top of page

Make your Grass Real (and) Easy

Bonnie Langenfeld from Landscapes in Fabric

‘Let the fabric do the work for you' has never been more true than when you’re trying to make grass in your fabric landscape. Don’t waste time by using fabric with blades of grass all over it. It will take a LOT of stitching to make the foreground blades biggest, and to blot out the midground and/or background.

Look closely at this picture.

The foreground shows individual blades of grass but the midground just shows blobs of color which we know are made up of individual blades-without seeing them individually.

So why not use a blotchy green fabric behind the pup-making sure that the blotches are non-directional or horizontal, not vertical? Midground done!

For the foreground, use a dark value green fabric as your base. It will seem too dark at first, but will provide the perfect base for your stitches. Do stitches in small areas (blobs) of light, medium and dark values depending where you want shadows and highlights in the grass. Start at the back area of your foreground grass with your shortest stitches and make them slightly taller as you move forward. This will cover the spot where the midground and foreground fabrics meet. (Easiest for me is to use a 1.8 free motion zigzag. I turn the picture sideways and pull it slightly, side to side, as I stitch to vary the size of the stitches.)

I notice that blades in front seem to have a very light value at their tips. How about tightening your top thread tension so that a white bobbin thread pulls to the top and makes the sunlit blade tops very bright? You'll learn more in the New Two Stitch Magic Class


265 views

Recent Posts

See All

Be the first to know

Free downloadable ebook about choosing fabric when you subscribe!

Subscribe to our monthly-or-so-newsletter so you don't miss the latest events, and projects on which I'm working. I'll send you tips and information about fun ways to create Landscapes in Fabric.  

Thanks for submitting!

  • Facebook
  • Youtube
  • Pinterest
  • Instagram
bottom of page