So after all my bilby embroidery experiments I was feeling more confident. I wanted to loosen up my drawing, particularly how I drew figures, and this is one of the drawings that came out of trying to draw 'wild and free'. Here is a girl protecting a young Wallaroo, she is an earth spirit, she is the colour of Australia's red earth and blue sky. The first photo shown here is the finished piece, the second shows it as a work in progress so I can show how I build up the thread and colours like paint. The third photo is the back of the embroidery when it's in progress. In the stitching process the image is almost lost and then you find in again at the end through all those thousands of stitches.
With Wallaroo I used 2 layers of Romeo (water soluble stabiliser), and between the layers I put scraps of fabric and lace (you can see the lace peeking through at the edges). They helped stabilize the image so when it was washed to remove the Romeo the image stayed intact. The final picture is a detail shot of the finished piece. I'm so happy with how Wallaroo turned out, and I'm glad that I mounted it onto black cotton so the colours really stand out. This embroidery got lots of attention during the SALA exhibition and it sold on the first weekend. I think with this piece I figured out how to do free motion machine embroidery in the best way for me, it and Sweet Bilby Dreams were break-through pieces for me. They are always "Hallelejah" or "Yes!" or jump up and down (or all three) moments for artists.
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