Lutradur and Xpandaprint samples.

I am starting to work on this month's samples and have realised that I still have four completed samples to share from last month.
Here are the first two.
This first one is using xpandaprint which is a thick white fluid that you paint onto your fabric and when you heat it it puffs up to give a spongy texture. I decided to try stamping into it with my leaf stamp and this worked very well.
I then painted the leaf and background using acrylic paints, leaving the areas where the stamp had touched the background without any paint.

I then cut around the leaf shape and appliqued it to the background using satin stitch.
The background fabric was decorated using the same stamp, using fabric paints.
Next the background had to be decorated with some more of those wacky machine embroidery stitches. Moss stitch has been worked around the immediate area surrounding the leaf. This is done by producing big loops with the bobbin thread and then removing the top thread to just leave the loops. I then had to iron some vilene onto the back to make sure it didn't all unravel!
Whip stitch is worked in the outer areas, this is another stitch where you can see the bobbin thread on the top but is not as pronounced as whip stitch which I did on the tyvek sample!

I am still not sure whether I like these weird machine stitches but I was pleased to see that Alice Kettle has used them in some of her new work which was on show at The Knitting and Stitching show at Harrogate.

The second sample is made using lutradur leaves. I used the same leaf string print to print leaves onto lutradur. I then cut them out and appliqued them onto this green and yellow four patch block using metallic thread. I also stitched the veins in the leaves. I then free machined in a spiral design in metallic thread - this was a nightmare as the thread kept breaking. The spirals were meant to be much smaller but the thread broke even more if I tried to make them smaller. I then used a heat gun to burn away some of the lutradur - this left a lacy effect which allowed the background to show through which I thought worked well.