Woodland Reverie
A quilt series by Through the Needle's Eye
Welcome to our journey through the forest with our new series, Woodland Reverie. Each block features a woodland scene, with flora and fauna brought to life with fabrics, ribbon, and thread. We have experimented with a lot of textural embellishments with these blocks, and no fiber is off-limits. If we can stitch it down, it may be in our reverie through the woodland!
In 2019, we introduced the first two blocks of our quilt at the Academy of Appliqué: our Spring Robin and the Autumn Mushroom Wreath. We are working the blocks on two different backgrounds; Kara is stitching on a black ground fabric and Teri on a neutral, which makes choosing colors all the more fun.
Patterns and ribbon kits are available for each block pictured below!
For more information, CLICK HERE.
The Spring Robin, appliquéd in here in cotton and embellished with embroidery, is gazing into her nest of various fun fibers filled with padded eggs. The surrounding swags are filled with embroidered silk ribbon flowers, stuffed velvet pussy willows, and wired ribbon dogwood blossoms.
The Autumn Mushroom Wreath has velvet-capped, shimmer-spotted mushrooms growing from a patch of felted wool moss. The surrounding wreath is woven of cotton bias strips and hand-dyed silk sari yarn, adorned with stuffed acorns and wired ribbon flowers. And then there is the silk butterfly!
The Butterfly and Trillium features a dimensional butterfly perched in the center of a silk frame, surrounded by papercut styled ferns. The wired ribbon trillium blooms sparkle with their shimmering embroidered centers. Fussy-cutting symmetrically designed fabrics add to the adventure of our butterfly!
The Cascading Creek showcases a framed vista of cascading silken water, bubbling down the rocky hills. A bouquet of flowers accents the scene, with several techniques used to create ribbon flowers and wired ribbon leaves.
Great Horned Owls sit nestled among wintry greenery: pine, holly, and mistletoe. Turkey work with a variety of threads add texture to the owls, and wool and silk add dimension to the greenery and pinecones.
Wood Rose Garden includes ruched wired ribbon roses with fussy cut or broderie perse leaves. A gathered bias silk bloom is surrounded by embroidered posies, framed by a garden wall.
Frogs and Lily Pads are based on a vintage Spanish tile, with a wired ribbon water lily surrounded by lily pads with frogs awaiting lunch amongst the pickerel weed. Cattails of velvet with silk leaves complete the scene.
Woodland Bouquet includes a plethora of blooms, including taffeta-ribboned poppies, gathered ribbon pansies, silk ribbon coneflowers, embroidered wheat, thistle, and yarrow—all balanced on stems of silk, velvet and a variety of threads, tied by a neat ribbon.
In September 2022 at Baltimore on the Prairie, we taught Woodland Reverie in Wool, featuring four seasonal blocks: Spring Robin, Summer Fox, Autumn Mushroom Wreath, and Winter Owls. Kits and patterns are now available for this wool wallhanging.
Woodland Reverie in Wool