Painting Pictures on Fabric

Recently, I completed a few 4" x 6" 'pictures' painted on fabric.    For subjects I chose a photo of the Tablelands in Newfoundland, an amaryllis, a scene of kayaking down a river and some black-eyed susans.  First I painted the scene/flower on white cotton fabric with caran d'ache crayons, water soluble pencil crayons or setacolours then I heavily embroidered or stitched them with tiny stitches.   I experimented with stitching first then adding thin batting and backing, stitching through top layer and backing but no batting, and stitching through all three layers.   Then I matted them.    I find that if I want to frame under glass with a ready made frame the batting sometimes makes it too thick so I think for these tiny matted pieces it works better to finish them off pillowcase style without a middle layer.   I do like the way they look when I stitch through the front and back layer however.    Another alternative is to simply add a plain muslin backing to the top layer and tape it onto the mat then frame (more like a painting).   Here is a look at the two that I have finished.  I matted them on 8 x 10" mats.

 


Here is another which still needs a backing.   Shown here with a 5 x 7" mat.  I don't have a photo of the black eyed susan piece which still needs to be stitched.

These are fun to do and gives me some practice painting fabric.    The major stitching does take a while to complete even though they are small (so are the stitches:-)