Pussy Willows for Easter - Another Appliqué Banner...

Once upon a time in about 1981, the Sacramento Bee held a 

"designer competition".  I called to request the entry form and

the coordinator of the competition said this was for "interior designers"

only.  I told her that I designed tapestries for interiors and she

became interested in that, but still told me I couldn't enter

the "Interior Designer Competition". However, she said she''d

 like to meet with me and discuss what it was that I did do!!!

She asked me to meet her at a beautiful furniture store in Fountain Square.

 for an interview and a photo shoot.

I showed up with these 2 tapestries - color coordinated

wouldn't you say!!!  And this photo appeared on the cover of the

California Life Section of the Sunday Sacramento Bee.  I had no idea...

This woven tapestry is about 4' high by 2 1/2' wide, and

the Iris was about 3' x 4 1/2'.

These are the first Pussy willows I wove...  for a client, to coordinate

with her sofa.  She wanted me to  hang them high enough above the

sofa so that her cats couldn't reach them.  Not very visually pleasing,

but it was her home and she was paying the price!!!

A few years later I did this tryptic, for a weaving friend

of mine, for her new home.  It is about 7' x 4 1/2'

I thought this would be fun, so I headed to the store, purchased 

the fabrics and got started.

I chose a variegated whitish-grey cotton for the background &

cut out all the shapes and attached them to the background

with a paper backed paper product called "heat n bond"

which holds the shapes in place

so I can sew them to the background fabric.

This shows you a detailed look.  It took many hours

of stitching, which involved using color coordinated thread

for each fabric, which meant lots of rethreading my sewing machine.

And of course I chose an outrageous fabric for the "backing" material,

which would wrap around to become the 1/2 inch "binding".

By the time I finished the piece, I decided it would be our

Easter Season wall banner because of all those oval shapes,

as well as their color. which reminded me of easter eggs!!!

Compliments of a favorite on-line gardening site, this is what real Pussy Willows

look like.   Click on the photo for a larger view.