Back to the farm

Wheat weaving is out of my system for the time being, so it is back to the farm quilt. I'm finished with most of the embroidery. The next step was the trees. The trunks were cut out of one varigated brown batik, a lot of fiddly work, but not hard. But how to do the foliage? Solid fabric would be too much and snippits of fabric just did not do it.
So the next to try was thread painting. I had done a little of that before , but only very small pieces.
I did have a good variety of green threads on hand and I found some water soluble stabilizer. I made a few small samples and it seemed to work.
I drew the outline on the stabilizer and starting with the darkest thread I would fill in the bottom, using a zig-zag stitch and later a straight stitch. By using these 5 colors I got the results I wanted. The small holes will let some of the sky through I hope.
Once finished I cut around each shape and put it in luke warm water for 15 minutes. By that time the stabilizer has disappeared and, after drying, I can use the pieces on the quilt.


Most of these pieces I did today, so I have not had time to put them in the water. That's why some of the stabilizer is still showing.
Next up will be the biggest tree and I will use a few different colors for that one.
The front is not done yet.
There will be a fence, small meadow and a ditch.