Moon: Mixed Media & Stitch Tutorial
- Helen Moyes
- Jul 12
- 3 min read
Have you, like me, been facinated by moon rises this year? I've been loving catching sight of different moon colouring and phases.
The last couple of evenings have been lovely because it's been warm enough to be out in the garden to see the full moon rise.
A winter full moon caught my attention earlier in the year and inspired a series of art pieces and a new workshop.
I created some mixed media pieces and added either hand or free motion machine embroidery:
This inspired a new workshop which I trialed locally and is about to premiere at the Festival of Quilts. Here is the tutorial as well as another winter themed stitched example. Perhaps creating this will help us to feel cooler in the current heatwave
Mixed media stitch - Use paint, Angelina fibres, painted Bondaweb …
1. Choose the perspective you want to create:a closer up moon with some tree branches, or a landscape with a night sky
2. Paint some Bondaweb:once dry you can tear some pieces of painted web away from the paper and apply to your design.This can take a while to dry so do this first:use slightly watered down acrylic paint and apply to the webbed side (the paint will go through and colour the paper backing which can be saved for collage)
3. Design your own background:Use paint which can either be fabric paint, just diluted acrylic paint, or acrylic paint mixed with fabric medium which turns it into fixable paint. Unless you are wanting to be able to wash your design (eg. If it’s going to be a cushion cover) just acrylic paint is fine and the fact that it will slightly stiffen the fabric can help with the stitching later and mean you don’t need to use a hoop for stitching. However, I recommend using a hoop to create a taut fabric base to paint onto. This helps stop the paint spreading where you don’t want it.The paint can be applied as a wash with a brush/sponge brush, sponged on, or in the case of the moon there are two options: use a round sponge to print the moon use a brush and go around in circles
You may wish to splatter a little paint from a brush, which works well for stars.
4. Let your painted design dry, which can be speeded up using a hair dryer/heat gun
5. If you want to add mixed media sparkle to your design: use metallic or sparkle paint on your background (step 3) use metallic or sparkle paint on your Bondaweb (step 2) use Angelina fibres, which is covered in step 6
6. There are several ways to use Angelina in your art and the one used here is to create a fine lacy fused sheet, which you can tear off small pieces to apply where you choose to add the sparkle accent. Fold a piece of baking parchment, or paper in half and place a few Angelina fibres inside this “sandwich”. Make sure it’s a thin layer with some baking parchment showing through. A little Angelina goes a very long way!
Very little heat is needed to fuse Angelina fibre, because the fine fibre melts very easily. Run an iron at medium heat back and forth across the paper for a couple of seconds. Pull back a corner of the paper to see that the Angelina has fused. If they haven’t, replace the paper and run the iron over once again. When the fibres have fused, turn the sheet over. Carefully peel the fused Angelina away from the paper. You will be left with a thin, web-like sheet of shimmer that you can either apply in one area of your design eg.over your moon, or tear up to apply smaller areas of sparkle eg.for stars (use a little fusible web or fabric glue to adhere to you background)
7. If you wish to add more detail to your background before stitch, then peel off pieces of your painted Bondaweb. Lay where desired, then cover with paper and use the iron for a couple of seconds.
8. If you want some landscape details, layer up sheer fabrics and stitch in place with running stitch
9. It’s now time to stitch:
a tree or just tree branches to your design eg. couched yarn, back stitch, detached chain stitch or wheatear stitch
sky details - eg. seed stitch and chain stitch snowflakes
10. Mount iyour mixed media stitch n a hoop, frame or a card
I would love to see your completed design: And please do get in touch with any questions
Happy Painting & Stitching!
