Seascape/Skyscape Embroidery Using Only One Stitch: Blanket Stitch – How to Use Up Small Scraps of Felt and Turn Them Into a Landscape Abstract Art Piece

I use a lot of felt in my art practice and I love finding ways to reduce wasting the left-overs from earlier projects. I am a big fan of Boro stitchery techniques which use running stitch and little fabric scraps to make new fabric panels. If you are not familiar with the technique, you can see my Instructable on it here: https://www.instructables.com/Easy-Boro-Sashiko-Style-Biscornu-Pincushion/

I thought something similar would work if I applied the technique to left-over felt. I imagined a landscape inspired abstract embroidery piece channelling my inner Van Gogh (‘Starry Night’) and Hokusai (‘The Great Wave off Kanagawa’). I also challenged myself to using only one type of embroidery stitch. As a stitch technique to use, I thought blanket stitch would really lend itself to water and cloud eddies.

This is the result. I’m loving the swirls and whirls. This is a great way to use small felt bits, is low cost and uses few resources, requires mastering only one embroidery stitch, and the only real commitment you need is a little patience with all those blanket stitches!

Gather up all your materials for the project. It’s a nice way to make a dint in your little bits of felt scrap pile!

• Felt scraps in your selection of colour. I used all the small pieces of pale blue felt I had, some of which were wool felt and others were synthetic felt
• A4 sized panel of light weight iron on interfacing
• Embroidery thread to suit colours of felt. I used DMC 813, 747, 809, and a lot of scrap lengths of pale blue and variegated pale blue threads
• 1 – 2 chalk pencils to mark lines. I used both a yellow and pink chalk pencil because I wanted to leave the chalk marks behind after I finished stitching. You don’t need a special colour if you are washing your panel
• Embroidery needle
• Small scissors
• Old scissors to cut felt
• Pins
• Iron for sticking down interfacing and an A4 cotton fabric scrap for pressing

I drew up a basic wave/cloud shape template for your use. Feel free to download and use. The panel you create will be around A4 or slightly less. One pattern page shows the layout of the pieces while the others are the actual pattern pieces.

I used the template as a starter for my design, but as I worked through the felt stash, I found I had to patch some pattern sections together from several pieces of felt, because the felt volume in my stash was too small. The key to success is really to get curves going in the pieces you cut when you patch from many pieces and just ensure you overlap everything with about 1cm in the felt pieces.

Cut out all the felt pieces. Using the template as a guide, lay them on the A4 panel of light weight iron on interfacing, ensuring the shiny side of the interfacing is facing upwards. Why the shiny side? Because we will be pressing from the top to start to catch all the small felt pieces down and hold them in place.

Be sure to layer the pieces so there is at least 1cm of overlap on the pieces so that the completed art piece will be solid and strong.

Once you are happy with the layout, pin all the sections together.

I have used a ‘cheat’ techniques to get fast, easy results using iron on interfacing as a ‘glue’ to hold the small pieces together.

Once you have layered all the felt pieces to a design that appeals on the interfacing backing sheet, and pinned them securely, carefully carry the panel over to your ironing board.

Press the pieces onto the interfacing using a hot iron and holding for at least the count of 10. You will need to pull out your pins as you work a section at a time. This is felt and you may have synthetic pieces, so be sure to use a scrap of cotton fabric between your iron and the felt to ensure the felt does not melt or stick.

After ironing from the front, turn the rectangle to the back and iron again from the reverse to really stick those bits of felt down!

I challenged myself to use one type of stitch for the whole work. I used Blanket stitch which adds both lines and ‘filling’ between lines and is a relatively fast way to cover the whole piece with stitches. If you need a refresher or it’s your first time, just Google “Blanket Stitch”. There’s plenty of examples of this technique.

I worked with 2 strands of embroidery thread and used colours of embroidery thread similar but not the same as the felt colours I had. In this way I got a small contrast between felt and stitchery.

I used many small sections of thread to try and used up some old colours I had in stock.

I started by outlining all the panel sections in a row of blanket stitch. In this way the whole panel is securely joined and provides a great foundation.

Once I had outlined all the panel sections, I started to fill the centres of each panel. I drew loose swirling lines that vaguely followed the section outlines. The lines I drew were in chalk pencil and alternating between yellow and pink chalk. The reason I did this was that I intend to leave the chalk marks underneath the stitchery after completion so they become part of the subtle colouring. You don’t need to do this and in fact you may want to hand wash your panel with soap after completion to remove the chalk marks. If you do, be sure not to use hot water, or wool wash as both can affect the colours and tension of the stitches. After washing the panel you can lay it out on a towel to air dry (no drier or hair drier please!)

I tried to work all the swirls in the same direction within each panel section so that the stitches ‘stacked’ on top of the last. The best way to see what I mean is to have a close inspection of the photos.

Filling the space with blanket stitches took some time, but not an insane amount of time. Plus, there is something therapeutic about the action.

I am loving the way this panel looks in completion, that is, reminiscent of water and sky.

I thought the technique may be extended to make some other landscapes:

• A planet surface from space
• Combination land and sky
• Shades of orange and yellow like sand dunes
• Greys, dark blues and blacks for the sky at night (I’m thinking of this with variegated thread)

To extend the technique further I have decided to use it as the background for a shadow box art piece I will create over the year called “Frog Book Nook”. I will be sure to share each step with you if you want to create the same Bas Relief artwork!