After travelling with the Grand National Fibre Art exhibition for over 12 months, this landscape returned home to my studio and was recently sold to a lovely couple for their cottage.

It always surprises me, that after spending so many hours sewing on a piece, how quickly I forget the details of it's construction. It was like opening a Christmas present when I first unpacked the artwork and took a long look at my creation.🥰🎁

I called this piece "Eyes on the Horizon", and although the artist's meaning behind it had more to do with looking toward the future (it was created during Covid), I planned the scene to literally draw the viewer's eye toward the horizon. The layout was very intentional. Even though I knew I would spend hours stitching details in the foreground (in this case, on the pine needles), when laying out my design, I always want my landscapes to draw the viewer deep into the scene.

Looking back through my camera roll to the time when it was sewn, I was thrilled to find multiple photos that documented the process. Inspired by the Whiteshell area of Manitoba, I began with a full-size sketch drawing of the scene. 

 I had already painted fabric for the sky and had hand-painted crepe fabric for the water, so this fabric dictated the size of the piece. I needed to use the full width of the sky in order to create perspective with the slight angle of the clouds. Adding trees along the horizon line, I left a stretch of open water to create an impression of an expansive lake that lies beyond what can be seen.

The rocks in the midground were added slowly using layers of black tulle netting, bits of additional fabrics to create the cracks, as well as carefully placed bits of green selvedge (that looked remarkably like grass!). The rocky terrain had to be completely sewn in place before I could add the tree.

Once I had the majority of the midground rocky section sewn, I began auditioning fabrics for the front section of ground, planning to add deeper colours of green and brown. The tree trunk was sewn separately with layers of black tulle and lines of machine stitching to create a shadow effect.

Anytime I am adding a feature that I know will require extra-dense stitching - like a tree, building or in this case, the pine needles, if it is at all possible, I prefer to sew these separate sections unattached to the main landscape. By sewing them individually, I can make adjustments to their placement easily, and fix anything that feels off without tearing up the rest of my work.🤔 

The pine needles were a real challenge. I wanted them to stand out off the piece, so I decided to create them separately prior to attaching to my tree. Beginning with a water soluble base, I laid a piece of hand-dyed green wool roving, covering that with tulle. Next, I used machine stitching in a brown colour to create lines, and a few colours of green stitching to create the needles. I cut around each of the bunches, thinking it would be simple to soak them in water to have the "water-soluble" base disappear...😏

  After many attempts at soaking, I could see the base was going nowhere. Instead, I resigned to  carefully cutting as close to the stitching as possible, and burning away any of the base that I could still see. Thankfully, the process of burning created an interesting result, as the overlay tulle melted up as well, leaving an interesting, rough edge. After hours of effort, once they were all separated with edges burned away, I placed them onto the landscape and ran a few more stitch lines through each one to attach them securely to the scene. 

 I really like the way the tree turned out. The effort was worth it! The scene has so much texture and detail to look at from up close.

Looking back, I am thankful that I had taken numerous photos of the process. These photos will help me in remembering fabrics chosen and how specific details were created (especially adjustments made along the way). I am thrilled this special piece has found a home. It was a labour of love and will always be remembered as a creative challenge for me! 😅🧵