floral fun piece

I had some fun yesterday making this jug of flowers wall hanging from fabric remnants bonded to the background with Heat n Bond lite then free-motion machine appliquéd. 13 x 20 inches approx.

playing with orts

This week has been an unsettled one as far as needle and threads have been concerned. I needed to use a magnifying glass for my tulips embroidery but because the magnifyer and my d-i-y lighting system are hung round my neck and they got in the way of each other so I gave up on the tulips.  Several daytime sessions at thread painting were unsatisfactory too and most were binned, apart from this little bowl which used up some of my growing collection of orts.

Two layers of cotton fabric were topped with a circular layer of pelmet vilene marked into twelve segments. Orts were applied to each segment with a random free-motion zig zag under a layer of heavy-duty water soluble interfacing and then an automatic machine stitch was used to stitch a swirl from the centre outwards with satin stitching around the rim. Machine stitched bar-tacks and darts provide shaping to the bowl. The ort side has a fuzzy appearance but the surface is actually fairly compact and threads can’t easily be removed due to the free-motion stitching and the fact that the water-soluble interfacing was only partially washed out.  It’s not the prettiest bowl I’ve ever made but the method is one that could be developed so I’ll hang on to it.

at the finish line

This is the last of the fabric bowls which you’ve not seen together with some tissue holders which I made last weekend and which will also go for sale. I’m so pleased I don’t do this for a living.

not quite done yet

Two more pots/baskets/bowls, whatever you want to call them. The blue and white one has a hinged lid and reminded JP of a snake-charmer’s basket.

 

what once was lost …

I am busy stitching a couple of pieces that will likely become gifts so I won’t be showing those for a while yet but to prove I’m still here I thought I’d show you this piece that I stitched way back in 2003 and which was missing for several years until last week when I found it safely tucked away with other bits and bobs. I like old travel posters and they make ideal subjects for interpretive embroidery. This one is a french railway poster advertising the Gulf of Morbihan in Brittany. The embroidery’s looking a little fragile so I intend to have it framed as soon as I get the call to say that my other pieces are ready for collection from the framer.

tasseled box

This box is based on one from Janet Edmonds book on Embroidered Boxes. I’d had this book reserved at my local library since March but a recent enquiry as to its whereabouts revealed that it has been ‘borrowed’ permanently by someone. Grrrr. Fortunately I was able to source a copy from Oxfam in Dunstable via Amazon which arrived beautifully wrapped and in less time than I’ve been waiting for the library copy. I didn’t add as much bling as the boxes in Janet’s book appear to have simply because I didn’t have supplies of suitable bling to hand and I was impatient to make a box. The construction method was slightly different to what I’ve used before and the box was not as firm as I thought it might be but the lack of additional layers of braids and bling might be to blame for that. The feet aren’t visible in this picture but they’re button knots tied in lengths of rat tail cord. The box is approximately 5.5″ tall at the peak of the lid.  The sun has hardly shone this week so this is the best photograph so far.

portrait quilt 2nd stage

I stitched all the fused appliqué pieces to the background with a straight stitch and I free motion stitched over the main face pieces a few days later but this additional stitching made Mum look extremely old and wrinkly (which she certainly wasn’t at aged 21!), so next day I unpicked all the unintended wrinkles, pressed out all the needle holes and left it for a day or two.

Yesterday I added a little hand stitching to highlight the eyes. Today I didn’t like the amount of fraying that was increasing each time I worked on this quilt so I went round each piece with a small zig-zag stitch and I think that was a better choice.

My quandry now is what kind of free motion stitching to use on the background fabric. I think it needs to be something smallish or possibly nothing at all. Grateful for any suggestions from any quilters out there.