentioned he thought the lady still had the bag of fabric for only 10 bucks. She and I spoke on the telephone. The next day I met my prize.

The fabric invoked memories of my grandma and I knew immediately it would be a dress for her.  I had this vision of my brother always getting the “switch” for something or the other.  He had to go and get a switch for his on spanking. smile.  He knew not to get the smallest he could find, or grandma would go get the whole tree.  ggggg

I had a graphic from my embroidery design page that I wanted to create in fabric.  It captrued that memory in another medium “embroidery”.  I wanted to re-create the scene in fabric.  I printed the graphic on fabric as well as paper (my pattern) and set out to applique it

click above photo for detail.  I love the primitive look of the zigzag stitching and the raveling of the fabric.  The entire applique will be cut out and placed on a new background I have yet to complete.  In the the following photos I have cut the entire applique out as one piece and am auditioning the applique on different backgrounds.

I love the way the hair turned out.  I found a grahic of braided hair and simply outlined the way braided hair looks with the black marker, directly onto the grey fabric then zig zaged the lines.  Click here for detailed larger view of braids.

I decided something was missing and I knew it was a porch of some kind.

I found the perfect porch graphic and the perfect shanty looking fabric.  In the above phote I am using a black marker to fill in the detail lines I will later quilt.  The background house scene needed more realism so I add fiber net screening.

 I was very pleased with the result.  I still have lots of quilting to do once I decide what the final background will be.  Maybe blue skies…a dog or cat added.  A tree….Yeah…maybe a chinaball tree..My brother was always shooting those chinaballs at us ..Maybe the kid could have a sling shot in his hand.  Maybe that is why he is got that switching..and now is getting some love.  smile…It was a “grandma” rule.  All switching had to be followed by lots of kissing.  I think my brother hated that part most…smile

Please comment and let me know some ideas for the final background….What should I place in the yard?  Chickens?…Please let me know by commenting.

thanks…and please continue to follow this journey.  I plan on finishing this one today.  I shall update this blog tomorrow.

cj