I’ve had this piece of burlap sitting on my work table for quite a while.
Even though I’m not a “blue” person, I loved the color so much that I knew the fabric would eventually speak to me and tell me what it wanted to become. And finally it did!
This piece is a fat eighth size and if used lengthways, it becomes the perfect background for a fresh new fall wallhaning using one of my favorite poems by e.e. cummins
l(a
le
af
fa
ll
s)
one
l
iness
Burlap has a bold texture but it frays very easily. I love the fact it frays so easily but at some point you really do want the fraying to stop. To do this, you could sew around the edges using a zig zag stitch in a thread that blends with the color, but if you don’t want stitching to show then another way to prevent further fraying is to spray the edges with a bit of spray starch and press with a hot iron. If you only spray the edges, then the rest of the fabric is quite soft and manageable to work with for either hand or machine sewing. This also works for scrim and cheesecloth.
For the fall wallhanging I’m going to add a bit of scrim for some background texture. Both cheesecloth and scrim are perfect fabrics for creating textured backgrounds. Because they have such an open weave the strands can be easily separated to create holes.
And it can be folded and bunched and overlapped without creating a lot of bulk and it creates perfect pockets and secret places for adding embellishments such as beading and charms.
Occasionally I use scrim and cheesecloth in this way when making my art quilts.
So at this point I expect the wallhanging to look something like this with the lettering down the left side. and some fabric leaves, wrapped cording and embellishments running through the scrim. I like these two textures together – one is very rough and bold, the other very soft and diaphanous and I also like to contrast in colors – moving from the hot blue of summer into the more softer tones of autumn. It’s been a while since I made a wallhanging and I think I’m going to enjoy making this one.
