Stitched trees - 4

After the success of the top part of the tree, I thought I may as well carry on experimenting whilst doing the trunk.

I had finally found my machine embroidery hoop...it goes under the foot easier. This was also good for holding a bit of the water soluble fabric which I had trimmed away from the first part.
I wanted to see how the ws fabric behaved when a skimpy amount was used. 1-less wasteful. 2-I am prone to work on scraps 'in case it goes wrong' and then find it doesn't go wrong and I have a good bit of work on a wee bit of scrap!

I drew a bit of a trunk for guidance...and then ignored it when I stitched!

The threads this time was Thread Studio's Fed (I think for Federal? anyway, it says Fed on the reel.) The variegations went from a sort of claret to lime green with browns in there too. Because I wanted the overall look to be brown, I also used a lighter brown Madeira embroidery thread on the horizontal thread holder. The Thread Studio reels work better on the vertical and with one of those nets round it to keep the thread coming of regularly and not catching round the thread holder.
The bobbin was a random brown from the stash.

The stitched trunk before I trimmed away the ws fabric.

You can see the edges of the loose grid I stitched. I wasn't sure how well the threads would hold together because this time they were all running pretty regular up and down. Though I didn't stitch the whole trunk all the up and all the way down, but in sections. There is a bit at the top right that I could see wasn't really connected, so I trimmed that away as well.

As you can see, the scrap held up very well to the stitching. I did stick one little piece on, but it was more to use as a little bit to hold onto because that section was a bit thinner and I thought it would distort. Keeping it taut helped.

Trimmed Trunk

The trunk with the ws fabric washed out.

The edges are a bit scruffy.

But, I have pushed the threads together at the side while wet as I was blocking.

Any small amount of water soluble left in the thread work acts as a stiffener for stand alone lace pieces, so it will hold the threads in place when it is dry.

As I said with the top part of the tree, I will be stitching this onto the background, so I can make sure the sides of the trunk are smoothly attached.

You may be wondering if the thread colours used for the trunk and the thread colour used for the top section work together. You can see them both here. I think it will work. I have a background in mind, so I should be able to show you more about that next week. (bead day tomorrow!)