Melitastitches4fun's Blog

Step 5 of the EGA Master Craftsman Canvas 3 had to include 2 appliques (canvas to canvas and at least one had to be irregularly shaped). It had to be 10″ x 14″.

The wings were stitched on 24 count Congress Cloth and applied to 18 count canvas. These are the practice wings. In a nutshell, Step 1 is to pull threads out to the stitched piece (in progress in left photo). Step 2 buries some threads on the back of the applique (right photo). The rest of the threads are pulled to the back and buried in the surrounding stitched area. It is time consuming.

I started this piece shortly after seeing the article Tale of Two Stitchers in the Needle Pointers magazine (Mar/Apr 2021) regarding 2 painted canvases of owls “Who Gives a Hoot”. At first I was going to make the round eyes the applique until I realized that a circle is not irregular! So, I switched to making the wings the appliques which actually made better sense since they should be in front of the body anyway. I would have padded it but the instructions didn’t say you could but it is allowed. They have changed their instructions to clearly state that padding is allowed.

I had to practice the technique and actually stitched 5 wings trying to get this right. That’s why this step took an extra 6 months. But, the piece passed with distinction. So, it was worth it. Bill likes owls, knew I had worked on it a lot, and thought Night Owl deserved to be framed. So, it was framed before going on display at EGA National Seminar from August 24-28, 2022 in New York City.

I’m glad I waited to post this until I got it back so I could take a new photo. Before my photography class:

After class:

[…] back in August. It is my original design from Step 5 of the EGA Master Craftsman Canvas program (https://melitastitches4fun.com/2022/08/31/canvas-master-craftsman-program-step-5/). The wings are appliqued in […]

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