Showing posts with label woven. Show all posts
Showing posts with label woven. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 16, 2020

Back to Stitch Meditations

 Stitch Meditations have always brought me pleasure and a sense of grounding. I suppose it’s partly because I started hand stitching at an early age. I can get lost in stitching and hours go by so fast. I stopped doing the little daily stitches this year and have missed them. I still get on Facebook and see what others are doing but I’ve made very few myself this year.

Recently I made one and discovered how sorely I had missed doing them daily. So, I’m trying to get back to a daily habit.

I stumbled upon some silver metallic looking fabric the other day and bought some to try on a woven wreath I was wanting to make. It came out great and so I made my way back to the store and bought some more of the fabric. If you are into fabrics you know if there is a fabric that speaks to you, you had better buy if while it’s available. Otherwise, when you go back to get more it’s gone!



Woven Silver Wreath

Since I had this fabric I was thinking of other ways to use it. What about the background for a Christmas card? That would look good. But what theme to put on it. My mind wandered to a fabric artist that I am intrigued by who makes wonderful art pieces with just scraps of fabric. I remembered she had made some poinsettias. Maybe I could do something like that. I snipped some pieces of green and red fabrics and arranged them to resemble the poinsettia. Then I stitched them down. I decided to add a yellow button for the center using red thread in sort of a star pattern.

Poinsettia from fabric snippets

Then I thought I’d try a more detailed one by cutting the leaves and brackets out rather than just snipping little pieces of fabric. I cut out a leaf freehanded. I like it so that became my pattern for the leaves. For the red bracts I just cut pieces out from three different types of red fabric and laid them down. After using a little bit of glue to hold them in place I stitched them to the background fabric. For the center I decided to do French Knots in red, yellow, and white.

Poinsettia with French Knots

Happy with those two I thought what if I do a more minimal, modern, abstract one. Now minimal is difficult for me. My favorite art instructor was always suggesting I remove some element from my work. Guess her suggestion has stuck with me as I try sometimes successfully, sometimes not so successful.

For the centers I had been wanting to use a shiny yellow button I had but it was a shank type button and would not lay flat on the piece. I knew if I placed it in the opening of a fabric yoyo that would make it look a little better. I wanted to make a yoyo for the center of this one. I know maybe not so modern after all. For the yoyo I wanted a fabric that would resemble the center red, yellow, and white, I remembered I had some aloha fabric that was red, yellow, and white. I knew I had quite a bit of it but where was it in my stash. I looked in several places unsuccessfully. Frustrated I prayed “Lord help me find that fabric. I just need a little bit of it.” Then I remembered I had used some of it to make some flags to use as decorations for a party for my Hawaiian husband. I knew right where some leftover flags were stashed. And yes there were some from that fabric. I made my yoyo and put the button in the middle.

Modern Abstract Poinsettia

Happy with the outcome of all three. And I’m thinking of a fourth one from round circles.

Who knows maybe I’ll have a full quilt of little poinsettias for Christmas next year.

Or maybe they will just grace Christmas cards.

 

Happy needle pulling thread!

Rose



Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Where Does the Time Go

It doesn’t seem possible it’s been over a month since I last posted. And my goal was to post at least once a week! I’m going to have to plan better.

Now for a month of updates: 

Detached Chain
TAST2012. While I’ve done most of the stitches I need to finish a few more. The detached chain stitch is one I use a lot especially for daisy flowers. I wanted to see how it would look with one of my meandering lines (doodles). I drew a double line to start (first I drew a curvy line and then added a second line following the first.) The first sample I started was a bit large to complete in a week so that one is now in the UFO (unfinished object) stash. The second one worked out great. I used a variegated pink pearl cotton thread. I stitched a detached chain along the lines with all of them facing in the same direction and then went back and filled in with detached chains facing the opposite direction. This uses more thread because you are going over the same cloth twice. I tried doing them all at once – one facing one way, one facing the opposite way but it worked easier and looked better doing them in two passes.
Close up of French Knos
In one section I anchored them with a French knot rather than a straight stitch. I like the texture this gives the piece. I couldn’t help thinking caterpillar though as I did them!







Some of the stitches I have used in other projects. The running stitch, couched stitch, and wheel stitches I have used in the January Crazy Quilt block for the CQ2012 Challenge. They were also used in my Crazy Quilt elephant block. Pictures of those coming up later this week.
I have done a sampler of the other stitches (thank you Sharon for the catch-up week!), here they are:

Running Stitch

Chain Stitch
Woven and Whipped Wheel Stitch
This one I love doing. This piece is called sun spots and I used a yellow variegated pearl cotton for all of them. Some have an odd number of legs some have an even number of stitches. The top one was done over a bead and button blank so it is very dimensional. The one to the left of it was started as a ribbed web and then I just wrapped each leg separately for a distance and then I went back to the ribbed web. When I was finished I decided the blank pieces needed something so I added a French knot in each one but I couldn’t stop there so I completely filled the white sections with French knots! I then added a French knot at the end of each leg. The one just below it was started following the tutorial on Annet's blog. But I decided  not to do the entire piece so I left the outside ring blank and added French knots at the end of each spoke. Can you tell I like French knots?  The next one to the right was done half and half. I did the ribbed one and then added the other legs and did a plain woven one. The tiny one is a woven one to the left of it is a ribbed one and the last one was ribbed, woven, and then the legs were wrapped individually and French knots added to the ends. I really enjoyed doing this one and plan to do more.

Barred Chain Stitch
 I had a hard time getting the rhythm of this stitch but finally succeeded.

Alternate Barred Chain Stitch
This stitch was even harder for me to get a rhythm going but perseverance pays off!

Happy stitching!

Rose