Laurel Banner

The banner is made from reclaimed fulled wools sewn onto a reclaimed woolen background.  I've been gathering wool wovens and knits at thrift stores for several years, to keep them out of landfills and refashion into something useful and beautiful.  This green was a damaged skirt, and its color is just fantastic. The leaves are from several different sources., all cut on my Accuquilt studio, some with a fusible interfacing and some without.

I laid out the leaves, pinned them into place, fused those with interfacing , and set to hand finishing  via applique stitches for the leaves and chain stitching the stems and veins. I used a combination of crewel wools and silk embroidery floss for the stitching, and added a black linen back and grosgrain ties.