A couple of weeks back I was invited to attend a “Flower Tower” workshop which was being held at the Cranwell Contemporary Stitch Group. Before the workshop I was shown an example of what we would be making, the 3d tower was made from painted Vilene and covered with scraps of fabric which were machine stitched in place. The whole vessel was then embellished with beads and flowers made using a variety of techniques.

I liked the basic shape of the tower and the idea of painting onto Vilene and immediately thought that I would like to paint and embellish mine as a “scene”, rather than as an abstract. I have based my design on the velvet piece I did a couple of months ago, using some of the same stamps and threads. The tower has a wire frame which was couched on using zigzag machine stitch and it stands on tiny felted feet.

In my hurry to get finished I forgot to paint the lining fabric! As the vessel is hollow, and there’s no way I can add colour past the “curls”, I’m thinking of just sponging the tips blue and adding a felted “stopper” so you don’t see any further down into the tower. Once it’s done I will post an update and after the next meeting will add photos of the towers made by the other Cranwell ladies.