A long time ago I played around with the idea of adapting a pieced crazy-quilt effect to designs of animals and plants, and I tried the idea out on a couple of a couple of embroidered birds (10 January 2011). Neither of them worked very well so I set aside the idea for a while. However I’ve come back to it recently and have done a fish which I think is a big improvement on my first efforts. I’ve learned that for this effect to work you have to draw the design to suit the decorative stitching, and not just add the stitching afterwards in a “where-can-I-put-this-decorative-stitching” kind of way. Well, of course that should be obvious and I should have seen it from the beginning!
A A patchwork fish with decorative crazy-quilt stitching
I still want to use this method to add interest to flamboyant Jacobean flowers but it’s been surprisingly difficult to draw florals where this kind of stitching can be used. But I’ll keep at it, because if I can work out how to use these stitches in floral designs they should be very effective