Painted Garden by Ann Fahl

Price: Not For Sale  Size: 13 x 13 inches
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For about 3 years I saved this beautiful hand painted background fabric. It was a small piece, but I knew it needed a special subject. Before Christmas I decided that I’d embroider a spray of leaves over it. As I was working, I realized that it needed to be more than just an 8 inch square. So I turned it on point and set it in a dark mottled hand dyed, this always creates a dramatic contrast for the subject. Then instead of leaves, I started placing my favorite coneflowers and black eyed susans. Because of the rich color of the background, I choose very rich, not quite realistic colors for the flowers and leaves.

In my usual fashion, I embroidered the flowers and leaves, and felt quite pleased with the way it looked. I thought about the quilting for quite awhile, and after the holidays I spent parts of 3 days using a rather improvisational type of quilting design. It was lots of fun, but required lots of concentration on my part. Instead of using the usual decorative thread, I used a fine weight, Bottom Line thread. The outside edges are bound with a dark multi stripe in blending colors. Now in a private collection