Apple Tree fire screen - painting

The next stage in the process is definitely new for me: painting the fabric.

I used diluted acrylic paints, and very carefully painted in the stems in gold:

(the forest of map pins are to stop the fabric shifting as I worked)

Then the leaves in green:

And finally the apples in red:

The colours look very bright here, but most of the paint went straight through the weave of the fabric and onto the paper beneath; off the paper and stretched onto an embroidery frame, it's a lot more muted:

Time to start stitching!