Here's the leaf printed sheer and its "more interesting" background that I've been talking about. I fused the two together yesterday and was a bit surprised that the sheer became even more "sheer" after the process. I've not noticed that before on other sheers. The fusible web used is Steam-a-Seam 2
As for today, I'm not sure much got accomplished in my 3 hours. I was doing some circling of the project at hand, so decided to clear a few things off the end of the table. In my never ending quest for logical organization, I wanted to move my hand-dyed fat quarters and 1/2 yards from the two small baskets into one larger one. I'd left them on the table because I'd run out of room for them (they used to sit on the closet shelf, but this closet doesn't have the same shelf space). That's when I realized I was still giving my traditional and repro fabrics priority space-wise even though I'm mostly working with batiks and hand-dyes right now. Rectifying that imbalance will take some major re-organization that I'd rather not do right now, so I thought the consolidation might temporarily solve the problem. It didn't work quite like I'd envisioned but it did get them put away under the table rather than out in the linen closet.
In the process of sorting through them, I made a lovely discovery - a piece of hand-dyed fabric which should work for the border on my Chinese poem challenge. I've been studying it for days wondering what to do next and how to frame it - frankly, I don't think I would have looked in that basket for a solution.
This sort of accidental problem solving is something I really enjoy. Many times I've found solutions or had ideas sparked by the unintended juxtaposition of fabric while sorting through my various stashes. Here's another one: Once I cut the center panel for the pinwheel quilt, I had a fairly large piece of the leaf fabric left. I set it aside along with the other fabric from the project. That black sheer leaf print has been moving from fabric to fabric for several weeks while I try to figure out how to use the funny cut. It got tossed on top of the stack when I cleared a space to cut that panel. I've been looking at it there for a week, but it just dawned on me how I can use the two together in yet another birch trunk piece.
But before I do that, back to the other leaf print sheer. I decided on a size to square it to, laid it on the border fabric and went in search of my decorative threads. My thought is to stitch it to that fabric (rather than piece it to border strips), covering the edge with couched thread. But just where did I put the thread I have in mind? Talk about opening a Pandora's box (or two)! Two bins came open to find it and a selection of threads that might stitch it in place. And in the process, out popped all those ideas, leftover pieces, paint experiments and started projects so carefully packed away months ago and not really thought about since. Suddenly I need much more design wall space!
What stayed out though was Grid Series 2 and a bunch of thread. I alternated between it and the leaf print pondering not only my thread choices but what to stitch and the sequence of stitching.
Somehow, I think I may have too many choices here. And not being in a decision making mood, I decided to let it go until tomorrow.
As for today, I'm not sure much got accomplished in my 3 hours. I was doing some circling of the project at hand, so decided to clear a few things off the end of the table. In my never ending quest for logical organization, I wanted to move my hand-dyed fat quarters and 1/2 yards from the two small baskets into one larger one. I'd left them on the table because I'd run out of room for them (they used to sit on the closet shelf, but this closet doesn't have the same shelf space). That's when I realized I was still giving my traditional and repro fabrics priority space-wise even though I'm mostly working with batiks and hand-dyes right now. Rectifying that imbalance will take some major re-organization that I'd rather not do right now, so I thought the consolidation might temporarily solve the problem. It didn't work quite like I'd envisioned but it did get them put away under the table rather than out in the linen closet.
In the process of sorting through them, I made a lovely discovery - a piece of hand-dyed fabric which should work for the border on my Chinese poem challenge. I've been studying it for days wondering what to do next and how to frame it - frankly, I don't think I would have looked in that basket for a solution.
This sort of accidental problem solving is something I really enjoy. Many times I've found solutions or had ideas sparked by the unintended juxtaposition of fabric while sorting through my various stashes. Here's another one: Once I cut the center panel for the pinwheel quilt, I had a fairly large piece of the leaf fabric left. I set it aside along with the other fabric from the project. That black sheer leaf print has been moving from fabric to fabric for several weeks while I try to figure out how to use the funny cut. It got tossed on top of the stack when I cleared a space to cut that panel. I've been looking at it there for a week, but it just dawned on me how I can use the two together in yet another birch trunk piece.
But before I do that, back to the other leaf print sheer. I decided on a size to square it to, laid it on the border fabric and went in search of my decorative threads. My thought is to stitch it to that fabric (rather than piece it to border strips), covering the edge with couched thread. But just where did I put the thread I have in mind? Talk about opening a Pandora's box (or two)! Two bins came open to find it and a selection of threads that might stitch it in place. And in the process, out popped all those ideas, leftover pieces, paint experiments and started projects so carefully packed away months ago and not really thought about since. Suddenly I need much more design wall space!
What stayed out though was Grid Series 2 and a bunch of thread. I alternated between it and the leaf print pondering not only my thread choices but what to stitch and the sequence of stitching.
Somehow, I think I may have too many choices here. And not being in a decision making mood, I decided to let it go until tomorrow.
2 comments:
I'm new to your blog and want you to know how much I'm enjoying you descriptions of the creative "process". (I might want to do something similar sometime for my artwork composites.)
Welcome, Claire Joy and thanks! You must have picked me up off of Pat's blog. Would love to see what kind of art you produce.
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