The idea for this challenge came to mind quite fast, it is a ‘puzzle’ the idea being to slide the tiles in to the right place to create a picture, the blank should finish up bottom left! It also represents the global destruction of forests and woodland and the need to create new areas. I have kept within my subject of trees and tried a much more abstract approach.

The original motif was created through two different resists, the dextrin one was a bit of a disaster but I used procion dye and achieved a basis on which to build with flour paste and fabric paint on a basic cotton fabric, the results were not too defined but it gave me a base to work on. The most nerve wracking was to cut up the design which I then machine stitched on to a dyed wadding. The hand stitching was then added square by square. I bordered the whole with a satin ribbon to create the frame of the “puzzle”. I decided to work each square after cutting to avoid cutting any stitching and with the raw edges having unravelled threads, it may have taken longer but I am happy with the way it worked.

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