Flax “Harakeke”

Purchased a woven flax bag from the $2 shop, and after cutting it to A5 size, I stitched the edges to prevent it falling to pieces as it is loosely woven.

I laid masking tape out in a grid and cut to make line and some squares. Shiva Paint Stiks again, green, brown, and gold. A paper towel seemed to work best rubbing in the colour. When dire, and making tape remove, the paint colour changed the look of the woven mat. Perhaps it could have been rubbed all over, and not masked off, or painted first, then sections masked, and another colour rubbed over top?>
The flax pattern by Jenny Hunter, out of the NZ Quilter magazine was enlarged, rotated ,and printed onto freezer paper. Ironed the pattern onto a yellow/orange print fabric. Double sided Vilene was ironed to the back, and the flax pattern cut our, following the freezer paper lines.

After ironing the flax cut out to the woven flax background, I satin stitched the fabric outline, trying to reduce the width at the points. Initially I didn’t use stabiliser, but in the end I did put some on the back and this made stitching the woven mat much easier.

After making up the quilt sandwich, I used green thread and outlined around the flax, and then changed to gold metallic thread and continued echo quilting.