During my summer holiday’s I decided I wanted to do an appliqué based off a drawing I did in Figueres. This drawing was the start of my obsession with watercolour to apply a base of colour, and a black fineliner pen. I love this technique it is really simple, and you can get some really beautiful detail with the black pen.

I also love the colour palette used, the grey-toned green, the yellow ochre and a slight wash of a watered down brick red, which almost looks pink. In the drawing, I didn’t add shading at all, but instead, I focused on line and the metal work on the windows.

When it came to the actual appliqué, I had to make do with the colours and fabrics I had; I chose a textured yellow fabric for the base of all the edging of the windows, a white for the colour of the building and a grey for the shutters, all of which was stuck onto a scrap piece of calico.

I started stitching the blocks of colour at the beginning, just to hold all the little bits of fabric down, then added shading with darker threads and finally finished off with a black thread to replicate the pen work in my drawing.

If I was going to do this again, I would use an embroidery hoop, but I really hate them and find them too fiddly, otherwise, I am quite happy with it. I might even draw more buildings when I am on my travels and create a little series of houses.