Dyed, Felted and Stitched

I think that I might use the smaller dyed, felted and stitched pieces for a larger collage piece.
Maybe.

As you all know, that plan may change as time goes by.
But for now, it looks like a good idea.

Here is one small piece that I have completed.

Click to enlarge and see the wonderful texture in this piece.

The base is a piece of wool from a repurposed skirt that I had previously felted some type of fibers onto.
I no longer like the colors (well I liked them but didn't want to work with them right now and I needed a good base). I just felted over what was already there.
I felted small scraps of rusted and naturally dyed fabrics & fibers onto the base with a machine felter.
I also added a small amount of Spanish Moss (under dyed scrim) and paper that was dyed with leaves and rust.
Then I spent a few hours over the weekend sweating over some hand stitching (read "stitching while watching a movie or two").

It was beautiful at that point but why stop there, right?

I decided to add machine embroidery too. (Or do you call it "thread sketching"?)
The sketch comes from a Dover publication about microscopic plant forms (although the above sketch does not look  like a microscopic view...).

I really like the color combination though.
I dyed (well I assisted Mother Nature with the dyeing) most of the items that I used in this small piece, which btw, measures apx. 5 x 6.5 inches (apx. 13 cm x 16.5 cm).
In this scan, the piece is damp from being rinsed off...so the colors will lighten a little bit (but not a lot).

I have done a bit of machine stitching on the larger piece that I was working on (the grayish one in earlier posts).
I'll post photos when I get a chance to take one or two.

I hope that you're all doing well and flexing those creative muscles every day.
It truly is a matter of "if you don't use you, you lose it".
By flexing that muscle, you will begin to find inspiration and ideas at every turn.

Happy creating!