My Leaves

Down to the wire on finishing my leaves for another FAT trade but happy with the out come. The inspiration for these leaves was the sea grape - my sister and her oldest son - attended Sea Base earlier this year - and while there - she mailed me a sea grape leaf thru the mail as a post card - I thought it was the coolest thing when it arrived - the leaf is durable enough to withstand the mail service.... So when NJ announced the leaf trade on FAT - I decided that this would be the perfect template for my leaves for this trade since this leaf had already given so much to me. I fused heavy weight cotton felt to commercial cotton and thread painted the vein design with variegated thread - then trimmed the leaves to shape and edge stitched for security... then I fused the green craft felt to the back, edge stitched again trimmed with my trusty pinking shears, then couched the yarns down the center vein. The finishing touches are the inspirational word charms (from birdysdesingallery on ebay) and the beads... I am pleased with the outcome - I made 9 total - 6 are for the trade with one for me to keep and I will send one to my sister - since she inspired me in the first place. The last one ??? who knows.... When the swap comes in we are to all put them together into leaf books - so exciting