At the moment I’m getting seriously involved with using fabric painting in embroidery. I’ve tried using painted fabric for applique and for backgrounds to appliqué, but I’ve also started painting designs after they’ve been embroidered. Here is an appliqué of three fishes, as it came off the embroidery machine
Then I spent a very enjoyable couple of hours playing around embellishing the simple design with acrylic paints.
Three slightly overdone fishes
I would be the first to admit that I overdid the painting a bit, and that in this case less might well be more, but the technique works very well. The acrylics can be used on the thread as well as on the fabric, and they’re really easy to work with. And if I want to try something different I just have to stitch out the fish again and I can start the whole thing again from the beginning