I've been debating whether or not to show the fruits of my Friday labors. I'm not very happy with the result, but I suppose I should show both the good and the bad. It started with this small piece of fabric to which I'd applied paint. It's only about 4" x 10 or 11" so I thought the enhancing thread painting to pick out the Rorschach-like image wouldn't be too time consuming or difficult. I should know better.
The thread I'd auditioned failed to read as anticipated once stitched in place. So I kept adding more lines of stitching with additional threads. There are at least 4 different greens on the mountain area, and as many if not more blues for the water. The teal/blue Oliver Twists appear too bright to me. I think they need toning, and I tried to accomplish that with a more true blue. I tried some tulle over it which had little effect.
So I thought perhaps it would read differently when surrounded by its proposed background fabric. Yeesh - I don't think so, unless I can tie something in around the center portion - either cording or satin stitching in a dark blue?
No picture, but before I put it back up on the wall to simmer, I laid it on a deep navy blue fabric and that may be the answer. That is, unless I just admit defeat and move on. This may be one of my few might-as-well-bin-it efforts.
As for the diversion, I've gotten myself into a row robin challenge with the girls from the Minnesota retreat. I'm to send off my beginning row with instructions and any fabric next week, and so far I've only come up with a theme (my eclectic neighborhood), a rough sketch and some patterns from my vast resources of books and magazine articles. Today I printed out various tree and house blocks from EQ and Block Base and spent a little time playing with arrangement. I'm doing this on the floor because my table is a mess again - too many projects nearing completion but waiting for this or that decision.
One of those is the jungle piece. I've put away all but the black fabric I was considering for the background and now am in a search for a zippy color to edge the quilted portion with. I think I am close to finding the perfect fabric.
The thread I'd auditioned failed to read as anticipated once stitched in place. So I kept adding more lines of stitching with additional threads. There are at least 4 different greens on the mountain area, and as many if not more blues for the water. The teal/blue Oliver Twists appear too bright to me. I think they need toning, and I tried to accomplish that with a more true blue. I tried some tulle over it which had little effect.
So I thought perhaps it would read differently when surrounded by its proposed background fabric. Yeesh - I don't think so, unless I can tie something in around the center portion - either cording or satin stitching in a dark blue?
No picture, but before I put it back up on the wall to simmer, I laid it on a deep navy blue fabric and that may be the answer. That is, unless I just admit defeat and move on. This may be one of my few might-as-well-bin-it efforts.
As for the diversion, I've gotten myself into a row robin challenge with the girls from the Minnesota retreat. I'm to send off my beginning row with instructions and any fabric next week, and so far I've only come up with a theme (my eclectic neighborhood), a rough sketch and some patterns from my vast resources of books and magazine articles. Today I printed out various tree and house blocks from EQ and Block Base and spent a little time playing with arrangement. I'm doing this on the floor because my table is a mess again - too many projects nearing completion but waiting for this or that decision.
One of those is the jungle piece. I've put away all but the black fabric I was considering for the background and now am in a search for a zippy color to edge the quilted portion with. I think I am close to finding the perfect fabric.
2 comments:
Such beautiful work. I'm catching up on your posts and I just love your machine quilting. Thanks for sharing your outstanding talents. Jenna Louise
Thank you Jenna. Your comment means a lot since I tend to think of my machine quilting as my weakness. I still need to devote more time to it so that I believe with everyone else that it is worthy of accolades.
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