Playing with Felted Fabrics

A couple of months ago, I took a class in which we felted wool fabrics, and used a "cookie cutter" method of embellishment.  Basically, a hole is cut in the garment fabric, a piece of felted wool the same size and shape is "plugged" into the hole and attached with decorative stitching.

I had my jacket cut out and waiting for  design inspiration (or divine)!  I made some samples of the "cookie cutter" technique.  But, I could never make up my mind that I wanted to cut holes in that jacket.  The gal who taught the class has some fantastic art garments using that technique, and in fact, she won a contest sposored by Threads, using the embellishment.  Still----

Today, I pulled all the fabrics and threads out and decided to applique.  Instantly, a big red flower came to mind.   Years ago, I did a LOT of quilting.  I taught it.  Went to school to become certificed through National Qulting Association to be a quilt show judge.  Baltimore Album quilts became very popular, and I fell in love with them.  They are white backgrounds, with appliqued floral designs.  Very fancy.  In their time, the 1800s, the Victorian ladies of leisure made these time-consuming quilts.

I loved doing hand applique, and started designing Baltimore Album quilt blocks.  Elly Sienkiewicz became an authority on those quilts, studying their history, etc.   I took a couple of classes from her, and showed her the blocks I had designed.  When her first book was published,  she asked to use my quilt blocks in her book, along with the patterns and instructions to make them.  Here's the book, and four of my quilt blocks:

What this has to do with my jacket is--I took the flower from one of the above pictures, enlarged it and am using it for the main flower on this jacket.  On the quilt block, each petal is appliqued separately.  The applique on my jacket is not intricate.  It's more "folksy" with a modern twist.   Here's the first flower, sewn down with a straight stitch.

Looks like a big old blob at this point!  I cut the flower out as one big unit, sewed it down with a straight stitch, and marked with soap the petal lines.  Then, I used a Feather Stitch and with heavy variagated thread, stitched around the flower.  This is where it stands as of now:

I've drawn  some vines with soap, and will make some leaf shapes and applique them .  There will be beads because what's an art-type garment without beads?  I'll probably applique down one sleeve and do something on the back, as well.

I had fun doing this and am anxious to get back to it tomorrow.