Felt til you drop continued...

The next stage was to make a base layer for the moggy pic . I felted silk gauze over merino tops so that I could use a sort of reverse applique technique for the text I wanted to add, by cutting away selected areas of the silk to reveal the colour of the felt below. A problem with this is it leaves fairly unattractive edges - I like raw edges on the whole, but this wasn't really working for this piece.

 So after a bit of head scratching I decided to simply cut and hem, and needle felt along the edge. The text, if you can't make it out, reads F.catus spectabilis (the plant's latin name is dicentra spectabilis, and F.catus is domestic cat). The title is 'Full Sun or Partial Shade' which refers to the preferred positioning of both the plant and our moggy.

And here is the finished piece - or nearly finished anyway. It's just hanging on a dowel at the mo, but I may stitch it to a canvas mount so it hangs flat. I had originally intended to add further definition & embellishment with some machine and hand embroidery, but had second thoughts as I basically ran out of time, but also was nervous of spoiling it after all my hard work! Also at the mo I think it bears quite a good resemblance to our much loved moggy, Pushkin, which would be undermined if I add more detail and don't quite get it right. I may yet go back to this later when I am feeling brave.............