Enjoy a Good Reed

When creating the reeds in "Enjoy a Good Reed," I used no fusible to attach the reeds after freeform cutting them with my rotary cutter. I used my needle felting machine to attach them to the background and batting. I love how this process distresses the batiks to add a more organic look to them. I then used an embellishing stitch from my machine for my quilting stitches. I love how these embellishing stitches add movement to the piece. I did use some fusible on the dragonfly wings since the fusible helps in hiding the shadowing that can occur from the fabrics behind the white of the wings. Hand appliqué was used on the wings and the body. I just thought the dragonfly needed a bit of sparkle so metallic thread was used. I then applied a diluted 50/50 mixture of water and matte medium over the reeds to keep the reeds from fraying further.