It’s about time I stopped partying and begin working on a new project! Here you see the beginnings of a small garden design using acrylic/wool felt. All the shapes were cut using an Accuquilt die cutter rather than by hand. (I don’t want to leap into real work right away.) See the green “grass” area? That’s a cut-away fabric, the remains of cutting out leaf shapes. You could call it the negative of the positive shape.

After cutting out the shapes, my next step is to arrange them on a background fabric and take a photo of the design. Then I remove smaller shapes that are stacked or can be added later and tack the remaining shapes into place. Now it’s all ready to stitch. Any ideas?

Natural Gardening by Laura Wasilowski

We all love to make art work, enjoying the process and results. But what do you do after the piece is complete? I recommend having your favorite pieces framed behind glass.

Garden Flowers by Laura Wasilowski

And I can highly recommend custom framing by Myrna of High Desert Frameworks in Bend OR. Myrna has a great deal of experience in framing textiles from the stitching onto an acid free mat to selecting beautiful mat colors to finding the perfect frame style. If you can’t send your work to her, find a local person who understands the challenges of framing and protecting your textile art.

Here are a few quick tips for framing textile art:

• Stitch the corners of the work to an acid free mat.
• Use a shadow box frame so the glass does not touch the work.
• Seal the back of the frame to keep it dry and free of insects.