Applique Trees by Lizzie Wall

In this last post featuring applique, quilted pieces by Lizzie Wall, are a few trees that you may get to make if you book one of her workshops.

A tree in the spring time. 

Summer time - notice the quilting on the tree trunk. 

Lizzie says that some students want to leave their pieces at the applique stage but as she points out 'the stitches bring the whole thing together, adding depth and texture'. 

We think that her pieces really demonstrate the truth of this.

Autumn time
 ( or maybe late summer).

Again nice quilting on the tree trunk.

A tree in Winter. A lovely background in fuchsia pink and white and aqua branches really make this piece special.

We hope that you have enjoyed seeing Lizzie's work as much as we did. I am sure you will agree that her pieces really are amazing. 

Fins, Fur and Feathers

A few more scrummy pics of  the lovely Lizzie Wall's lovely, lovely work shown to us at our meeting last Wednesday. (see post here and here). 

Beautiful, colourful owls. Bet they wish they could see their fabric portraits....

 An owl in pink, above. Note the quilting, how it adds to the tree- like background.


Left - Cute little blue owl.

It doesn't matter if  you do end up sticking the bondaweb onto the wrong side of the fabric. It will all work out fine, once you get those feathery layers on - below.

 A couple of hares - above and below. Note the movement in the pieces, the hares really do look as if they are leaping through a meadow.

 One of my favourites below - look at the details on these fish. Especially the silvery highlights.

Lovely fabrics give a watery effect to this quilt echoed by the wavy lines of the quilting.
We all really enjoyed viewing these pieces by Lizzie and maybe in the future we will get the chance to create an appliqued mini-quilt of our own at one of her workshops.

The Sower of Fine Seed

Holy garments have been given a modern take recently by Lizzie Wall using her special technique of bonded applique and quilting to adorn the robes known as Vestments or Chasubles, worn by priests/vicars when carrying out some of their services.
One of these depicted the Parable of the Sower taught by Jesus and Lizzie kindly let me take a few snaps to share with you here.

 Just look at this amazing piece. This is the front that depicts the Sower of the Seed, 2 hares, weeds and birds eating the seed. The detail that Lizzie has put into the hares just blows you away. Awesome and so beautiful.
Here is the hand of the Sower aka Jesus, on the right.

Thistles for weeds - you'll need to ask Lizzie 'why thistles' - I wont spoil the story.

These are a 'certain kind of bird' that are pecking at the seeds. I just love the blue colourway.

 This is the third hare on the back of the Chasuble.

And lastly, a section of the Stole worn around the neck and shoulders.

You will notice that I haven't written much on this post as I don't wish to give away the story that Lizzie will tell you, and also this is such a fabulous piece that words simply are not enough. 

To see this being worn and more of  Lizzie's Ecclesiastical work, please click onto her site, here.
Next post, you can see more of Lizzie's feathered and furry friends.

Fine Feathers - Hens and Cockerels by Lizzie Wall

Last Wednesday at our monthly meet of Lytham St Annes Embroiderers Guild we were treated to an amusing talk by Lizzie Wall, entitled My Quilts and other Animals. 

Having a degree in Embroidery and being a Teacher of Special Needs Students, Lizzie was full of hilarious anecdotes that had us chuckling whilst she explained her inspiration and thought processes behind her amazing and colourful applique, quilted pieces.

If you thought you knew quilting, think again... and the same goes for what you imagine bonded applique to be - Lizzie takes it to whole other sphere and the colours of the fabrics she uses are breathtaking. 

Not only did she show us every piece of the huge pile of 'lovely stuff' but she actually passed all the smaller pieces around so that we could touch them and see them close up, as she says 'you need to touch textiles/fabric'. We quite agree - so we had to multi-task; talking about the piece we were holding and listening to Lizzie speak at the same time.

I wont show you every piccie that I took as there are far too many! so if you want to see Lizzie's quilting close up and more of her work click onto her website here.

My photos will not do these pieces justice (have used those taken by flash to best show the colours but I apologize as there will be some areas that are a little fuzzy).

Here are some feathered creatures.

This is Blue Boy Buff. (the neighbouring chickens next door lay blue eggs). Lizzie deconstructs fabric and uses the patterned pieces to make feathers or scales for fish or fur. Many layers go into a piece before it is quilted and we were amazed how she had used even 'ugly' fabrics to great effect.

Paisley for feathers... who knew? and don't you love the Hexies to illustrate chicken wire?

Lizzie told us that she makes up a chicken first on background fabric before they go onto the main fabric piece.

 It was tough work getting those chickens to stay still for a photograph. Squawk!

Lovely little blue chicken.

The Blacksmith's Chicken. There is a story behind this one too. Have you spotted the blacksmiths tools behind him and skull tattoos on his leg?
These pieces look so complicated but Lizzie assured us that its only one choice of fabric per layer so there is only one choice to make. Aaahh but if only we could pick them so skillfully... take a look again at the Blacksmith's Chicken above - I would never think of picking flowers for a cockerels tail feathers - but it works wonderfully.
Thats all for now on this post - more coming up, but I hope that this has whetted your appetite to book Lizzie for a talk or a workshop. The subject of the workshop varies depending on what theme she has worked on so may be chickens or owl or hares etc AND fabric is included! 

Thank you Lizzie for sharing your work and process with us and especially for being so generous letting us touch each piece.