Despite the laundry and washing and nursing done almost non-stop today, I managed to do some testing on a couple of threads and decorative stitches using my Janome 6600 for the City Stitcher wall hanging project "Willow Tree Hill." I need to figure out a way to create the willow tree branches. The pattern calls for silk ribbon embroidery to make them, but I am concerned that using the ribbon will create a lot of bulky lumps, so I am thinking of using thread(s) and decorative stitches. I made a test tree trunk using Lite Steam-a-Seam 2 and the pattern template I made.
In the pattern, there are various arrangements of trees and houses. I used different background fabrics and different brown tree trunk fabrics on each of the blocks. The background on this block has crescent moons on it. :)
I used my light box table to trace the branch designs on to the test block. I simply used a Pigma pen this time--when I work on the actual quilt I think I will use the disappearing "air erasable" purple marking pen. I have a few possibilities for threads (and the list may expand depending on what I find at the quilt shop next time!).
One possibility is the Gutermann 100% polyester I have been using to buttonhole stitch around my applique. Another is YLI Machine Quilting 40 wt. 3-ply variegated thread. A third is Aurifil's Lana, which I still need to purchase and test. Today, in little 5 minute bursts of time throughout the day, I tried out a few different stitches with the first two threads listed here.
I tried two different stitches for the branches, 61 and 62, both in mode 2, and I used the leaf pattern 62 in mode 3. I could go into overkill detail on the results, but I won't! What I learned was this: I still need to fiddle around with threads and stitches, but at least I know now that this approach will give me nice looking willow trees for this project!
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