I have a passion for trees - verging on being a tree hugger! I'm the one stopping to stroke bark as I walk past a beautiful tree that catches my eye and doing strange things with the camera to get a close up of the beautiful colours and textures...
Knotted cretan stitch from TAST had that organic feel to it and I felt sure that some kind of tree would be part of the stitch study this week.
A while ago I created a couple of tissue paper and scrim backgrounds based on Yvonne Brown's article in Quilting Arts Magazine (Winter 2005 - issue 20). Of the pieces I made, the yellow ochre one looked unfinished until I added burned sienna to it ...and all of a sudden ...tree bark. It was the perfect background to practice knotted cretan on.
On Saturday I had a studio day with friends in the Blue Mountains, near Sydney and had overdosed on trees - so this was the obvious way to go. I used a sketch of tree bark that I had made as the template for the stitch areas - but took lots of artistic licence!
I found the stitch a challenge, but think I got there in the end. The main challenge was to get the tension right, before the knot tightened and left a loose loop. I've been brave and posted a close up, because I love the textures!
