A Challenge with Hand Embroidery – Fiber Designs by Ann

I remember about ten or fifteen years ago getting rid of my hand embroidery materials/tools. When I was young I hand embroidered everything! But then I became a quilter and wouldn’t be creating hand embroidered piece anymore. Fast forward to 2017 and I was buying back all the tools I use back then. I think now that I primarily machine quilt I’m enjoying the comfort of the slow rhythm of hand embroidery once again.

After embroidering on a quilt (I’ll share in a future post) for the San Diego Quilt Show quilt challenge ; the theme being “Wild, Wild, West” I kept going and made this hat for the block challenge.I first draw the hat on paper, then scanned it into Adobe Illustrator, made it a vector and resized it. I applied white fabric to an 8.5″ x 11″ piece of freezer paper, pressed very well and sent it through my laser printer. I heat set it and hooped it up.

When the embroidery was finished I hand appliqued the underside and the entire hat this a pretty mottled “batik.” And to my surprise I won a Viewer’s Choice second place ribbon!
I’m going to ask our historian for a photo of the exhibit; I believe there were fifteen hat block entries… I did a quick walk-by but was pretty busy and didn’t see most of the show and so didn’t take photos outside my booth.

Do you hand embroider? What floss do you used and do you wrap your hoop?

By Ann Scott

I started sewing and designing using fabric, thread, and paper when I was a child. I taught myself to make quilts, at first not following the "rules," then watched some experts, learned the rules, and made many hand quilted and appliqued quilts. I spent years focusing on miniature landscape quilts. Now I am a fiber and mixed media artist and that encompasses everything I have a passion for. I have taught, lectured, and my work have show nationally and internationally, some pieces have been published.

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